8th May
1933 Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against British oppression in India
1921 Sweden abolishes capital punishment
9th May
1866 Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Leader of Indian Independence Movement (d. 1915)
10th May
1857 Indian Mutiny against rule by the British East India Company begins with the revolt of the Sepoy soldiers in Meerut
1910 Halley’s Comet closest approach to Earth in 1910 pass
11th May
2000 India’s population officially reaches 1 billion – Astha Arora named India’s billionth baby
12th May
1984 Doris May, actress (Peck’s Bad Boy), dies at 81 of heart failure
1949 1st foreign woman ambassador received in USA (Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India)
13th May
1989 Approx 2,000 students begin hunger strike in Tiananmen Square, China
1967 Zakir Husain is elected the third President of India
14th May
1574 Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru, dies at 95
1973 Skylab launched, 1st Space Station
