On this date in 1973, the government of Mohammed Daoud Khan — himself freshly installed as the first Afghan president, after deposing his cousin, the king, in a July 1973 coup — had five alleged conspirators executed.

The events of late 1973 are described here:

Radio Kabul announces the discovery of an allegedly Pakistan-backed plot to overthrow the new regime. A number of civilians and high-ranking military personalities are arrested, including former Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal, who is later reported to have hanged himself on October 1 while awaiting trial. Five defendants are subsequently condemned to death and executed on December 25, while others receive long terms of imprisonment. A second attempted coup is foiled in December. The Kabul press accuses Pakistan of fomenting these conspiracies, but no solid evidence for the accusation is forthcoming. In view of Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto‘s desire for friendly relations with Afghanistan, it seems more likely that the conspiracies were the products of domestic discontent.

Mohammed Daoud Khan was successfully overthrown in 1978 by a Communist … setting in motion the sequence of events that would unleash the bloody Soviet-Afghan War.

On this day..

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• 820: Not Michael the Amorian, conquer or die
• 2014: Ismai Khan Sayed, a Pakistani heroin smuggler in Saudi Arabia
• 1553: Pedro de Valdivia, founder of Santiago
• 1204: Alexios V, precipitated Byzantine emperor
• 2010: An Iranian crack trafficker
• 1017: Eadric Streona, traitorous
• Feast Day of St. Anastasia
• 317 B.C.E.: Philip III Arrhidaeus, who succeeded Alexander the Great
• 1683: Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, for the Battle of Vienna
• 2006: Three old men and a taxi driver
• 1989: Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu