Ananda Mahidol Day in Thailand

Adopted 12 May 2015. King Ananda Mahidol died in 1946.

Ananda Mahidol, also called Rama Viii, (born Sept. 20, 1925, Heidelberg, Ger.—died June 9, 1946, Bangkok), eighth king of the Chakkri dynasty of Siam, whose mysterious death was one of the most traumatic events in the history of modern Thailand.

In 1946, Thailand's King Ananda Mahidol died from a single gunshot wound to the forehead. He was just 20 years of age.

Ananda was only 10 years old and a schoolboy in Switzerland when he succeeded his uncle, King Prajadhipok, in 1935. World War II prevented his return to Thailand to assume his constitutional duties until 1946. Shortly thereafter, early in the morning of June 9, he was found dead in his bed of a gunshot wound. The case was never fully explained, and the controversy over it contributed to the weakening of civilian constitutional government and helped precipitate the return of military government in Thailand.