Indian National Congress - Points to remember [ for Prelims 2016]

The first president of Indian National Congress was Womesh Chandra Banerji

The first session of the INC was held in Dec 1885 in Mumbai.

Mahatma Gandhi presided over the Belgaum session of INC in 1924.

The first woman president of INC was Mrs Annie Besant.

The first Indian woman president of the INC was Mrs Sarojini Naidu

The first Englishman to become the president of INC was George Yule

The first Muslim president of the INC was Badruddin Tayabji.

The president of INC at the time of India's independence was Acharya JB Kriplani.

Year	Place	President	Importance
1887	Madras	Badruddin Tayabji	First session to be presided by a Muslim.
1888	Allahabad	George Yule	First session to be presided by an Englishman.
1896	Kolkata	Rahimtulla M Sayani	The National Song, Vande Mataram was sung for the first time.
1907	Surat	Rashbihari Ghosh	The INC split into two, one consisting of Moderates, led by Gokhale and the other consisting of Extremists, led by Tilak.
1911	Kolkata	Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar	The National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana was sung for the first time.
1916	Lucknow	Ambica Charan Mazumdar	Joint session with Muslim league in which the historic Lucknow pact was signed.
1917	Kolkata	Mrs Annie Besant	First session to be presided by a Lady.
1925	Kanpur	Mrs Sarojini Naidu	First session to be presided by an Indian lady.
1929	Lahore	Pt Jawaharlal Nehru	The decision to launch a civil disobedience movement to achieve complete independence and to observe 26 Jan as Independence Day was taken. Nehru became the president for the first time.
1946	Meerut	Acharya JB Kriplani	Last pre-independence session of the INC.
1948	Jaipur	Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya	First session after Independence.