Guru Nanak's 500th birth anniversary and the founding of Guru Nanak Dev University

Who: Sikhs in Punjab and abroad, who observed the fifth centennial of Guru Nanak's birth in 1969. The Punjab government was then headed by Justice Gurnam Singh, who had returned as Chief Minister of a United Front ministry in February 1969. President V. V. Giri laid the foundation stone of the new university, and Prof. Bishan Singh Samundri, a former Principal of Khalsa College, became its first Vice-Chancellor.

What: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records that the centennial of 1969 was observed with the same ardour as the other great gurpurabs. It describes the usual form of such a day: an unbroken forty-eight hour reading of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, special assemblies on the Guru's life and teachings, processions through towns chanting hymns, langar, and illuminations in gurdwaras and homes. To mark the anniversary, Guru Nanak Dev University was set up at Amritsar under an Act, and it was established on 24 November 1969, the day the foundation stone was laid on barren land. It began in a single room in the agriculture wing of Khalsa College, using furniture borrowed from the college. The state government later acquired 322 acres of Khalsa College land for its campus, and the first examination was held in 1971.

Where: Observed by Sikhs generally; the lasting memorial stands at Amritsar, on the Grand Trunk Road on the western side of the city.

Why it mattered: A birth anniversary usually passes in a day. This one left a permanent institution in Guru Nanak's name. The university's stated mission is the study and spread of the life and teachings of Guru Nanak and the advancement of the Punjabi language, and it waives tuition for students of its Department of Guru Nanak Studies and its School of Punjabi Studies. It was founded three years after the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966 created the Punjabi-speaking state, so the first great Guru Nanak anniversary of the new Punjab was marked with a lasting centre of learning as well as a festival.