Today, at the age of 62, Ngô nh Dim, President and autocratic leader of South Vietnam, was killed in a coup.
Ngo Dinh Nhu was South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem's younger brother and main political adviser. Nhu commanded the ARVN special forces and the Personalist Labor Revolutionary Party organization, as well as the regime's secret police. He was assassinated during the coup against his brother in 1963. Nhu was bayoneted three times while travelling in an armored personnel carrier with guards, and Diem was shot in the head with a handgun. The killings of the two brothers resulted in the formation of a military junta in the South.
Related On This Day
Today, in 1950, Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw dies at the age of 94.
Today, Barack Obama is elected President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to do so, beating Republican contender John McCain.
Tabu [Tabassum Hashmi], an Indian actress, was born today in Hyderabad, India, in 1972.
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Kendall Jenner, an American model and television personality, was born in Los Angeles, California in 1995.
Today, in Springfield, Illinois, American socialite Mary Todd marries Illinois Congressman and lawyer Abraham Lincoln in 1842.
Today, The Times of India, the world's most widely read English-language daily broadsheet newspaper, was launched in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce Today.
Today is 1933. Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and Nobel laureate who was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India.
Matthew McConaughey, an American actor, was born today in Uvalde, Texas, in 1969.
Shakuntala Devi, an Indian writer and mental calculator known as the "Human Computer," was born today in Bangalore, Mysore, British India, in 1929.
Today, Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt in 1922.
Today, in Pune, India, Nizari Imam Aga Khan III marries his first cousin Shahzadi Begum in 1896.
Today, in 1755, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, who is said to have said "let them eat cake," was born in Vienna, Austria.
Today, Amar Bose, an American entrepreneur and professor, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1929.
Today, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 in 1957, with space dog Laika, a mostly-Siberian husky, onboard, becoming the first animal in orbit.
Chevrolet officially joins the automotive market in 1911, competing with the Ford Model T.
Today, Howard Hughes flies the "Spruce Goose," a massive wooden airplane, for the first and only time in 1947.
Today, Aga Khan III, a Shia Imam who was a founder of the All-India Muslim League and subsequently President of the League of Nations, was born in Karachi, British India, in 1877.