I'm curious if anyone can tell me why this date is significant in Thailand's history?

Seriously.

in 1976 there's a group of thai n also student wanted a revolution for the politics! n at my university, there's the place that the governemnt today went to have the cereomony sumthing

what happened to those students?

well it's sumthing bout Democracy lism!! hahahah

you go to that university, but you don't know what happened there?

democracy monument masacre...

either that...or some kind no doubt single handedly slaghtered burmese and cambodian armies on the back of his white elephant ? (if you have a thai history book anyway)

ok Loburt, if u want to know, u have to ask me nicely! ok ? or pm me cuz i wouldnt know if u justpost it here

I don't need to know, Aommy. I know already. What I'm curious about is if you know?

sorry....some "king"...no"kind"

On October 6, 1976 a coups d'etat occurred and about 40 protesting students at Thammasat University, suspected of being communists, were slain by Army troops and the military took power. It was a dark day in Thai history, and a day to honor those who gave their lives.

yes loburt..i too find the thai's lack of their own 'important" history extremly frustrating..

Alleged is right, Angel, because the mock hanging wasn't intended to be of the Crown Prince. Photos that appeared of this in two newspapers were doctored to make the student look more like the Crown Prince. The Bangkok Post was one of those newspapers, and just a few years back apologized to the public for its role in what happened.

The students were not attacking the monarchy. The right wingers wanted to make it appear that they were.

From most eyewitness accounts, the death toll was much higher than 30 students. Thirty was the official government figure.

A foreign reporter I know who was there, and who was also at Tiananmen Square in 1989, said what happened at Thammasat was the most brutal and horrible atrocity he has seen in more than 30 years in Asia.

Thanks for those links, Brown Girl. That site, though, emphasizes the socialist beliefs of some of the students. Not all of them were socialists. Many just wanted more democracy and social justice.

Here are some more articles:

http://www.geocities.com/changnoi2/spirits.htm

http://www.uwalumni.com/onwisconsin/2003_summer/noise1.html

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/print.asp?parentid=10627

aren't you supposed to put your answer in the form of a question?

This isn't Jeopardy, frankenburner. But you'll be in jeorpardy if you turn this into a joke.

You could also include the Rape of Nanking by the Japanese. Hard to beat the Japanese when it comes to atrocities in Asia.

But this isn't a contest for the most brutal atrocity, sushi_romance. This is a website about Thailand and this journal is about Thai history.

And you statement about journalists ALWAYS being used for political or marketing ends is just plain wrong.

whats funny is none knew about it untill loburt brought it up, someone copied it from a website, and posted it.

A big F in recent history haha

And no one has even brought up how it might relate to some of the things happening in Thailand today.

yeah...amazingly bullshit.....

far more interesting is the real story behind this so called "history"

like the time thailand bravely warded off the french invaders (rather than in fact surrendering to 2 french war ships....and bravely sending out a ship full of concubines to greet them....) ...2 weeks later the french left...why ? there was nothing there of value to colonise....

not true. there was plenty left of value. it's just that the french are suckers for a boat load of whores.

men after my own heart!

uhmm interesting!

Loburt'sThaihistory.com

very interesting stuff loburt, but as u have said in a previous forum thais seem extremely reluctant to discuss controversial regarding thai affairs. they also seem loathe to criticize ppl in authority no matter what they have done and/or continue to do.

the suppression of the press following this event seems very relevant in the current political climate and not just in thailand !!