France’s President Charles de Gaulle Survives an Assassination Attempt.
The Organisation de l’armée secrète (OAS), a French far-right organization tried to machine gun Charles de Gaulle while he was riding to the airport with his wife. The assassination attempt was led by Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, an officer in the French Air Force. Bastien-Thiry and the OAS were unhappy about de Gaulle’s role in allowing Algeria’s independence. It is thought that the car de Gaulle was riding in, a Citroen DS 19, was partially responsible for saving his and his wife’s life. After being caught, Bastien-Thiry was the last person in France to be executed by a firing squad.