A quick rundown of the highs and lows, achievements and disappointments and changes in leadership that shaped independent India’s collective conscience through 70 years. It’s not an exhaustive list, but a point by point potted history of a young nation.

15-08-1947 India gains Independence from British Rule.

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, at the Constituent Assembly debates in New Delhi. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

28-10-1947 Kashmir accedes to Union of India

29-02-1948 Free India’s first full budget

27-11-1949 Constitution of India adopted

Leaders sign as the Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

15-03-1950 First Planning Commission reporting to the Prime Minister set up

18-01-1950 Birth of Indian Republic

26-01-1950 First President sworn in

28-01-1950 Proclamation of new Constitution

29-01-1950 Supreme Court inaugurated

10-07-1951 First Five Year Plan launched

18-08-1951 First Indian Institute of Technology inaugurated in Kharagpur

21-10-1951 The Telangana armed struggle led by the Communists ends formally

25-10-1951 First general elections

25-07-1952 India wins gold in hockey, Khashaba Jadhav wins bronze in wrestling in Helsinki Olympics

01-08-1953 Air India nationalised and becomes India’s national carrier

01-10-1953 Formation of Andhra State after popular agitations for separate State from Madras Presidency

11-08-1954 Annexation of Dadra & Nagar Haveli from the Portuguese

01-07-1955 India’s largest bank Imperial Bank of India renamed as State Bank of India

01-11-1956 State Reorganisation Act reforms the boundaries of States in India on linguistic lines

06-12-1956 India wins a hockey gold by beating Pakistan 1-0. The only medal in that Olympics

05-04-1957 First democratically elected Communist Party government outside Europe gets to power in Kerala with CPI leader EMS Namboodiripad as the Chief Minister

01-10-1958 The Standards of Weights and Measures Act takes effect

31-03-1959 The Dalai Lama flees Tibet and arrives in India

01-12-1959 Eighth Amendment to the Constitution extends period of reservations to SCs/STs by 10 years

01-05-1960 Gujarat and Maharashtra are formed from the State of Bombay

09-09-1960 India loses to Pakistan 1-0 and gets Silver - the only medal in that Olympics

13-11-1961 First Indian Institute of Management inaugurated in Calcutta

19-12-1961 Goa is officially ceded to India after 400 years of Portuguese rule

20-10-1962 Beginning of the Sino-Indian war with China launching attacks in Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh

21-11-1962 China declares ceasefire and withdraws to MacMohan Line in Eastern sector to end war.

27-05-1964 Jawaharlal Nehru passes away

26-01-1965 Hindi becomes “official language”. Anti-Hindi agitations follow, which result in it remaining as one of 23 “official languages of India”.

23-02-1965 English adopted as associate language between Central government and non-Hindi speaking States

06-09-1965 - 22-09-1965 India-Pakistan war ends after UN Security Council calls for ceasefire on September 20.

01-12-1965 Border Security Force formed as a special body to guard the borders

10-01-1966 Tashkent Accord signed between Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan President Ayub Khan

11-01-1966 Lal Bahadur Shastri dies in Tashkent

27-05-1967 Peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal. Later, it spawns other movements

19-07-1969 14 leading banks nationalised through an ordinance

24-06-1970 Operation Flood - an initiative to create a nation-wide milk grid is launched

03-12-1971 - 17-12-1971 War with Pakistan for the liberation of Bangladesh ends after General Yahya Khan accepts India’s cease-fire proposal

The Dakota-3 aircraft used during the Bangladesh Liberation War. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

02-07-1972 Simla Agreement signed between India and Pakistan to resolve all disputes peacefully

18-05-1974 India explodes nuclear device underground in Pokhran as part of Project ‘Smiling Buddha’

19-04-1975 India enters space age with the launch of Aryabhatta, first Indian satellite designed and built at the Space Research Centre near Bangalore and launched near Moscow

16-05-1975 Sikkim annexed by India

26-06-1975 President proclaims National Emergency during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s tenure. 676 persons detained all over country

21-03-1977 Emergency ends

24-03-1977 The Janata Party’s chairman Morarji Desai becomes Prime Minister in India’s first non-Congress party led government after the Congress was defeated

18-10-1979 Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace

25-06-1983 India wins the Prudential ODI cricket World Cup at Lords, London defeating the two-time champion West Indies

19-10-1983 Indian-American astrophysicist S Chandrasekhar wins the Nobel Prize for Physics

03-04-1984 Rakesh Sharma becomes India’s first man in space after he was launched aboard Soyuz T-11 spaceship

06-06-1984 Indian government launches Operation Blue Star to remove militants from the Sri Harminder Sahib (Golden Temple) premises in Amritsar

31-10-1984 Indira Gandhi assassinated by her security guards.

In this photo Zail Singh (right), N. Sanjeeva Reddi, R. Venkataraman pay their last respects to Indira Gandhi. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives

01-11-1984 - 03-11-1984 Anti-Sikh riots in Delhi kill and injure thousands

03-12-1984 Methyl Isocyanate leak from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal results in more than 2,000 immediate deaths. More than 10,000 people were treated for inhaling the poisonous gas

29-07-1987 India and Sri Lanka sign an accord to safeguard the interest of the Tamil minority in the island nation

24-03-1990 The last of the Indian Peace Keeping Force leave Sri Lanka, ending a 2 1/2 year long chapter in the relations between the two nations

25-07-1991 Government led by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh embark upon economic liberalisation

The Hindu's cartoon on economic liberalisation.

30-03-1992 Satyajit Ray receives honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

06-12-1992 Babri Masjid demolished by kar sevaks belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Sangh Parivar affiliates

12-03-1993 Series of bomb blasts in Mumbai claimed 250 lives, injured 1,000. First blast reported at Jeejeebhoy Towers

11-05-1998 — 13-05-1998 India conducts a series of nuclear tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan; also tests a thermonuclear device

14-10-1998 Amartya Sen wins Nobel Prize for Economics

20-02-1999 Prime Minister AB Vajpayee commences bus diplomacy to Lahore

May-July 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan after Pakistan soldiers and militants infiltrate across the LoC

25-12-1999 Hijacking of IA flight IC 814 results in release of three terrorists in Afghanistan as ransom for release of hostages

13-12-2001 Suicide squad of LeT and JeM terrorists attack Parliament complex. Threat neutralised

Feb-March 2002 Riots in Gujarat kill more than a thousand people after a train bogie is burnt in Godhra, killing 59 kar sevaks

02-03-2006 India and U.S. sign landmark nuclear deal pending approval by legislatures in both countries

06-07-2006 Nathu La pass between India and Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China reopened after 44 years

24-09-2007 India wins World Twenty20 Championship in cricket

30-09-2007 Vishwanathan Anand is undisputed world champion after defeating V Kramnik

11-08-2008 Abhinav Bindra wins India’s first individual Olympic gold in Shooting

21-08-2008 Sushil Kumar wins Bronze in Beijing

22-10-2008 India’s moon mission Chandrayaan-1 injected into its initial orbit

14-11-2008 Impact probe onboard Chandrayaan-1, successfully landed on the moon

26-11-2008 Lashkar-e-Taiba militants from Pakistan carried out coordinated attacks across Mumbai, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308

Smoke billowing out of the ground and first floor of the Taj Hotel in south Mumbai following the 26/11 terror attacks. File photo

23-02-2009 Music composer A R Rahman wins Oscars for best score and song for the film Slumdog Millionaire

24-09-2009 Chandrayaan I finds traces of water on the moon

09-03-2010 Rajya Sabha votes for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament

02-04-2011 India wins the cricket ODI world Cup held in the subcontinent by beating Sri Lanka.

Indian team celebrates after winning the ICC World Cup.

20-04-2012 Agni V propels India into elite ICBM club

12-08-2012 Wrestler Sushil Kumar wins silver medal in London Olympics

09-09-2012 In ISRO’s 100th mission, PSLV puts two satellites into orbit

17-06-2013 More than 5700 die in massive Uttarakhand floods

10-08-2013 In a first for India, submarine INS Arihant’s nuclear reactor goes critical

05-11-2013 India starts historic mission, Mangalyaan or Mars Orbital Mission to Mars

16-11-2013 Bharat Ratna awarded to Sachin Tendulkar and scientist C.N.R. Rao

05-01-2014 India joins five other nations to have mastered cryogenic engine tech

26-05-2014 Narendra Modi sworn in as India’s 15th Prime Minister after taking BJP-led alliance to a stunning victory

01-06-2014 Telangana, the 29th State of India, is born

24-09-2014 India puts Mars Orbiter Mission, Mangalyaan, in orbit around Mars in its first attempt

01-01-2015 NITI Aayog is the new policy body replacing the Planning Commission

01-07-2015 India’s GDP crosses $2-trillion mark

10-08-2015 Chennai-born Sundar Pichai named chief executive officer of Google

17-08-2016 Wrestler Sakshi Malik wins the bronze medal in Rio Olympics

19-08-2016 Shuttler P.V. Sindhu wins the silver medal in Rio Olympics

01-02-2017 Budget presented with the merger of Railway Budget after 92 years of being presented separately

01-07-2017 Goods and Services Tax implemented nationwide

Compiled by The Hindu indexing team