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The Ngo Dinh Diem presidential visit to Australia from 2 to 9 September 1957 was an official visit by the first President of the Republic of Vietnam. It was part of a year of traveling for Diem, who made official visits to the United States and other anti-communist countries. As with his American trip, Diem was warmly and lavishly received during the height of the Cold War, garnering bipartisan praise from both the Liberal Party of Australia of Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the opposition Australian Labor Party. He was universally extolled by the media, which praised him for what they perceived to be a successful, charismatic, democratic and righteous rule in South Vietnam, overlooking his authoritarianism, election fraud and other corrupt practices. Diem's visit was a highmark in relations between Australia and South Vietnam. Over time, Diem became unpopular with his foreign allies, who began to criticise his autocratic style and religious bias. By the time of his assassination, he had little support. Australia later sent troops to support South Vietnam in the anti-communist fight, but the bipartisanship evaporated during the mid-1960s as the ALP began to sympathise with North Vietnam and opposition to the war grew. The ALP later withdrew support for and refused to accept refugees from South Vietnam after winning office, but on the return of the centre-right Liberal-National coalition to power in 1975, Vietnamese refugees were allowed to resettle in Australia in large numbers. (more...)

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November 27: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2009)

• 1095 – At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade, declaring holy war against the Muslims who had occupied the Holy Land and were attacking the Eastern Roman Empire.
• 1868 – American Indian Wars: George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry defeated Chief Black Kettle and the Cheyenne Indians on the Washita River near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
• 1895 – Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death.
• 1978 – San Francisco mayor George Moscone and openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk (pictured) were assassinated by supervisor Dan White.
• 1999 – The Labour Party defeated the governing National Party in the New Zealand general election, making the Labour Party's Helen Clark the first female to win the office of Prime Minister at an election.

More anniversaries: November 26 – November 27 – November 28