June 18

June 18

1926: The first elections were held to the "Central Board" under the Gurdwara Act.

1996: Indian Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, said a decision to send the army into the holiest of Sikh shrines in 1984 to flush out armed guerrillas was an "unfortunate event." But he stopped short of offering a formal apology which Sikh leaders have been demanding for more than a decade from the government over the army action in which thousands of innocent people were killed. In the 1984 action called Operation Bluestar, the army stormed the Golden Temple under the pretence of driving out armed militants who had occupied the shrine as part of their fight for an independent state, called Khalistan. Sikh leaders have demanded an apology for the operation from successive governments in New Delhi.