31 Oct 1984: Indira Gandhi assassinated

On this day in 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant and Beant Singh.

They were angry about June 1984’s Operation Blue Star, a government assault on the Golden Temple. Hundreds were injured and killed at the Sikh shrine in Amritsar. After Gandhi’s assassination, thousands of Sikhs by what were effectively lynch mobs.

Gandhi in 1983. Reginald Davis/REX

Some more on Indira Gandhi:

• served two stints as prime minister: 1966–1977 and 1980–1984
  • represented the Indian National Congress party (INC)
• daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first PM
  • unrelated to Mahatma Gandhi
• David Ben-Gurion called her “the only man in my cabinet”
• succeeded by her son, Rajiv
  • her elder son, Sanjay, had died in a plane crash in 1980
• the New Delhi airport is now named in her honor
• Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have also had father-daughter PM combos