Associated Press photographer Nick Ut snapped an iconic moment of the Vietnam War on this day in 1972. The subject: a nine-year-old girl named Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.
Phuc and her family were residents of the village of Trang Bang, where planes dropped a napalm bomb in an effort to eradicate an occupation of North Vietnamese forces. Kim's family were fleeing from a nearby temple to safety when a South Vietnamese Air Force pilot mistook the group as enemy soldiers. She was badly burned and tore off her smoldering clothes as she and other villagers ran down the road on which Nick Ut happened to be taking photos. The haunting image earned him a Pulitzer Prize and was chosen as the World Press Photo of the Year in 1972. Ut took Kim to a hospital in Saigon where she would stay for 14 months and 17 surgeries. She would later become an important figure in assisting child victims of war. You can hear about it in her own words in her recording with NPR's This I Believe.
It’s Friday, June 8
Tomorrow is Family Fun Archaeology Day at Wickliffe Mounds. Play games, make your own pottery, grind corn with stone tools, and discover the process of archaeology with displays of artifact analysis and mock excavation. Hours are 9 to 4. For more information, call Wickliffe Mounds at (270) 335-3681.
Artwork by Jennifer Fairbanks will be on display at the Janice Mason Art Museum in Cadiz through Sunday. The exhibit consists mostly of figurative paintings and drawings. The museum is open today and tomorrow from 10 to 4 and Sunday from 1 to 4. See a sampling of drawings and paintings at jfairbanks.com.
Land Between the Lakes offers a fee waiver day tomorrow in honor of National Get Outdoors Day. General admission to the Woodlands Nature Station, The Homeplace, the Elk & Bison Prairie, and the 1PM Golden Pond Planetarium show will be free. Wranglers Campground will also waive day-use riding fees. Learn more at lbl.org.
See community event details at wkms.org. Thanks for listening.
