Nguyễn Chánh Thi (1923–2007) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Thi joined the French Army at 17 and was captured by the Japanese after they invaded French Indochina during World War II. In 1960 he led the Vietnamese Airborne Division in an unsuccessful coup against Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, citing political interference in the military. After Diệm's assassination in 1963, he became the deputy commander of I Corps under Nguyễn Khánh and helped him overthrow Diệm's opponents in 1964. Thi was in several juntas that ruled South Vietnam for the next two years. In February 1965, he helped to defeat a coup attempt and to force Khánh's resignation at the same time. In June Thi declined an opportunity to serve as prime minister after being nominated by his fellow officers; he wanted to let a rival take the job and then step in after they failed, but he never got the chance. After the Buddhist Uprising of 1966, Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ had him exiled to the United States. Thi's ouster was supported by the American leadership, who backed Kỳ's pro-U.S. regime.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Ch%C3%A1nh_Thi
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1396:
Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I defeated a Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary in the Battle of Nicopolis near present-day Nikopol, Bulgaria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nicopolis
1775:
Ethan Allen and a small force of American and Quebec militia failed in their attempt to capture Montreal from British forces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Longue-Pointe
1911:
An explosion of badly degraded propellant charges on board the French battleship Liberté detonated the forward ammunition magazines and destroyed the ship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Libert%C3%A9
1962:
The North Yemen Civil War began when Abdullah as-Sallal dethroned the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declared Yemen a republic under his presidency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Yemen_Civil_War
1996:
The last Magdalene asylum, an Irish institution to rehabilitate so-called "fallen women", was closed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_asylum
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
booklegging: The illicit publication and distribution of banned books. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/booklegging
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. --William Faulkner https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner
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