Huế Phật Đản Shootings

Date: May 8, 1963 • Location: Huế, Viet Nam

In Huế, South Vietnam, soldiers opened fire into a crowd of Buddhists protesting against a government ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Phật Đản, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.

Huế, formerly Thừa Thiên Huế province, is a centrally-governed city in central Vietnam, located approximately at the center of the country, and an educational, medical, and cultural hub. It borders Quảng Trị to the north, Đà Nẵng to the south, Salavan and Sekong of Laos to the west and the South China Sea to the east. As one of the country's nine centrally-governed cities, it falls under the administration of the central government.