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Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba
Fidel Castro first began his revolution with an army of 120 men in an attempt to overthrow the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba in July of 1953. This attack failed and Castro was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison while most of his men were killed. However, Castro was released from prison two years later as part of a general amnesty. He ended up in Mexico. A year later, Castro and a smaller army of 81 sailed to the eastern coast of Cuba where they were immediately ambushed by -
Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba (2)
the Cuban government. This left only about 18 survivors, one of them, Castro. The remains of his army fled deep into the Sierra Maestra Mountains in southeastern Cuba with very little supplies. They began to attack Rural Guard patrols around Cuba. Eventually, they made it to Batista where they fought and eventually overthrew him on new years day, 1959. Castro declared himself as Prime Minister of Cuba. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
After Castro’s overthrow, the United States tried desperately to remove him from power. Finally, over two years later in April of 1961, the CIA launched what they believed to be a future successful attack on Cuba. They recruited 1,400 American-Cuban troops who left Cuba and fled to America after Castro took power. The plan was to take out Cuba’s air force before attacking from the ground to ensure that they could not resist the U.S. troops. However, Castro knew about the strike on his military -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (2)
base and he had moved all the planes to safety. Nothing had been accomplished. The United States realized we were too deep into the operation and there was no going back. On April 17, 1961, we invaded Cuba at the southern part of the island in a place known as the Bay of Pigs. It began to fail before it had even started. Coral reefs sank some our ships on the way in and backup paratroopers landed in the wrong place. Castro’s troops took control. After less than a day of fighting, the Cuban -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (3)
exiles had surrendered. 114 were killed and over 1,100 were taken prisoner. -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up
Shortly after World War II ended, peace conferences held at Yalta and Potsdam determined the division of Germany’s territory between the Soviet Union and the United States, Great Britain, and France. The Allies got West Germany and the Soviet Union got East Germany. However, the entire city of Berlin was occupied by the Soviet Union. The peace agreements decided to also split Berlin in a similar way to the division of Germany. Allies got the west and the Soviets got the west. In 1948, the -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up (2)
the Soviets implemented a blockade of West Berlin in an attempt to starve the allies out of the city. However, the Allies of West Germany assisted those of West Berlin through the use of aircraft. This is known as the Berlin Airlift. In 1949, the Soviets called off the blockade. In June 1961, East Germans began crossing the border into West Berlin. Over 67,000 Germans crossed the border in only about 3 months. -
The Berlin Wall Goes Up (3)
On the night of August 12, 1961, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to begin building the wall to block off the flow of emigrants. -
Olympic Rivalry: 1972 basketball game
The 1972 Olympic basketball game concluded with a 51-50 Soviet win in the final 3 seconds ending the Americans undefeated 63-0 Olympic record. This sparked major controversy considering the fact that the game was not supposed to end this way. The Americans had thought they won the gold medal at 50-49 after the two foul shots by Doug Collins with seconds left. The inbound was then deflected by the Americans and the clock ran out. However, Renato William Jones the secretary-general and -
Olympic Rivalry: 1972 basketball game (2)
co-founder of FIBA, bolted out and demanded that the 3 seconds be put back on the clock. He succeeded and the inbound was repeated. The Soviets threw the ball all the way down the court to Aleksandr Belov who managed to sink a last-second layup to put the Soviets up 51-50 as the clock hit 0. -
German Reunification/Fall of Berlin Wall
Near the end of the cold war in 1989, the communist party of East Berlin publicly stated that they wanted to change their relationship with West Berlin. The party allowed people to openly cross the border- East into West and West into East. Excited citizens partied the night away as they crossed, similar to a large street party. People started taking hammers and other objects to the wall to break pieces off. Others took to construction trucks to make larger dents in the wall. Finally on -
German Reunification/Fall of Berlin Wall (2)
October 3, 1990, nearly a year after the beginning of the fall of the Berlin wall, reunification was official.
