The Double Seven Day scuffle was a physical altercation on July 7, 1963, in Saigon, South Vietnam. The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu—the brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm—attacked a group of American journalists who were covering Buddhist protests. Peter Arnett of the Associated Press was punched on the nose, but the quarrel quickly ended after David Halberstam of The New York Times, being much taller than Nhu's men, counterattacked and caused the secret police to retreat. Arnett and his colleague, Malcolm Browne, were later accosted by police and taken away for questioning on suspicion of attacking police officers. After their release, the journalists went to the US embassy in Saigon to complain about their treatment and asked for US government protection. Their appeals were dismissed, as was a direct appeal to the White House. Vietnamese Buddhists reacted to the incident by contending that Diệm’s men were planning to assassinate monks, while Madame Ngô Đình Nhu repeated earlier claims that the US government had been trying to overthrow her brother-in-law. Photographs of Arnett's bloodied face, published in newspapers worldwide, drew further negative attention to the behaviour of the Diệm régime amidst the backdrop of the Buddhist crisis. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1327:

First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas led a raid into Weardale and almost killed Edward III of England. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stanhope_Park

1903:

Italian cardinal Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was elected to become Pope Pius X. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_X

1964:

A second U.S. Navy destroyer was reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin, sparking Congress to authorize the use of military force in Southeast Asia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

1992:

Yōhei Kōno , Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, issued a formal apology for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women

2007:

Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovered a suitcase containing an undeclared amount of US$800,000 as it went through an x-ray machine in Buenos Aires' Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as "Maletinazo". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_del_Luj%C3%A1n_Telpuk

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

inverecund (adj): Immodest; shameless http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inverecund

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Contrary to the rumours that you've heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth. --Barack Obama http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama