Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 â February 1, 2003) was the first Indian-American astronaut and first Indian woman in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator.
Sao Paulo: Brazilians have selected the name Fuleco for the three-banded armadillo mascot for the 2014 World Cup after a three-month voting process that was derided by fans as undemocratic. FIFA said on Sunday that more than 1.7 million people in Brazil took part in the controversial vote to select the name for the mascot.
The idea of the mascot came to America by way of a popular French opera from the 1880s called La Mascotte. The opera is about a down-on-his-luck farmer whoâs visited by a girl named Bettina; as soon as she appears, the farmerâs crops start doing well, and his life turns around. The word mascotte is a play on the French slang word masco, meaning âwitch.â Handsome Dan, the first bulldog purchased from a local blacksmith by Yale College football tackle Andrew Graves in 1889 and the first American university mascot.