Key Concepts & Self-Assessment15 Key Facts
Review key First in the World: Explorations, Geographic Superlatives & Milestones exam facts and rate your mastery to track revision.
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#1
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed the first human orbital spaceflight aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961.
#2
Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the lunar surface during NASA's Apollo 11 mission on 20 July 1969.
#3
Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole on 14 December 1911, preceding Robert Falcon Scott.
#4
Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first democratically elected female Prime Minister in July 1960.
#5
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest (8,848.86 m) on 29 May 1953.
#6
Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, completing 48 orbits around the Earth aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963.
#7
Ferdinand Magellan's Spanish expedition accomplished the first global maritime circumnavigation between 1519 and 1522, completed under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano aboard Victoria.
#8
Robert Peary claimed the first confirmed expedition to reach the Geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909, alongside Matthew Henson.
#9
New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections through the Electoral Act of September 1893.
#10
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, inaugurated in January 2010, is the world's tallest building and freestanding structure, standing at 828 meters (2,717 feet).
#11
Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, Russia, is the world's deepest lake (1,642 meters) and the largest freshwater lake by volume, containing approximately 20% of Earth's unfrozen surface freshwater.
#12
The Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean contains Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in Earth's oceans at approximately 10,994 meters below sea level.
#13
The Angel Falls (Kerepakupai Meru) in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, is the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, featuring an uninterrupted drop of 807 meters and total height of 979 meters.
#14
The Nile River is conventionally recognized as the longest river in the world, spanning approximately 6,650 kilometers across northeastern Africa into the Mediterranean Sea.
#15
Greenland is the world's largest island that is not a continent, encompassing an area of approximately 2,166,086 square kilometers.
Subject Specialist Commentary
Analytical perspective & practical exam advice from the Master10 academic board
Global records and historical firsts chronicle daring human explorations, landmark political achievements, and geographic extremes. In polar and space exploration, Yuri Gagarin completed the first orbital spaceflight in 1961, Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon in 1969, and Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911. In governance, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first female prime minister in 1960, while New Zealand was the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in 1893.
In SSC CGL, Railways, and State PSC exams, superlative questions appear frequently. Beware of common question traps regarding polar expeditions: Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole first, whereas Robert Peary led the expedition to the North Pole. Remember that Russia's Lake Baikal is both the deepest freshwater lake and holds the greatest water volume, while the Mariana Trench contains the deepest oceanic trench. For revision, recall that Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space.
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