Lê Quang Tung (1923–63) was the commander of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of South Vietnam's president, Ngô Đình Diệm. During the 1950s, Tung was a high-ranking official in Nhu's Cần Lao, a secret political apparatus which maintained the Ngô family's grip on power. Appointed as commander of the special forces in 1960, his leadership was noted more for repressing dissidents than fighting the Viet Cong insurgents. His most well-known attack was the raid on Xá Lợi pagoda in August 1963 in which hundreds died or disappeared. Tung's main military programme was a scheme in which army personnel attempted to infiltrate North Vietnam for intelligence gathering and sabotage. The program was ineffective, with the vast majority of infiltrators being killed or captured. Tung was also reported to be planning an assassination attempt on Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam. Following the pagoda raids, America terminated funding to Tung's men because they were used as a political tool rather than against the communists. Along with Diệm and Nhu, Tung was assassinated during the November 1963 coup. ( Full article...)

Recently featured: Blue-faced Honeyeater – Brockway Mountain Drive – Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Rogier van der Weyden's c. 1430–32 painting The Virgin and Child Enthroned (pictured) may be the left hand wing of a dismantled diptych, with St George and the Dragon as the opposite panel?
• ... that the Triple Crown winner Nijinsky lost the 1970 Champion Stakes by three-quarters of a length to the 100/7 long-shot Lorenzaccio?
• ... that the William Berke-directed Fury of the Congo (1951) follows Jungle Jim in the Congo battling a giant desert spider and a few hunters?
• ... that Forus Airport, built as a military air base by the Luftwaffe at the site of a former lake, is currently the site of an industrial park?
• ... that Henry Koster's friend, the poet Robert Southey, encouraged him to write his Travels in Brazil?
• ... that after World War II, HMCS Woodstock was sold for conversion to a whale-catcher?

• A 7.1- magnitude earthquake strikes the Philippines, resulting in over 90 deaths.
• American economists Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert J. Shiller win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their empirical analysis of asset prices.
• A stampede breaks out during the Navratri festival in Madhya Pradesh, India, killing 115 and injuring at least 110.
• Following the evacuation of 800,000 people, Cyclone Phailin (pictured) makes landfall in eastern India, causing at least 20 fatalities.

Recent deaths: Oscar Hijuelos

October 16: World Food Day

• 1793 – Marie Antoinette (pictured), queen consort of Louis XVI, was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the French Revolution.
• 1869 – Girton College, one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge and England's first residential college for women, was founded.
• 1951 – The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated in Rawalpindi.
• 1968 – To protest racism in the United States, African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed the Black Power salute during a medal ceremony at the Mexico City Summer Olympics.
• 1975 – Five journalists for Australian television networks based in the town of Balibo were killed by Indonesian special force soldiers prior to their invasion of East Timor.

More anniversaries: October 15 – October 16 – October 17

L'Oceanogràfic is a marine park situated in the east of the city of Valencia, Spain. Designed by Félix Candela, Alberto Domingo, and Carlos Lázaro, the park was opened in 2003 and is integrated into the City of Arts and Sciences. Here the entrance is pictured. Photo: David Iliff Recently featured: Union Pacific 844 – Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Birmingham – Caenorhabditis elegans male diagram Archive – More featured pictures...