1. The Indian Military College Committee, set up under the chairmanship of Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode, recommended in 1931 the establishment of an Indian Military Academy in Dehradun to produce forty commissioned officers twice a year following two and a half years of training.
2. Brigadier L.P. Collins was appointed the first Commandant and the first batch of 40 Gentleman Cadets (GC), as Indian Military Academy trainees are known, began their training on 1 October 1932.
3. Indian Military Academy was inaugurated on 10 December 1932, at the end of the first term by Field Marshal Chetwode.
4. The first batch of cadets to pass out of the Academy in December 1934, now known as the Pioneers, included Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, General Muhammad Musa and Lieutenant General Smith Dun, who became the Army Chiefs of India, Pakistan, and Burma, respectively.
5. 3887 officers were commissioned between August 1941 and January 1946, including 710 British officers for the British Army.
6. Post- Independence Brigadier Thakur Mahadeo Singh, DSO, was appointed the first Indian Commandant of the academy.
7. Brigadier M.M. Khanna, MVC was the first IMA alumni to be appointed Commandant of the IMA at the end of 1956.
8. In 1976, the four battalions of the IMA were renamed the Cariappa Battalion, Thimayya Battalion, Manekshaw Battalion and Bhagat Battalion with two companies each in honour of Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa, General Kodendera Subayya Thimayya, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and Lieutenant General Premindra Singh Bhagat, respectively.
9. In 1977, the Army Cadet College (ACC) was moved from Pune to Dehradun as a wing of the IMA. In 2006, the ACC was merged into the IMA as its Siachen Battalion.
10. IMA had trained over 60,000 officers commissioned into armies of the world, including Angola, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, Ghana,Iraq, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tonga, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia besides those of United Kingdom, Pakistan, and India.
11. The IMA Museum on the campus displays artefacts of historic importance. Among other war relics, it displays the pistol of Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niaziof the Pakistan Army which he surrendered to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora after signing the Instrument of Surrender to end the [liberation War of 1971]].
12. A trainee on admission to the IMA is referred to as a Gentleman Cadet. One reason for this is that the academy expects its graduates to uphold the highest moral and ethical values.
The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time.
The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.
Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.
13. Sam Manekshaw, an alumnus of the IMA, was the first in India to become a Field Marshal.
14. Alumni who have been honoured with the Param Vir Chakra include:
- Major Somnath Sharma, Posthumous, 4 Kumaon Regiment, Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
- Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria, Posthumous, 1 Gorkha Rifles, Congo, 1961
- Lieutenant Colonel Hoshiar Singh, 3 Grenadiers, Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
- 2nd Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, Posthumous, 17 Poona Horse, Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
- Captain Vikram Batra, Posthumous, 13 Jammu & Kashmir Rifles, Kargil War, 1999
- Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey, Posthumous, 11 Gorkha Rifles, Kargil War, 1999
15. Foreign alumni of the IMA have also done well in their countries.
- General M. A. G. Osmani- Commander-in-Chief of the Bangladesh Mukti Bahini
- General Yahya Khan- Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army and third President of Pakistan
- General Muhammad Musa Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army
- General Tikka Khan- Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan Army and martial law administrator in East Pakistan
- Lt General Ghulam Jilani Khan- Pakistani martial law administrator
- Lt General Habibullah Khan Khattak- Chief of General Staff, Pakistan Army
- Tun Hussein Onn- third Prime Minister of Malaysia
- General Ibrahim Ismail- Chief of Staff of the Malaysian Armed Forces
16. The 2004 Bollywood film Lakshya (film) is partly shot in IMA.
