UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 52 of 150

Correct — B, 1, 4, 2, 3. "Chronological order" here means order within the calendar year, because all four are fixed-date annual observances, so the whole question reduces to knowing four dates and sorting them. World Heritage Day, formally the International Day for Monuments and Sites, falls on 18 April — it was proposed by ICOMOS on 18 April 1982 and approved by the General Conference of UNESCO at its 22nd session in 1983. The International Day of Light falls on 16 May; UNESCO's General Conference proclaimed it in November 2017 by 39 C/Resolution 16, and the date marks the anniversary of the first successful operation of a laser, by Theodore Maiman in 1960. World Thyroid Day falls on 25 May, fixed at the annual general meeting of Thyroid Federation International in September 2007 and observed since 2008, with the European Thyroid Association marking it alongside. World No Tobacco Day falls on 31 May, the date the World Health Assembly settled on in Resolution WHA42.19 for an annual WHO observance. Sorting those four: 18 April, then 16 May, then 25 May, then 31 May — that is Heritage (1), Light (4), Thyroid (2), No Tobacco (3), which is exactly the sequence in option (b). Notice the shape of the item: three of the four days are crowded into a fortnight in the second half of May, so guessing off a vague sense of "early or late in the year" will not separate them. Only the exact dates will.

• (a)3, 1, 2, 4 — Wrong at both ends. It opens with World No Tobacco Day, which is 31 May and is actually the last of the four, and it closes with the International Day of Light, which is 16 May and is in fact the second. This is the option a candidate lands on if he remembers only that World No Tobacco Day is the most famous of the four and assumes prominence implies primacy in the sequence.
• (c)2, 3, 1, 4 — Wrong. It begins with World Thyroid Day (25 May) and pushes World Heritage Day (18 April) into third place, when 18 April is over a month earlier than anything else in the set and must come first. It also again ends with the International Day of Light (16 May), which precedes both 25 May and 31 May.
• (d)4, 2, 3, 1 — Wrong, and it is the most tempting distractor because its middle is right: Light (16 May) → Thyroid (25 May) → No Tobacco (31 May) is a correct run of three. The error is that World Heritage Day, 18 April, is parked at the end instead of at the head. A candidate who knows the three May dates but has no fix on 18 April will fall into exactly this trap.

International observance days are proclaimed by different bodies, and knowing which body created a day is often the fastest route to remembering it. The UN General Assembly proclaims most of them; UNESCO's General Conference proclaims the culture-and-science ones (International Day for Monuments and Sites, International Day of Light); the World Health Assembly creates WHO's health campaigns (World No Tobacco Day); and a few, such as World Thyroid Day, originate with professional or patient federations rather than with any intergovernmental organ. Almost all of these are fixed-date, so a UPPSC 'arrange in chronological order' item on observances is simply a date-recall test with a sorting step attached.

The examiner has built the set so that a partial memory does not rescue you. Three of the four days sit inside the last sixteen days of May — 16, 25 and 31 — and only one, 18 April, sits outside. That means the single fact that decides the question is that World Heritage Day is in April. Once 18 April is in front, the rest sorts itself, and 1 at the head is enough to eliminate options (a), (c) and (d) in one sweep without checking the tail. That elimination habit is worth more than the dates themselves: in a four-item chronology, find the one element whose position you are certain of, fix it, and discard every code that contradicts it. A second useful anchor: this family of days clusters heavily in May because the World Health Assembly meets in May and several health observances were set to coincide with it.

• World Heritage Day = 18 April, formally the International Day for Monuments and Sites. Proposed by ICOMOS on 18 April 1982 and approved by UNESCO's General Conference at its 22nd session in 1983.
• International Day of Light = 16 May. Proclaimed by UNESCO's General Conference in November 2017 (39 C/Resolution 16) and first celebrated on 16 May 2018; the date is the anniversary of Theodore Maiman's first successful laser operation in 1960.
• World Thyroid Day = 25 May. Fixed at the annual general meeting of Thyroid Federation International in September 2007 and observed from 2008, with the European Thyroid Association marking it annually.
• World No Tobacco Day = 31 May, a WHO campaign; World Health Assembly Resolution WHA42.19 called for it to be observed every year on 31 May.
• Chronological order therefore = 18 April → 16 May → 25 May → 31 May, i.e. 1, 4, 2, 3.

• Confusing World Heritage Day (18 April) with World Heritage Committee sessions or with World Environment Day (5 June). The examinable date is 18 April.
• Confusing World No Tobacco Day (31 May) with World Health Day (7 April). Both are WHO days, but only one is about tobacco.
• Assuming 'chronological order' in an observances question means order of establishment. Here it means order within the calendar year — the years of creation (1983, 2017, 2007, and the WHA resolution) run in a completely different sequence and would give a different code.

UPPSC asks observance days constantly, in three shapes: the bare date ('World Ozone Day is celebrated on'), the year's theme, and — as here — a chronological arrangement of three or four days. UPSC prefers to bury the day inside a statement-based question about the underlying convention or programme rather than test the date on its own.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  World Heritage Day, the International Day for Monuments and Sites, is observed every year on

  • (a)5 June
  • (b)18 April
  • (c)16 September
  • (d)2 February

  Answer(b) 18 April — proposed by ICOMOS on 18 April 1982 and approved by UNESCO's General Conference in 1983. The other dates are World Environment Day, World Ozone Day and World Wetlands Day respectively.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The International Day of Light is observed on 16 May because that date marks the anniversary of

  • (a)The first successful operation of a laser, in 1960
  • (b)The discovery of X-rays by Roentgen
  • (c)Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect
  • (d)The invention of the optical fibre

  Answer(a) The first successful operation of a laser, in 1960 — Theodore Maiman's ruby laser. UNESCO's General Conference proclaimed the day in November 2017 and it was first celebrated on 16 May 2018.