Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born in Porbandar; he becomes the leader of India's nonviolent independence movement.
After the 1857 rebellion, the Government of India Act transfers rule from the East India Company to the British Crown; the Mughal Empire formally ends.
Sepoys mutiny at Meerut, sparking a widespread uprising against East India Company rule across northern and central India.
The Indian National Congress holds its first session in Bombay; it later leads the independence movement.
Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore becomes the first Asian Nobel laureate, honoured chiefly for Gitanjali.
Britain defeats Konbaung Burma, which cedes Assam, Manipur, Arakan and Tenasserim under the Treaty of Yandabo.
Troops under General Reginald Dyer fire on an unarmed crowd in Amritsar, killing hundreds and fuelling anti-colonial sentiment.