kolkata

                                                   Icons of kolkata
Although the name Kalikata had been mentioned in the rent-roll of the Great Mughal emperor Akbar and also in Manasa-Mangal, to explore the history of Calcutta, we have to go back to the 17^th century. It was in 1690....Job Charnock came on the bank of the river Hooghly (it's the part of the Ganges) and took the lease of three large villages along the east bank of the river - Sutanuti, Govindapur and Kolikata (Calcutta) as a trading post of British East India Company. The site was carefully selected, being protected by the Hooghly River on the west, a creek to the north, and by salt lakes about two and a half miles on the east. These three villages were bought by the British from local landlords. The Mughal emperor granted East India Company freedom of trade in return for a yearly payment of 3,000 rupees.

Before the British came Calcutta was just a village, the capital city of Bengal was Murshidabad, about 60 miles north of Calcutta. In 1756, Siraj-ud-daullah, nawab of Bengal, attacked the city and captured the fort. Calcutta was recaptured in 1757 by Robert Clive when the British defeated Siraj-ud-daullah on the battlefield of Plassey and recaptured the city. Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, made it the seat of the supreme courts of justice and the supreme revenue administration, and Calcutta became the capital of British India in 1772. All important offices were subsequently moved from Murshidabad to Calcutta. By 1800 Calcutta had become a busy and flourishing town, the centre of the cultural as well as the political and economic life of Bengal.

Calcutta became the centre of all cultural and political movements in entire India. The 19^th century Renaissance and Reformation in India was pioneered in this city. Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Satyendra Nath Bose (co-author of Bose-Einstein Theory) and many more eminent personalities enhanced the cultural heritage of the city of Calcutta.

Till 1912, Calcutta was the capital of India, when the British moved the capital city to Delhi. In 1947, when India gained freedom and the country got partitioned between India and Pakistan, Calcutta was included in the Indian part of Bengal, West Bengal. Calcutta became the capital city of the state of West Bengal.
                                                      History Of Calcutta

• 1690 August, Job Charnok, an agent of East India Company (established 1600) settles in Calcutta.
• 1698 East India Co. bought three villages (Sutanuti, Kolkata, Gobindapur ) from local landlord Sabarna Chowdhury.
• 1699 East India Company started developing Calcutta as a Presidency city.
• 1715 British people completed building the Old Fort.
• 1717 The Mughal emperor Farrukh-siyar granted the East India Company freedom of trade in return for a yearly payment of 3,000 rupees.
• 1727 As per the order of King George I , a civil court was set up. The city corporation was established and Hallwell became the first mayor of the city.
• 1756 Siraj-ud-daulla attacks Calcutta and conquered. He changed the name of the city to Alinagar.
• 1757 23^rd June, British people ( under the leadership of Clive) defeated Siraj-id-daulla at Plassey. Calcutta was subsequently recaptured the.
• 1757 British first printed currency bill in Calcutta mint.
• 1765 Clive took Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from Badsha Alam II ( Delhi) with an agreement of paying excises.
• 1772 Calcutta became the capital of British India when the first governor-general, Warren Hastings, transferred all important offices to the city from Murshidabad.
• 1780 James Hicky established a printing press and published first news paper, "The Bengal Gazzette".
• 1784 The first official news paper , "The Calcutta Gazzette", was published.
• 1784 Sir William Jones took initiative and established The Asiatic Society.
• 1801 Fort William College was established.
• 1804 The Governor House ( presently Raj Bhawan ) was built.
• 1818 First Bengali Magazine, "Digdarshan", was published from Sreerampur, with the help of David Hare.
• 1817 The Hindu College ( presently Presidency College ) was established with efforts of Rammohan Roy, David Hare and Radhakanta Dev. Initially started with 20 students.
• 1829 Rammohan Roy was successful in making 'satidaho' (a Hindu practice) banned by British General Bentinck.
• 1854 First Railways in India ( from Calcutta to Hooghly ).
• 1857 The University of Calcutta was established.
• 1873 First Tram car ( horse drawn ) in Calcutta.
• 1875 "The Statesman", leading English Daily newspaper, started.
• 1875 The Indian Museum was built.
• 1883 Surendra Nath Banerjee called for a National convention ( which led to the forming of Indian National Congress in 1885 at Bombay ).
• 1888 Indian Football Association established.
• 1896 First motor car appeared on city's street.
• 1902 First Electric tram car from Esplanade to Kidderepore.
• 1905 Lord Curzon, viceroy of India, tried to partition Bengal. There was a strong protest. And finally it was withdrawn.
• 1911 British moved the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi
• 1913 Rabindranath Tagore, the great philosopher, poet and writer received Nobel Prize in literature.
• 1921 King Edward VIII inaugurated the Victoria Memorial building.
• 1924 Chittaranjan Das, was elected as the first Indian mayor of the city of Calcutta.
• 1929 Agnes Gonxha Bejaxhiu (Mother Teresa), came to Calcutta to join Bengal Loreto mission.
• 1941 Tagore died.
• 1946 Communal riot killed thousands of people in and around the city.
• 1947 India gained independence. Bengal was partitioned, Calcutta became the capital city of the state of West Bengal in India. Dr. Prafulla Chandra Ghosh became the first Chief Minister of West Bengal, followed by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. Calcutta and surrounding places were flooded with people from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as a result of the partition.
• 1977 Left Front led by CPI(M) Party won the state election and came into the power of the state Government. It is continuing in power for a record stretch of time. 
• 1979 Mother Teresa was awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1984 Metro Railway, the first underground railway in India, started from Tollygunge to Esplanade.
• 1989 Late Satyajit Ray, eminent film director received Legion d'Honour, the highest civilian award of France from President F. Mitterrand in Calcutta.
• 1992 Satyajit Ray received prestigious Oscar award for "Life Time Achievement" and "Bharat Ratna". He died in the same year.
• 1997 Mother Teresa died in Calcutta.
• 1998 Amartya Sen (grew up in Shantiniketan and studied at Calcutta) received Nobel Prize in Ecomonics
• 2001 Calcutta was officially renamed as 'Kolkata'.
                                                    Rabindra setu 
  

   

  Rabindra setu

  
  

  
  

  
  The Howrah Bridge, রবীন্দ্র সেতু is a cantilever bridge with a suspended span over the Hooghly River in West Bengal, India. Commissioned in 1943, the bridge was originally named the New Howrah Bridge, because it replaced a pontoon bridge at the same location linking the two cities of Howrah and Kolkata (Calcutta). On 14 June 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu, after the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate. It is still popularly known as the Howrah Bridge.
  The bridge is one of four on the Hooghly River and is a famous symbol of Kolkata and West Bengal. The other bridges are the Vidyasagar Setu (popularly called the Second Hooghly Bridge), the Vivekananda Setu, and the newly built Nivedita Setu. It weathers the storms of the Bay of Bengal region, carrying a daily traffic of approximately 100,000 vehicles and possibly more than 150,000 pedestrians,easily making it the busiest cantilever bridge in the world. The third-longest cantilever bridge at the time of its construction, the Howrah Bridge is the sixth-longest bridge of its type in the world.
  

  
  
                                                       victoria memorial
   victoria memorial  history
  

  

  victoria memorial

  
  In January 1901, on the death of Queen Victoria, Lord Curzon (1, Viceroy of India, suggested the creation of a fitting memorial. He proposed the construction of a grand building with a museum and gardens. Curzon said,
  
  

  "Let us, therefore, have a building, stately, spacious, monumental and grand, to which every newcomer in Calcutta will turn, to which all the resident population, European and Native, will flock, where all classes will learn the lessons of history, and see revived before their eyes the marvels of the past."

  In 1912, before the Victoria Memorial was finished, King George V announced the transfer of the capital of India from Calcutta to New Delhi. Thus, the Victoria Memorial was built in what would be a provincial city rather than a capital. On 28 December 1921, the Victoria Memorial was opened by the Prince of Wales, (later George V). Curzon's granddaughter inaugurated the night time illumination of the Memorial.
  
  

                      Queen Victoria

  

     Queen Victoria

  The Victoria Memorial (Victoria Memorial Hall) is a large marble building in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India which was built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901) and is now a museum and tourist destination under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.^[2] The Memorial lies on the Maidan (grounds) by the bank of the Hooghly river, near Jawaharlal Nehru road.