ON THIS DAY: 30 January 1948

Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in the grounds of Birla House (renamed Gandhi Smriti) in New Delhi, India, on his way to conducting a multi-faith prayer meeting. His assassin, Nathuram Godse, a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune in Maharashtra, was a Hindu nationalist who thought Gandhi was too accommodating in the Partition of India and Pakistan. Godse leapt out of the crowd in the grounds of the house and, at point-blank range, shot the 78-year-old Gandhi in the chest and stomach. Gandhi suffered acute blood loss and was carried back to the Birla House but died soon afterwards.