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Memorable National Day Parades over the years

From street processions to new stadiums, Insight looks at eight memorable parades over the years

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1966

The Republic's first National Day Parade (NDP) began at 9am at the Padang, with more than 23,000 people in the march-past, led by six contingents of soldiers from the People's Defence Force. It had the theme "National Pride and Confidence in the Future". Founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in his National Day Rally delivered a day earlier, said: "Every year, on this 9th August for many years ahead - how many, I do not know - we will dedicate ourselves anew to consolidate ourselves to survive; and, most important of all, to find an enduring future for what we have built and what our forebears will build up."
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