Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bombed the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate President Ngo Dinh Diem.

The Vietnamese National Army captured Ba Cụt, a military commander of the religious sect Hòa Hảo, which ran a de facto state in South Vietnam in opposition to Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm.

South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began a state visit to the United States, his regime's main sponsor.

Ngô Đình Cẩn, a younger brother and the confidant of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, was executed by Nguyễn Khánh's military junta.

Buddhist crisis: A protest against pro-Catholic discrimination was held outside the National Assembly of South Vietnam in Saigon, the first open demonstration against President Ngô Đình Diệm.

Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself to death in Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by Catholic South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem's administration.

The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest during the Buddhist crisis.

South Vietnamese special forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, the brother of President Ngô Đình Diệm, raided and vandalised Buddhist pagodas (one pictured) across the country, arresting thousands and leaving hundreds dead.

Buddhist crisis: The U.S. State Department ordered Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (pictured) to encourage South Vietnamese Army officers to oust Ngo Dinh Diem if he did not willingly remove Ngo Dinh Nhu from his unofficial position of power.

South Vietnamese opposition figure Phan Quang Đán was elected to the National Assembly, despite soldiers being bussed in to vote multiple times for President Ngô Đình Diệm's candidate.

A parcel bomb sent by Ngô Đình Nhu (pictured), younger brother and chief adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, failed to kill Norodom Sihanouk, Prime Minister of Cambodia.

South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began an official visit to Australia, the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to the country.

The U.S. suspended the Commercial Import Program, its main economic support for South Vietnam, in response to the oppression of Buddhists by President Ngô Đình Diệm (pictured).

Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam after defeating former emperor Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.

Lê Quang Tung, loyalist head of the South Vietnam Special Forces, was executed in a U.S.-backed coup against president Ngô Đình Diệm following a period of religious unrest.

President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was assassinated, marking the culmination of a coup d'état led by Dương Văn Minh.

Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ was appointed by the junta of General Dương Văn Minh to head the South Vietnamese government, five days after Minh deposed and assassinated President Ngô Đình Diệm.

A coup attempt by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam against President Ngô Đình Diệm was crushed after he falsely promised reform, allowing loyalists to rescue him.