Gia Định Province is former province of South Vietnam surrounding Saigon.

Gia Định Province was created in 1832. In December 1889 it was split to 4 smaller provinces, Gia Định, Chợ Lớn, Tân An and Tây Ninh. In 1957 it contained 6 districts, Gò Vấp, Tân Bình, Hóc Môn, Thủ Đức, Nhà Bè and Bình Chánh. In 1970 Quảng Xuyên and Cần Giờ districts were added.

In February 1976 parts of Biên Hoà, Bình Dương and Hậu Nghĩa provinces were annexed to Gia Định and it was renamed to Sài Gòn-Gia Định. On July 2, 1976 it was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City.

Lê Lợi (1384 or 1385? – 1433), posthumously known with the temple name Lê Thái Tổ (黎太祖), was Emperor of Vietnam and founder of the Later Lê Dynasty. Lê Lợi is among the most famous figures of Vietnamese history and one of its greatest heroes.

Lê Lợi was the youngest of three sons. His father was an aristocratic nobleman in Lam Son (northern-Vietnam). The town was in a newly colonized area of Vietnam which would eventually be called Thanh Hóa Province. Lam Son had been established by Lê Lợi's great-grandfather Le Hoi sometime in the 1330s. His exact date of birth is not certain, but 1384 is generally agreed on by historians. Lam Son was on the frontier of Vietnam, as a result it was further and hence more free from government control.

This was a troubled time in Vietnam's history as the Hồ Dynasty in 1400 finally displaced the Trần Dynasty and set about reforming the kingdom. Hồ rule was short lived as members of the Trần Dynasty petitioned for intervention from the mighty Ming Emperor Yongle (永樂 Vĩnh Lạc) to the north. He responded by sending a powerful army south into Vietnam and vanquished the Hồ. Upon failing to find a Trần heir, the Ming choose to re-establish sovereignty over Vietnam, as was the case in the days of the Tang empire, some 500 years previously.

Hồ Chí Minh (Vietnamese pronunciation: [hô cǐ miɲ] (Vietnamese pronunciation: [hô̤ tɕǐmɪŋ] ( listen)); 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành and Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Stalinist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Việt Cộng (NLF or VC) during the Vietnam War.

He led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Điện Biên Phủ. He officially stepped down from power in 1955 due to health problems, but remained a highly visible figurehead and inspiration for Vietnamese fighting for his cause – a united, independent Vietnam – until his death. After the war, Saigon, the capital of Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City in his honor.