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Welcome to this day in history class from how stuff works.com and from the desk of stuff you missed in history class.

It's the show where we explore the past one day at a time with a quick look at what happened today in history.

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and it's November 19th.

Indira Gandhi was born on the stay in 1917. She is, as of this recording, the only woman to be prime minister of India.

Her father, Jawarhalal Nauru, was India's first prime minister, serving from 1947 to 1964.

She got a very prestigious education, and as a young woman was part of India's struggle for independence from Britain, so was

her father, so were many other people in their family. She joined the Congress Party in 1938,

and then she married her husband, Faroese Gandhi, on March 26th of 1942. He was also a member

of the Congress Party. They would go on to have two children.

Indira Gandhi held a lot of political offices in India, and then when her father became the

prime minister, she acted as his hostess. This was a role that often would be filled by the

prime minister's spouse, but Indira Gandhi's mother died of tuberculosis in 1936.

So she became the person who acted as his host and was often his companion when he traveled.

Also, after her father became prime minister, she became part of the Congress Party's working committee.

In 1964, her father's successor named her the Minister of Information and Broadcasting,

and then he died in office in 1966. That's when Indira Gandhi became the leader of the Congress

Party, which also made her the Prime Minister. She had been placed in this position through a

compromise between different factions within the Congress Party, but at the same time her leadership was immediately and frequently challenged. She served three consecutive terms, though, holding other roles during that time, which included being the Minister of Atomic Energy, and leading the Ministry of external affairs and the ministry of home affairs

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