1947 Jawaharlal Nehru is elected by the Indian National Congress as the first prime minister of independent India.
1964 Nehru dies in office. His only child, Indira Gandhi, joins cabinet.
1966 Indira Gandhi becomes the first woman to hold the prime minister's office in India.
1975 A high court finds Indira Gandhi guilty of electoral corruption, she declares a state of emergency.
1977 Indira Gandhi loses election to coalition led by Janata Party, comprising nearly all of her opponents.
1980 Indira Gandhi returns for a fourth term as prime minister as Congress wins a landslide.
1984 Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards after the Indian army attacks militants in Golden Temple.
1984 After the death of his younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi, in 1980 and his mother's assassination, Rajiv Gandhi reluctantly takes the prime minister's job at the age of 40.
1989 Corruption scandal surrounding the Bofors arms deal taints Rajiv Gandhi, resulting in Congress's defeat in the 1989 elections.
1991 Still Congress president, Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.
1998 Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Sonia Gandhi, is elected as the president of the Congress party.
1999 Sonia Gandhi is defeated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in a general election.
2004Sonia Gandhi leads Congress to win election. Her child, Rahul Gandhi, is elected to parliament.
2007 Rahul Gandhi is appointed as a general secretary to the Congress party in charge of the youth wing.
2009 Under Sonia Gandhi's guidance, the Congress-led government is re-elected.
