By: History.com Editors

1957

American forces suffer first casualties in Vietnam

History.com Editors

Published: November 16, 2009

Last Updated: January 31, 2025

U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties in the war when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon. The rising tide of guerrilla activity in South Vietnam reached an estimated 30 terrorist incidents by the end of the year and at least 75 local officials were assassinated or kidnapped in the last quarter of 1957.

Timeline

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1797

First parachute jump is made over Paris

The first parachute jump of note is made by André-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris. Leonardo da Vinci conceived the idea of the parachute in his writings, and the Frenchman Louis-Sebastien Lenormand fashioned a kind of parachute out of two umbrellas and jumped from a tree in 1783, but André-Jacques Garnerin […]

1934

FBI agents kill fugitive “Pretty Boy” Floyd

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1962

JFK’s address on Cuban Missile Crisis shocks the nation

The Cuban Missile crisis was a 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over Soviet missiles in Cuba.

FILE PHOTO 40th Anniversary Of Cuban Missile Crisis

1964

Jean-Paul Sartre wins—and declines—Nobel Prize in Literature

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1965

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Highway Beautification Act

On October 22, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Highway Beautification Act, which attempts to limit billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising, as well as junkyards and other unsightly roadside messes, along America’s interstate highways. The act also encouraged “scenic enhancement” by funding local efforts to clean up and landscape the green spaces […]

President Johnson hands a pen to the first lady after signing her highway beautification bill into law in a ceremony at the White House.

1965

173rd Airborne trooper dives onto live grenade, saving comrades

In action on this day near Phu Cuong, about 35 miles northwest of Saigon, PFC Milton Lee Olive III of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry, throws himself on an enemy grenade and saves four soldiers, including his platoon leader, 1st Lt. James Sanford. The action came during a patrol that made contact with Communist […]

1972

South Vietnamese President Thieu turns down peace proposal

In Saigon, Henry Kissinger meets with South Vietnamese President Thieu to secure his approval of a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out at the secret peace talks with the North Vietnamese in Paris. The proposal presumed a postwar role for the Viet Cong and Thieu rejected the proposed accord point for point and accused […]

2012

Cyclist Lance Armstrong is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles

On October 22, 2012, Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he won from 1999 to 2005 and banned for life from competitive cycling after being charged with systematically using illicit performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions as well as demanding that some of his Tour teammates dope in order to […]

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Citation Information

Article title
American forces suffer first casualties in Vietnam
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 25, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
January 31, 2025
Original Published Date
November 16, 2009

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