General Awareness · History

Famous Personalities and Discoveries

2,561 Questions

Famous personalities and discoveries questions test your knowledge of historical figures, scientists, and their groundbreaking inventions. These are highly scoring topics in SSC, banking, and state PSC general awareness sections. Solve these questions to memorize important contributions easily.

Famous astronomersFathers of scientific fieldsHistorical inventorsMathematical pioneers

Famous Personalities and Discoveries Questions

Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

Who is the 'Father of Renaissance'?

  1. Boccaccio

  2. Shakespeare

  3. Dante

  4. Petrarch
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Petrarch is known as the 'Father of Renaissance.' He collected about 200 Latin and Greek manuscripts.He was well-known for his poem and sonnets. A deep contemplation of man's happiness and sorrow can be seen in his poems. 

Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

Ptolemy's 'geocentric' theory was proved to be wrong by.

  1. Galileo

  2. Newton

  3. Francis Bacon

  4. Copernicus
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation
The Greek astronomer Ptolemy (c90-168AD) used measurements of the sky to create his geocentric model. This had the earth at the centre and all the planets and the sun orbiting around it.
The geocentric model lasted a long time. It wasn’t until the mid 18th century that Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) came up with a different model. His heliocentric theory put the sun at the centre of the universe. It was based on observations with the telescope – work pioneered by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).
Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

Who was a versatile genius during the Renaissance?

  1. John Cavin

  2. Geoffrey Chaucer

  3. Martin Luther

  4. Leonardo-da-Vinci
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Leonardo-da-Vinci was a versatile genius, a writer, scientist, painter, inventor, engineer and architect. Leonardo da Vinci's famous paintings are the 'Monalisa' and the 'Last Supper.' 

Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

Which pair of scientists MOST contributed to the development of the Scientific Method?

  1. Newton and Einstein

  2. Cavendish and Winkelmann

  3. Bacon and Descartes

  4. Fahrenheit and Celsius

  5. Copernicus and Galileo
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Roger Bacon and Rene Descartes developed the Scientific Methods which we know today. Roger Bacon emphasized on the experimentation while Descartes who was a French philosopher emphasized on Philosophy.

Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

Who is known as the Father of Renaissance?

  1. Don Quixote

  2. Dante

  3. Petrarch

  4. Erasmus
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Petrarch (AD 1304 - 1374) was one of the eminent writers of the Renaissance period. He is known as the Father of Renaissance. The magnum opus of Petrarch is 'Secretum'. Petrarch is often considered the founder of Humanism.

Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

______ was the Father of modern sciences and medieval exponent of observation and experiment.

  1. Copernicus

  2. Galileo

  3. Friar Roger Bacon

  4. William Harvey
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Galileo Galilei was the Father of modern sciences and medieval exponent of observation and experiment. He was the first scientist to record accurate data through his telescope. Galileo supported the theory by Copernicus, that sun is the centre not earth of our Universe. 

Multiple choice history modern age in europe: the renaissance renaissance renaissance europe in transition india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe reformation in europe

Who laid the foundation of Mathematical astronomy?

  1. Kepler

  2. Galileo

  3. Copernicus

  4. Ptolemy
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer who discovered three laws of planetary motions as:
  1. the planets move in an elliptical orbit with the sun in the centre,
  2.  the time necessary to traverse an arc of a planetary orbit is proportional to the area of the sector between the central body and that arc,
  3. there is an exact relationship between the squares of the planets’ periodic times and the cubes of the radii of their orbits.
Due to this, he is regarded as the founder of Mathematical astronomy. These discoveries enlightened the works of Newton and Copernicus.

Multiple choice bio-chemistry cell-the basic unit of life introduction to cell discovery and cell theory cell discovery cell discovery and cell theory cell as structural and functional unit

Who is the father of microscopy and microbiology?

  1. Theophrastus

  2. Janssen

  3. Leeuwenhoek

  4. Hooker
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

a) Theophrastus is known as the father of Botany for his different works in plants. 

b) Zacharias Janssen was involved in the invention of the first optical telescope.
c) Leeuwenhoek is known as the father of microscopy and microbiology as he has a great contribution to the establishment of the field microbiology. 

d)  Hooker is the founder of Geographical Botany.
So the correct answer to the question is 'Leeuwenhoek'.

Multiple choice botany taxonomy and systematic botany taxonomy and systematics systematics of living world kingdom plantae plant taxonomy classification of biodiversity

Father of taxonomy is

  1. De Candolle

  2. Hooker

  3. Linnaeus

  4. Aristotle
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation
Carl Von Linnaeus is known as the "Father of Taxonomy" owing to his immense contribution to the field of identifying, naming and classifying organisms. He popularized the binomial nomenclature system which is quite popular even today. He published a book named Systema Naturae which dealt with the classification of living organisms.
So, the correct answer is 'Linnaeus'
Multiple choice botany taxonomy and systematic botany taxonomy and systematics systematics of living world kingdom plantae plant taxonomy classification of biodiversity

Aristotle is considered as the

  1. Father of Biology

  2. Father of Zoology

  3. Father of Embryology

  4. All the above
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist who gave the original classification of living organisms based on environment, movement and structural similarities. Due to his extensive knowledge, he has been considered the father of Zoology, Biology, and Embryology. 

So, the correct option is 'All the above'.

Multiple choice botany taxonomy and systematic botany taxonomy and systematics systematics of living world kingdom plantae plant taxonomy classification of biodiversity

Who among the following is called the 'Father of Taxonomy'?

  1. Mendel

  2. Linnaeus

  3. Khorana

  4. Engler
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation
  • Gregor Johann Mendel is considered as the Father of Genetics
  • Linnaeus is considered as the Father of Taxonomy by his great contributions in this field
  • One of the prime systems o plant taxonomy was devised by Adolf Engler
  • Har Gobind Khorana is well known for first to demonstrate the role of nucleotides in protein synthesis
  • So the correct option is Linnaeus
Multiple choice evs louis pasteur contribution of louis pasteur discoveries by louis pasteur discovery of microorganisms

Who saved the silk industry of Germany?

  1. Pasteur

  2. Spallanzani

  3. Robert Koch

  4. Leeuwenhoek
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Louis Pasteur saved the French silk industry (not German) by identifying the pebrine disease affecting silkworms and developing methods to control it. However, among the options given, Pasteur is the only scientist who worked on silk industry problems - the question likely has a geographical error but the answer is still Pasteur.

Multiple choice history the dawn of modern culture in europe and india india's contemporary economic condition reformation and enlightenment in europe modern age in europe: the renaissance

Who among the following was the disciple of Petrarch?

  1. Boccaccio

  2. Machiavelli

  3. Dante

  4. Thomas Moore
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, disciple of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist.  Boccaccio was among notable friends of Petrarch to whom he wrote often.

Multiple choice organization of commerce and management entrepreneurship opportunities for an entrepreneur small business and enterprises entrepreneurship development

In the 20th century, economist ___ focused on how the entrepreneur's drive for innovation and improvement creates upheaval and change.

  1. Schumpeter

  2. Joseph Schumpeter

  3. Peter Drucker

  4. Dr. Marshal
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

In 20th century, Joseph Schumpeter focused on how entrepreneur's drive for innovation and improvement creates upheaval and change. He  viewed Entrepreneurship as a force for "Creative Destruction". Entrepreneurs by developing new ideas render old ideas obsolete which creates competition

Multiple choice economics concept of consumption function, saving function and investment function capital economy of a village wealth, capital and money

"Larger the volume of saving, larger the size of capital, smaller the volume of saving, less is the size of capital." Who said this? 

  1. Prof. Marshal

  2. Peterson

  3. Adam Smith

  4. Benham
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

The economy falls into a growth cycle-more savings lead to more investment, thus large capital availability in an economy, which will further lead to the upliftment of an economy. Prof. Marshal remarked this thought.