5: King Bhumibol Adulyadej, celebrating his 80th birthday, appears on the balcony of the throne hall at the Grand Palace, and later rides in a motorcade, greeting more than 100,000 people, mostly wearing yellow, who turned out to catch a glimpse of the monarch.
4: King Bhumibol Adulyadej(monument pictured) gives his annual birthday address, calling for national unity and advocating spending by the military, because of the strong Thai baht.
2: The trooping of the colors mark the beginning of festivities in celebration of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday. In an address at the full-dress military parade, the monarch calls for unity. "The situation in the country these days, as everyone knows in their hearts, is unpredictable," he says. "If Thai people lack a national conscience and lack a sense of unity, there may be misfortune for the entire nation."
November 2007
14: The TITV Everest 2007 team, which had hoped to reach the summit of
Mount Everest in celebration of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday, is forced to abandon its ascent because of fatigue and bad weather.
9: Seven districts in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province are declared a disaster area because of flooding. The airport on Ko Samui reopens after being closed for a day due to heavy rains.
30: Access to
YouTube is restored by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, six months after the video-sharing was blocked in Thailand because it hosted a video that showed images deemed offensive of King Bhumibol Adulyadej(pictured on building).
31: Twenty-one people are killed in one day of attacks in the South Thailand insurgency, including 12 soldiers who are ambushed in Yala and seven people who were gunned down at a mosque in Songkhla.
30: A Constitutional Tribunal rules on violations in the April 2006 Thai general election, ordering the dissolution of the former ruling party, Thai Rak Thai. Ousted prime minister and former party leader Thaksin Shinawatra is banned from politics for five years, along with 110 other party executives. The opposition Democrat Party is acquitted of six charges and left intact. Earlier, King Bhumibol Adulyadej had made a rare televised appearance, urging the judges to exercise care the ruling. Security is stepped up in Bangkok before the ruling, and left in place afterward by the Council for National Security.
27: Thirteen people are injured in a string of seven bomb blasts at hotels, restaurants and department stores in Hat Yai. One victim later dies of injuries. Another bombing in Songkhla kills four people and injures two dozen.
21: Sakorn Yang-keawsot, founder of the Joe Louis Puppet Theater (performer and puppet pictured), dies at age 85.
14: A 6.1-
magnitudeearthquake strikes in northern Laos, and is felt in Bangkok, 800 km. away. Shoppers flee malls and high-rise buildings are evacuated, but there are no reports of injuries or severe damage.
12: Two thousand villagers clash with police in a land dispute in Surat Thani Province, with at least 800 people arrested.
11: The government drops plans to file a
lèse majesté lawsuit against
YouTube after the website said it would remove videos deemed offensive to KingBhumibol Adulyadej. However, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology demands that YouTube provide it with the
ISP addresses of the video uploaders.
10: Sacred
oxen in the Royal Ploughing Ceremony eat
corn,
rice and
grass, heralding what
soothsayers say will be a year of plentiful crops and abundant water. The annual rite, marking the traditional beginning of the rice-planting season, is presided over by Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn.
A Thai appeals court overturns a decision to extradite Ly Tong, declaring the dissident Vietnamese pilot a free man. He had been held in Thailand since 2000, after he hijacked a plane from Hua Hin and flew it over
Ho Chi Minh City, dropping anti-communist leaflets.
A Swiss man, Oliver Jufer, 57, is deported from Thailand after receiving a pardon from King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Jufer had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on
lèse majesté charges after he had vandalized posters of the king.
Television station iTV(news van pictured) is nearly taken off the air in a dispute over unpaid concession fees to the Prime Minister's Office. However, the station, renamed TITV, is allowed to continue broadcasting under the auspices of the Public Relations Department.
A string of bombings in southern Thailand during Chinese New Year leaves at least eight people dead and dozens injured. Authorities say it is the first coordinated attack to be carried out by insurgents in all four of Thailand's restive southern provinces.
Nan Province experiences its worst flooding in 40 years.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej is released from Siriraj Hospital to continue recovery at home from
spinal stenosis surgery. Meanwhile, Queen Sirikit is recovering from a second successful eye operation.