Dozens are killed by Thai police and right-wing paramilitaries in the Thammasat University massacre; afterwards, the Seni Pramoj government is toppled in a military coup led by Sangad Chaloryu.

The 6 October 1976 massacre, also known as the 6 October event in Thailand, was a violent crackdown by Thai police and lynching by right-wing paramilitaries and bystanders against leftist protesters who had occupied Bangkok's Thammasat University and the adjacent Sanam Luang, on 6 October 1976. Prior to the massacre, thousands of leftists, including students, workers and others, had been holding ongoing demonstrations against the return of exiled former Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn to Thailand since mid-September. Official reports state that 46 were killed and 167 were wounded, while unofficial reports state that more than 100 demonstrators were killed. In the "Documentation of Oct 6" project, historian Thongchai Winichakul argued that the official death toll should be 45, 40 demonstrators and 5 perpetrators since one demonstrator died in jail after the incident.

Mom Rajawongse Seni Pramoj was a Thai professor and politician who served as Prime Minister of Thailand three times. A descendant of the Thai royal family, he was the great-grandson of King Rama II. His final two terms as Prime Minister sandwiched the only term of his brother, Kukrit Pramoj.

Admiral Sangad Chaloryu was a Thai admiral and politician who served as head of the National Administrative Reform Council (NARC), a military junta that ruled Thailand from 1976 to 1980.