19 November History: Indira Gandhi is a name in Indian politics whose personality and deeds have always been in the news. As the first and only woman Prime Minister of the country, she made many such decisions due to which Indira, who was called a 'dumb doll' by Morarji Desai, emerged as an 'Iron Lady'.

Born to Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru on 19 November 1917, her grandfather Motilal Nehru named her Indira and her father added Priyadarshini to her name because of her beautiful looks. Indira Gandhi, a woman of steely courage, held the reins of the country for three consecutive terms and four times in total.

Some of Indira's decisions, which were expert in politics, were controversial. The emergency imposed in the country on her recommendation as the Prime Minister is counted among those decisions due to which she lost her power and another controversial decision became the reason for her death. In June 1984, she had to pay the price of the military action in the Golden Temple of Amritsar by losing her life at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards.

Here is a chronological list of some other important events recorded in history on the date of November 19:

1824: Ten thousand people died in a flood in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1838: Birth of Keshab Chandra Sen, spiritual leader of Brahmo Samaj.

1917: Indira Gandhi was born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Israel. This was the first visit by an Arab leader to Israel. During this visit, he presented a proposal for peace.

1982: The ninth Asian Games started in New Delhi. After a long time, sports events were organized on a large scale in the country.

1985: First meeting between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two met during a summit in Geneva.

1994: India's Aishwarya Rai was crowned Miss World.

1995: Karnam Malleswari created a world record in weightlifting.

1997: Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian woman to go to space.

2000: A Pakistani court sentenced Nusrat Bhutto, mother of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, to two years of rigorous imprisonment.

2007: Amazon started selling Kindle, an electronic book-reading device, which contributed significantly to the popularization of e-books.

2019: Gotabaya Rajapaksa sworn in as President of Sri Lanka.

2023: 31 premature babies were safely transferred from Gaza's main hospital to another hospital in southern Gaza amid conflict between militant group Hamas and Israel.