March 12 1930
Gandhi leads civil disobedience

In his boldest act of civil disobedience against British rule in India to date, Mahatma Gandhi begins a long march to the sea in protest of the British salt tax. Joined by thousands of protesters, Gandhi and his followers eventually reached the Arabian Sea, where they made their own salt by evaporating sea water. The march, which resulted in the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000 others, earned new international respect and support for the leader and his movement. Gandhi's nonviolent methods, including dramatic hunger strikes, eventually did bring to fruition his goal of Indian independence in 1947. In 1948, a Hindu extremist's bullet ended his life at the age of 78.