| DATE | BRIEF DESCRIPTION |
| 1917 | Born in Allahabad, India, on November 19, the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, a lawyer, later India's first prime minister. |
| 1938 | Attends Visva-Bharati University, Bengal, and the University of Oxford, England, in February and leaves in November. Joins the National Congress Party. |
| 1939-1941 | Visits England and Switzerland, and then returns to India. |
| 1942 | Marries Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi lawyer. Both are imprisoned on subversion charges, and released the following year. |
| 1947 | Her father is elected India's first prime minister and she acts as his official hostess. |
| 1955 | Elected to the executive of the Congress Party. |
| 1959 | Elected President of the Congress Party. |
| 1962 | Co-ordinates civil defence during the border war with China. |
| 1964 | Her father dies in May, and is succeeded by Shastri. She becomes Minister of Information and Broadcasting in Shastri's government. |
| 1966 | Becomes prime minister on Shastri's death. |
| 1967 | Elected for a five-year term by a slim majority. |
| 1971 | Leads the Congress Party to a landslide election victory. |
| 1975 | Responds to a High Court ruling on violation of election law, by declaring a state of ermergency. Institutes unpopular birth control programme. |
| 1977 | Defeated in general election. |
| 1977-1978 | Briefly imprisoned on corruption charges. |
| 1980 | Sweeps back to power in another landslide victory. Her son Sanjay dies in a plane crash and she grooms her other son Rajiv for power. |
| 1984 | Orders the storming of the Sikhs' holiest shrine, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, in June. Assasinated by Sikh members of her security guard on October 31. |
