Names of Ho Chi Minh City

A 1910 postcard showing the name "Saigon" (French: Saïgon), a westernized version of the Vietnamese Sài Gòn.
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History of Ho Chi Minh City
Before 1955
1782 Saigon massacre (1782)
Gia Định province
Siege of Saigon (18 February 1859 – 25 February 1861)
Battle of Ky Hoa (February 1861)
Treaty of Saigon (1862)
Treaty of Saigon (1874)
Battle of Saigon (1955)
Vietnam War
1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt (11 November 1960)
Operation Chopper (Vietnam) (12 January 1962)
1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing (27 February 1962)
Self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức (11 June 1963)
Double Seven Day scuffle (7 July 1963)
Xá Lợi Pagoda raids (21 August 1963)
1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état (1–2 November 1963)
Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem (2 November 1963)
Attack on USNS Card (2 May 1964)
1964 Brinks Hotel bombing (24 December 1964)
1965 United States embassy bombing (30 March 1965)
1965 Saigon bombing (25 June 1965)
Operation Jackstay (26 March – 6 April 1966)
Operation Fairfax (November 1966 - 15 December 1967)
Viet Cong attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base (4–5 December 1966)
Tet offensive battle of Cholon and Phu Tho Racetrack (31 January-11 February 1968)
Tet offensive attack on Joint General Staff Compound (31 January-1 February 1968)
Tet offensive attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base (31 January 1968)
Tet offensive attack on US Embassy (31 January 1968)
Battle of West Saigon (5–12 May 1968)
Battle of South Saigon (7–12 May 1968)
Hijacking of Pan Am Flight 841 (2 July 1972)
Bombing of Tan Son Nhut Air Base (28 April 1975)
Operation Frequent Wind (29–30 April 1975)
Fall of Saigon (30 April 1975)
After 1975
1996 Asian Judo Championships (9 to 10 November 1996)
1999 Badminton Asia Cup (10–14 November 1999)
Ho Chi Minh City ITC fire (29 October 2002)
2005 AFC Futsal Championship (22 May – 4 June 2005)
2005 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships (29 August – 4 September 2005)
2012 Vietnam Open Grand Prix (20–26 August 2012)
Metro • Names (district names) • Organised crime
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The city now known as Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh listenⓘ) has gone by several different names during its history, reflecting settlement by different ethnic, cultural and political groups. Originally known as Prey Nôkôr while a part of the Khmer Empire,[nb 1] it came to be dubbed Sài Gòn (listenⓘ) informally by Vietnamese settlers fleeing the Trịnh–Nguyễn War to the north. In time, control of the city and the area passed to the Vietnamese, who gave the city the name of Gia Định. This name remained until the time of French conquest in the 1860s, when the occupying force adopted the name Saïgon for the city, a westernized form of the traditional Vietnamese name.[1] The current name was given after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, and honors Hồ Chí Minh, the first leader of North Vietnam.[nb 2] Even today, however, the informal name of Sài Gòn remains in daily speech both domestically and internationally, especially among the Vietnamese diaspora and local southern Vietnamese.[2]


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  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference salkin-96-354 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Stanley D. Brunn; Jessica K. Graybill; Maureen Hays-Mitchell, eds. (2016). Cities of the world: regional patterns and urban environments (Sixth ed.). Lanham. p. 447. ISBN 978-1-4422-4916-5. OCLC 922034582.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)