30 January 1948: Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation, was assassinated
While walking through the gardens to this evening’s prayer meeting, Mr. Gandhi had just reached the top of a short flight of brick steps, his slender, brown arms around the shoulders of his granddaughters, Manu, 17, and Ava, 20. Someone spoke to him and he turned from his granddaughters and gave the appealing Hindu salute — palms together and the points of the fingers brought to the chin as in a Christian attitude of prayer. At once a youngish Indian stepped from the crowd — which had opened to form a pathway for Mr. Gandhi's walk to the pergola — and fired the fatal shots from a European made pistol. One bullet struck Mr. Gandhi in the chest and two in the abdomen on the right side. He seemed to lean forward and then crumpled to the ground...