On this day in 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion took place when a force of 1400 Cuban exiles, funded and led by the U.S., landed on the southwest coast of Cuba in a failed attempt at overthrowing the revolutionary Cuban government.
Covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government, the operation took place at the height of the Cold War and its failure led to major shifts in international relations between Cuba, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
The coup attempt came after the Cuban government expropriated property from American capitalists. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in March 1960 for use against Castro's government. With the aid of Cuban counter-revolutionaries, the CIA proceeded to organize an invasion.
On April 14th, 1961, a squadron of U.S. B-26 bombers camouflaged with Cuban insignias begin a two-day bombing campaign of Cuban airports, destroying a large portion of the Cuban air force.
On the night of April 17th, an invasion force of approximately 1400 Cuban exiles and CIA officers landed on the beach at Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs. After a few days, the insurgents became overwhelmed by the Cuban army. President Kennedy refused to provide air support for the operation.
The invasion's defeat solidified Castro's role as a national hero and strengthened Cuba-Soviet relations. Several Cuban exiles and two Americans were executed upon capture. Over 1,000 prisoners were exchanged for humanitarian aid from the U.S. government.
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Just finished a 100-mile ride on my sidecar motorcycle. It was fun until it started raining.
also I got super fucking lucky I didn't run out of gas. The light came on and I stopped at a station about 20 miles from my house only to realize that I forgot the key to my gas cap
That does sound like fun. I would absolutely love to get a sidecar motorcycle at some point. How does the sidecar effect maneuvering?
It's not like a motorcycle or a car, it's a totally separate third thing that you will be learning to operate from zero.
You constantly have to hold it straight. Acceleration pulls to the right, breaking pulls to the left. It's balanced between 45 and 60 but below/above that range it will pull to one side.
When turning, you'll feel it wanting to flip over. Leaning into your turns helps, as does having extra weight in the sidecar, but you really gotta learn its performance envelope through practice.
Experienced riders can "fly the chair", ie make the sidecar lift off the ground, and hold it there indefinitely just by balancing themselves and their turn, but the first time this happened to me even though I knew about it in theory I still panicked and fell off the bike (luckily I was going slow cuz I was practicing).
Overall it's much more difficult to handle than a bike without one, but mastering it is fun (unless it's raining ofc but that goes for regular motorcycles as well) and my dog loves going for rides in it.
And that is literally the reason I want one lol