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October 2, 1869:  Birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

1883:  Gandhi and Kasturbai are married.

1885:  Death of Karamchand Gandhi, Gandhi's father

September 4, 1888:  Gandhi leaves for England to study law.

June 10, 1891:  Gandhi passes the bar exam in England.

1891-1893:  Gandhi fails as a lawyer in India.

April 1893:  Gandhi accepts commission to spend a year in South Africa advising on a lawsuit.

Spring 1894:  Gandhi elects to stay on South Africa, and founds the Natal Indian Congress.

Spring 1896:  Gandhi returns to India to collect his wife and children.

December 1896:  Gandhi returns to South Africa with his family.

October 1899:  Outbreak of Boer War (1899-1901) in South Africa. Gandhi organizes an ambulance corps for the British.

1901:  Gandhi returns to India to attend the Indian National Congress. G.K. Gokhale introduces him to nationalist leaders.

1901-1906:  Gandhi struggles toward Brahmacharya, or celibacy, finally ending his sexual activity in 1906.

1904:  Nationalists found the magazine the Indian Opinion, and soon print it on Gandhi's farm, the "Phoenix Settlement."

July 31, 1907:  The Boer Republic Transvaal, now under the control of the British, attempts to register all Indians as members; Gandhi and others refuse to register. Their resistance efforts mark the first use of nonviolent non-cooperation by the Indian minority in South Africa, soon calledsatyagraha, or "soul-force."

January 11, 1908:  Gandhi is arrested and sentenced to two months in prison.

October 10, 1908:  Gandhi is arrested again, spends a month in jail.

1909:  Gandhi travels to London, pushing for rights of South African Indians. The Transvaal registration law is repealed.

November 13, 1913:  Indians in Natal and Transvaal, under Gandhi's leadership, march peacefully in protest of a racist poll tax and marriage laws. The marches continue through the winter.

June 30, 1914:  Gandhi and Smuts, the Prime Minister of the Transvaal, reach an agreement, ending the protests.

July 18, 1914:  Gandhi sails to England.

August 1914:  Gandhi arrives in England, just at the outbreak of World War I(1914-1918).

January 9, 1915:  Gandhi returns home to India, and receives a hero's welcome.

May 25, 1915:  Gandhi and his followers found Satyagraha ashram, the religiously-oriented communal farm where Gandhi, his family, and his followers will live.

April 6, 1919:  Nationalists hold a hartal, or day of fasting and prayer, in protest of the Rowlatt Act, which drastically curtails civil liberties in India.

April 13, 1919:  Amritsar Massacre; Under General Dyer, British troops slaughter Indian protesters.

August 1, 1920:  Gandhi calls for a period of non-cooperation across India.

March 10, 1922:  Gandhi is arrested for sedition.

March 1922-January 1924:  Gandhi remains in prison.

1924-1928:  Gandhi avoids politics, focusing his writings on the improvement of India.

1925:  Despite his long absence from politics, Gandhi becomes President of the Indian National Congress.

February-August 1928:  Residents in the district of Bardoli protest high rents using methods of non-cooperation inspired by Gandhi.

January 26, 1930:  Gandhi publishes the Declaration of Independence of India.

March 2, 1931:  Gandhi warns the Viceroy of his intention to break the Salt Laws.

March 12-April 6, 1931:  Gandhi leads his Salt March to the sea.

May 5, 1931:  Gandhi is arrested for violating the Salt Laws; non-cooperation movements break out across India.

January 1931:  British government yields to protests, releases all prisoners, invites a Congress representative to Britain for a Round Table Conference (the Congress asks Gandhi to be this representative).

Autumn 1931:  Gandhi participates in the Round Table Conference in Britain.

December 28, 1931:  Gandhi returns to India.

January 4, 1932:  Gandhi is arrested for sedition, and held without a trial.

September 20-25, 1932:  Gandhi fasts in prison to protest the treatment of untouchables.

1934-38:  Gandhi avoids politics, travels in rural India.

1935:  Government of India Act passes British Parliament and is implemented in India; it is the first movement toward independence.

September 1939:   World War II begins, lasting until 1945.

March 22, 1942:  Sir Stafford Cripps arrives in India, presenting to the Indian National Congress a proposal for Dominion status (autonomy within the British Commonwealth) after the War.

August 8, 1942:  The Indian National Congress rejects the Cripps proposal, and declares it will grant its support for the British war effort only in return for independence.

August 1942:  Congress leaders are arrested; Gandhi is imprisoned in the Aga Khan's palace.

February 10 to March 2, 1943:  Gandhi fasts while imprisoned, to protest British rule.

February 22, 1944:  Death of Kasturbai

May 6, 1944:  Gandhi is released from the Aga Khan's palace.

Summer 1944:  Gandhi visits Muhammed Ali Jinnah in Bombay, but is unable to work out an agreement that will keep India whole.

May 16, 1946:  British Cabinet Mission publishes proposal for an Indian state, without partition; Jinnah and the Muslim League reject the proposal.

March 1947:  Lord Mountbatten arrives in India and hammers out agreement for independence and partition.

August 15, 1947:  Indian independence becomes official, as does the partition into two countries, India and Pakistan.

August-December 1948:  India dissolves into chaos and killings, as Hindus and Muslims flee for the borders of India and Pakistan.

January 30, 1948:  Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Vinayuk Godse, a Hindu nationalist.

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