Video: 'Bay Of Pigs Invasion (1961)'

(Monday, April 17, 1961, at about 1:00 a.m. EST; during the Bay of Pigs Invasion, part of the Cold War) — About 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles, covertly financed and directed by the U.S. government, launched the ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba early today in an attempt to overthrow the increasingly-communist government headed by Fidel Castro.

The first group of a force of about 1,300 Cuban exiles of Brigade 2506 made an amphibious landing at Playa Girón, a beach at the Bahia de Cochinos (“Bay of Pigs” in Spanish) on the southern coast of Cuba.

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They had been trained by the CIA in Guatemala, then embarked in Nicaragua on four freighter ships chartered by the CIA, and escorted to Cuban waters by a large U.S. Navy task force.

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A second group of attackers landed 35 km further northwest in the bay at Playa Larga.

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By the end of the first day, four attacking B-26 bombers had been shot down by T-33s and ground fire, and invading troops had come under fire from Cuban militia and regular troops.

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