Batista forced out by Castro-led revolution
On this day in 1959, facing a popular revolution spearheaded by Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the island nation. Amid celebration and chaos in the Cuban...
View ArticleMysterious explosions in Colombia
Seven army ammunition trucks explode in Cali, Colombia, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring thousands more on this day in 1956. The cause of the explosions remains a mystery.The previous day,...
View ArticleCastro announces Mariel Boatlift
On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel west of Havana, launching the Mariel Boatlift. The first of...
View ArticleChe Guevara is executed
On October 9, 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 while...
View ArticleChilean president Salvador Allende dies in coup
Chile’s armed forces stage a coup d’état against the government of President Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist leader in Latin America. Allende retreated with his supporters to...
View ArticleArgentina invades Falklands
On April 2, 1982, Argentina invades the Falklands Islands, a British colony since 1892 and British possession since 1833. Argentine amphibious forces rapidly overcame the small garrison of British...
View ArticleCastro sworn in
On February 16, 1959, Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became commander in...
View ArticleChe Guevara captured by Bolivian army
A Bolivian guerrilla force led by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara is defeated in a skirmish with a special detachment of the Bolivian army. Guevara was wounded, captured and executed the next...
View ArticleHaitian independence proclaimed
Two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte’s colonial forces, Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti after its original Arawak name.In 1791, a...
View ArticleIsabel Peron takes office as Argentine president
With Argentine President Juan Peron on his deathbed, Isabel Martinez de Peron, his wife and vice president, is sworn in as the leader of the South American country. President Isabel Peron, a former...
View ArticleMarcos inaugurated
Former Philippines Senate president Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated president of the Southeast Asian archipelago nation. Marcos’ regime would span 20 years and become increasingly authoritarian and...
View ArticleU.S. agrees to transfer Panama Canal to Panama
In Washington, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian dictator Omar Torrijos sign a treaty agreeing to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama at the end of the 20th...
View ArticlePeron deposed in Argentina
After a decade of rule, Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron is deposed in a military coup. Peron, a demagogue who came to power in 1946 with the backing of the working classes, became increasingly...
View ArticlePeron elected in Argentina
Juan Domingo Peron, the controversial former vice president of Argentina, is elected president.In 1943, as an army officer, he joined a military coup against Argentina’s ineffectual civilian...
View ArticleThe U.S. invades Panama
The United States invades Panama in an attempt to overthrow military dictator Manuel Noriega, who had been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges and was accused of suppressing...
View ArticlePanama declares independence
With the support of the U.S. government, Panama issues a declaration of independence from Colombia. The revolution was engineered by a Panamanian faction backed by the Panama Canal Company, a...
View ArticleFalklands War ends
After suffering through six weeks of military defeats against Britain’s armed forces, Argentina surrenders to Great Britain, ending the Falklands War.The Falkland Islands, located about 300 miles off...
View ArticleFidel Castro born
Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro is born in the Oriente province of eastern Cuba. The son of a Spanish immigrant who had made a fortune building rail systems to transport sugar cane, Fidel attended...
View ArticleChilean miners are rescued after 69 days underground
On October 13, 2010, the last of 33 miners trapped nearly half a mile underground for more than two months at a caved-in mine in northern Chile, are rescued. The miners survived longer than anyone else...
View ArticleGermanwings pilot intentionally crashes plane, killing 150 people
On this day in 2015, the co-pilot of a German airliner deliberately flies the plane into the French Alps, killing himself and the other 149 people onboard. When it crashed, Germanwings flight 9525 had...
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