Indian History Timeline

Events 1 - 200 of 653

• 1311-04-24 General Malik Kafur returns to Delhi after campaign in South India
• 1329-08-09 Quilon the first Indian Diocese erected by Pope John XXII and Jordanus appointed the first Bishop
• 1459-05-12 Jodhpur, Sun City, founded by Rao Jodhpur in India

• 1497-11-22 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope on way to first voyage from Europe to reach India
• 1498-05-20 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India becoming the first European to reach India by sea

• 1500-09-13 Predro Álvares Cabral and his Portuguese expedition arrive in Calicut, India
• 1501-07-15 Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabral arrives back in Lisbon after successfully discovering Brazil and returning from India
• 1502-02-12 Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India
• 1502-10-30 Vasco da Gama returns to Calicut, India for the second time.
• 1509-02-03 The Battle of Diu, naval battle at port of Diu, India between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire, establishes Portuguese trading control
• 1509-08-08 Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire in Southern India

• 1529-05-06 Battle at Gogra: Mughal Emperor Babur beats Afghans and Bengals

• 1556-03-28 Origin of Fasli Era (India)

• 1565-01-25 Battle at Talikota, India: Deccan sultanate destroys Vijayanagar's army and the last Hindu kingdom of Southern India
• 1575-03-03 Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar defeats Bengali army at the Battle of Tukaroi
• 1600-12-31 British East India Company chartered
• 1601-02-13 Fleet of five British East India Company vessels departs on their 1st voyage from London, led by Sir James John Lancaster commanding the "Red Dragon"; journey takes nearly 16 months
• 1608-08-24 1st English convoy lands at Surat, India
• 1612-08-29 Battle of Surat, India: English fleet beats Portuguese

• 1639-08-22 Madras (now Chennai), India, founded by the British East India Company on sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers
• 1641-01-14 Dutch East India Company conquers the city of Malacca, 7,000 killed
• 1643-12-25 Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
• 1653-01-03 The Coonan Cross Oath is taken in the Saint Thomas Christian community in an effort to avoid submission to Portuguese rule in India
• 1658-12-09 Dutch troops occupy harbor city Quilon (Coilan) India

• 1690-08-24 Job Charnock sets up East India Company HQ camp by Kalikata village (modern Calcutta)
• 1699-04-14 Khalsa: Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar
• 1733-05-29 The right of Canadians to keep Indian slaves is upheld in Quebec City
• 1737-10-07 A cyclone causes 40 foot waves that are believed to have killed 300,000 in Calcutta, India
• 1737-10-11 Earthquake reported to have killed 300,000 and destroyed half of Calcutta in India. Now thought to have been an exaggerated account of a hurricane which claimed 3,000 of the city's estimated 20,000 residents. [1]
• 1739-02-24 Battle of Karnal: Army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah
• 1739-03-20 Iranian ruler Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne
• 1745-11-28 French troops and Indian forces attack Saratoga, NY, killing many and taking prisoners
• 1751-08-31 British troops under Sir Robert Clive occupy Arcot, India
• 1752-06-09 French army surrenders to the British in Trichinopoly, India
• 1755-04-02 Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India
• 1755-07-09 British General Edward Braddock mortally wounded during Battle of Fort Duquesne during French and Indian War
• 1756-05-17 Britain declares war on France (7 Years' or French & Indian War)
• 1756-06-20 Black Hole of Calcutta: 146 British soldiers, Anglo-Indian soldiers and Indian civilians are imprisoned in a small dungeon in Calcutta, India where most die from suffocation and heat exhaustion
• 1756-12-06 British troops under Robert Clive occupy Fulta, India
• 1757-01-02 British troops occupy Calcutta India
• 1759-04-08 British troops chase French out of Masulipatam, India
• 1760-01-22 Battle at Wandewash India: British troops beat French

• 1761-01-16 The British capture Pondicherry, India, from the French
• 1767-09-28 VOC government bans importation of South-East Asian slaves into the Cape because they are considered dangerous (not observed) [1]
• 1772-02-12 Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec of France discovers the uninhabited Kerguelen Archipelago in the sub-Antarctic ocean
• 1782-07-06 British-French sea battle at Negapatam (off India)
• 1783-04-09 Tippu Sahib drives out British from Bednore, India

• 1795-03-11 Battle at Kurdla India: Mahratten beat Mogols
• 1796-04-13 First elephant arrives in US from India
• 1798-09-01 Britain signs treaty with Nizam of Hyderabad, India
• 1800-07-10 The British Indian Government establishes the Fort William College to promote Urdu, Hindi and other vernaculars of sub continent
• 1803-02-27 Great fire in Bombay, India
• 1803-09-23 Battle of Assaye: British-Indian forces beat Maratha Army
• 1806-07-10 The Vellore Mutiny is the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company
• 1818-06-03 Maratha Wars between British and Maratha Confederacy in India ends
• 1829-12-04 Britain outlaws "suttee" in India, a Hindu practice where a widow burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre
• 1838-11-03 The Times of India, world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
• 1839-01-10 First tea from leaves of indigenous plants of Assam, India, arrives in the United Kingdom [date approximate] [1]
• 1839-01-19 Aden conquered by British East India Company
• 1839-11-25 Cyclone slams south eastern India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying city of Coringa. Storm waves sweep inland, destroying 20,000 ships and killing an estimated 300,000 people.
• 1842-01-06 4,500 British & Indian troops leave Kabul, massacred before reaching India
• 1846-02-10 British defeat Sikhs in battle of Sobraon, India
• 1846-02-16 Battle of Sobraon ends 1st Sikh War in India
• 1849-03-29 Great Britain formally annexs Punjab after defeat of Sikhs in India
• 1851-12-22 The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
• 1853-04-16 1st passenger railway opens in India, from Bori Bunder (Bombay) to Thane (34 km)

• 1858-07-28 First use of fingerprints as a means of identification is made by Sir William James Herschel of the Indian Civil Service
• 1858-08-02 Government of India transferred from East India Company to the British Crown
• 1859-02-10 General Horsford defeats Begum of Oude and Nana Sahib in Indian Mutiny
• 1861-12-31 A then world record 22,990mm of rain falls in a single year in Cherrapunji, Assam in India
• 1865-11-11 Treaty of Sinchula is signed in which Bhutan ceded the areas east of the Teesta River to the British East India Company.
• 1866-06-11 The Agra High Court (now the Allahabad High Court) is established in India

• 1870-09-08 Netherlands and Britain sign "Koelietraktaat" an agreement to allow Indian contract workers from Calcutta to work in sugar plantations in Suriname
• 1875-04-17 Modern Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India
• 1876-10-31 Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 ravages British India (Modern-day Bangladesh), over 200,000 killed

• 1879-05-14 The first group of 463 Indian indentured labourers arrive in Fiji aboard the Leonidas
• 1882-06-06 Cyclone in Arabian Sea (Bombay, India) drowns 100,000 (disputed event)
• 1884-09-26 Suriname army shoots on British-Indian contract workers, 7 killed
• 1892-07-06 Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain
• 1893-09-11 First conference of the World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago, Indian monk Swani Vivekananda gives influential speech
• 1894-06-28 The Natal Legislature plans to introduce the Indian Franchise Bill, South Africa

• 1896-09-19 Beginning of the Bombay plague epidemic when Dr.Acacio Gabriel Viegas detects the first case in Mandvi. Goes on to spread and kill 12 million in India.
• 1897-06-12 Possibly the most severe quake in history strikes Assam, India, Shock waves felt over an area size of Europe (low mortality rate given size of earthquake, 1,500 casualties).
• 1898-03-25 Swami Vivekananda initiates Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) into vow of Brahmacharya, first western woman received into Indian monastic order

• 1905-04-04 Earthquake in Kangra India, kills 20,000
• 1905-10-16 The Partition of Bengal (India) announced by Lord Curzon
• 1906-12-30 The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, later laid down the foundations of Pakistan
• 1907-03-22 The new Boer government in the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, that restricts immigration from India
• 1908-07-03 Indian nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak arrested for sedition by the British in wake of Muzzafarpur bombing
• 1909-05-06 Indian nationalist Sri Aurobindo acquitted in the Alipore Bomb Case in Calcutta, India
• 1910-02-25 13th Dalai Lama (Thupten Gyatso) flees Tibet for British India to escape Chinese troops
• 1911-01-03 The Government of India announces that emigration to Natal, Southern Africa, is prohibited with effect from 1 July
• 1911-02-18 The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.
• 1911-03-13 The Colonial-Born and Settlers Indian Association is formed at a meeting in Durban, South Africa, and has at its aim to fight the infamous 3 poll tax
• 1911-03-25 L. D. Swamikannu publishes "Manual of Indian Chronology" in Bombay
• 1911-04-27 Indian passive resistance in South Africa is suspended when General Jan Smuts enters into negotiations with Mahatma Gandhi
• 1911-12-12 Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.

• 1913-11-06 Mahatma Gandhi arrested for leading Indian miners' march in South Africa
• 1914-06-30 Mahatma Gandhi's 1st arrest after campaigning for Indian rights in South Africa
• 1914-11-06 The British land troops (mostly from the Indian Army) at the head of the Persian Gulf in Mesopotamia, and will begin to move westward in an attempt to draw Turkish troops from other fronts
• 1914-11-22 Indian troops take Basra in Mesopotamia
• 1916-05-24 Last British-Indian contract workers arrive in Suriname
• 1916-09-01 Annie Besant founds the India Home Rule League
• 1918-05-18 Dutch Indian Volksraad installed in Batavia
• 1919-04-13 British troops open fire on demonstrators in Amritsar, India, killing 350
• 1920-03-23 Perserikatan Communist of India (PKI) political party forms
• 1921-06-21 The UK, the Dominions, and India, become the British Commonwealth of Nations
• 1922-03-18 British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to six years imprisonment for disobedience

• 1924-07-11 Muslim-Hindu rebellion in Delhi, India
• 1926-12-28 Imperial Airways begins England-India mail & passenger service

• 1928-10-28 Indian freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai injured leading silent protest against visiting British commission in Lahore (dies of injuries 17th November)

• 1929-01-26 Indian National Congress proclaims goal for India's independence

• 1929-04-24 1st non-stop England to India flight takes-off
• 1929-04-26 1st non-stop England to India flight lands
• 1930-04-18 Attempted raid on the armoury of police and auxiliary forces in Chittagong in Bengal province, British India by armed pro-independence revolutionaries led by Surya Sen popularly known as Master-da
• 1930-04-22 British troops battle pro-independence revolutionaries in the Jalalabad hills near Chittagong, Bengal province, British India, 80 troops and 12 revolutionaries killed

• 1931-02-10 New Delhi becomes the capital of India
• 1931-03-23 Indian independence fighters Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar are hanged after conducting an assassination and a bombing. Their request to be shot by a firing squad is refused.
• 1932-01-04 British Viceroy of India Lord Willingdon arrests Indian independence leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru
• 1932-03-01 12 pro-independence revolutionaries captured in and around Chittagong in Bengal province, British India are sentenced to deportation for life, two to three-year prison terms with the remaining 32 being acquitted.
• 1932-09-25 Poona Act signed by Madan Mohan Malaviya and B R. Amedkar in India, reserving legislative seats for depressed classes (untouchables)
• 1932-10-08 The Indian Air Force is established
• 1932-10-15 Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight
• 1933-01-28 The name "Pakistan" is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali and gradually accepted by Muslims in the Indian sub-continent who use it to push for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia
• 1933-05-08 Mahatma Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against British oppression in India
• 1933-08-23 Mahatma Gandhi released from Indian jail following another hunger strike
• 1934-01-15 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die
• 1934-04-07 In India, Mahatma Gandhi suspends his campaign of civil disobedience
• 1934-08-02 William Franks twirls an indian club overhead 17,280 times in 1 hour
• 1935-05-31 7.7 magnitude earthquake destroys Quetta in Balochistan, British India (now Pakistan) killing an estimated 40,000 people
• 1936-02-08 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru succeeds Mahatma Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party
• 1936-04-01 Orissa constituted a province of British India
• 1938-11-16 K B Regiment refuses round-table conference in East-India
• 1939-03-03 Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast in Mumbai (Bombay) to protest against autocratic rule in India
• 1939-03-10 17 villages damaged by hailstones in Hyderabad, India
• 1939-04-13 The Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and vows to engage in armed struggle against the British.
• 1939-05-03 The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Subhash Chandra Bose
• 1940-03-23 The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Lahore), calling for independent Muslim state(s), is adopted by the All-India Muslim League
• 1940-07-02 Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta
• 1941-05-25 5,000 drown in a storm at Ganges Delta region in India
• 1941-11-24 Indian infantry attacks German tanks at Sidi Omar
• 1942-08-09 Mahatma Gandhi and 50 others arrested in Bombay after passing of a "quit India" motion and campaign by the All-India Congress
• 1942-10-16 Cyclone in Bay of Bengal kills some 40,000 south of Calcutta India
• 1943-12-30 Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair
• 1944-04-01 Japanese troops conquer Jessami, Eastern India
• 1944-04-14 Freighter "Fort Stikene" explodes in Bombay India, killing 1,376
• 1944-08-19 Last Japanese troops driven out of India
• 1945-11-13 Australian Services draw 1st Victory Test against India

• 1946-06-23 In South Africa, a group of white men attack and assault Indian Passive Resisters
• 1946-08-08 India agrees to give Bhutan 32 sq miles
• 1946-09-02 Jawaharlal Nehru forms the Interim Government of India

• 1947-06-03 British Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten visits Pakistan

• 1947-08-15 India gains independence from Great Britain, remains a dominion until 1950
• 1947-08-17 The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed

• 1947-09-07 Battles between Hindus & Muslims in New Delhi, India
• 1947-10-26 Maharajah of Jammu & Kashmir accedes to India
• 1948-01-01 After partition, India declines to pay the agreed share of Rs.550 million in cash balances to Pakistan.
• 1948-01-01 Orissa province accedes to India
• 1948-04-15 Indian territory of Himachal Pradesh created
• 1948-06-21 Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy)

• 1949-01-14 Black and Indian race rebellion in Durban, South Africa; 142 die
• 1949-02-19 Mass arrests of communists in India
• 1949-03-05 The Jharkhand Party is founded in India.

• 1949-09-14 India's Constituent Assembly adopts Hindi as an official language. Celebrated today as Hindi Day.
• 1949-10-15 Administration of territory of Manipur taken over by Indian government
• 1949-10-15 Tripura accedes to Indian union
• 1949-11-26 The Constituent Assembly of India formally adopts a new constitution
• 1949-12-30 India recognizes People's Republic of China
• 1950-01-01 The state of Ajaigarh is ceded to the Government of India.

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