Ram Prasad Bismil was born in Shahjahanpur in 1897. He was sentenced to death by the British for what was known as the "Kakori conspiracy". He was hanged on December 19, 1927, at the age of 30. He was associated with the Arya Samaj and was inspired by books written by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. Born to a civic body worker, he was forced to drop out of school because of the lack of money. But that did not kill his passion for reading and poetry.