October 31 in History
1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is shot dead by two assassins believed to be her own bodyguards
India’s first, and to date, only female prime minister and daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, was assassinated at 9:29 a.m. October 31, 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, an Indian military action carried out between June 1 and 8, 1984 to remove the Sikh Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the holy Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. Her death sparked riots in India and New Delhi, where several thousand Sikhs were killed.