Today in History: April 17, the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Today in history:
On April 17, 1961, some 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion within three days.
Also on this date:
In 1964, Jerrie Mock completed the first solo around-the-world flight by a woman, landing her single-engine Cessna plane in Columbus, Ohio after a 29-day journey.
In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (Sirhan's death sentence would be commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He remains in prison today.)
In 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while enroute to the moon.
In 1972, the Boston Marathon allowed women to compete for the first time. Nina Kuscsik was the first officially recognized women's champion, with a time of 3:10:26.
In 1975, Cambodia's five-year civil war ended as the capital Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, which instituted brutal, radical policies that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives (nearly one in four Cambodians) until the regime was overthrown in 1979.
In 1991, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time, ending the day at 3,004.46, up 17.58.
In 1993, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers were acquitted.
In 2020, President Donald Trump, via Twitter, urged supporters to 'LIBERATE' three states led by Democratic governors, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home mandates aimed at stopping the coronavirus.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Claims that UK spy agencies aided CIA torture after 9/11 to be heard in rare trial
The UK government's decades-long efforts to keep details of its intelligence agencies' involvement in the CIA's notorious post-9/11 torture programme hidden will face an 'unprecedented' challenge this week as two cases are brought before a secretive court. The cases, filed by two prisoners held at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, will be heard across a rare four-day trial at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), which has been investigating claims the UK's intelligence agencies were complicit in their mistreatment. Starting on Tuesday, the trial will place a spotlight back on what is considered one of British intelligence's darkest chapters, reviving longstanding questions about the extent of the UK's involvement in the CIA's kidnapping and detention of terrorism suspects in a global network of secret prisons known as black sites. The hearings begin six years after ministers shelved a judicial inquiry into alleged UK complicity, which David Cameron, the prime minister who ordered it, once said was necessary as 'the longer these questions remain unanswered, the bigger the stain on our reputation as a country'. The claims before the IPT have been brought by Mustafa al-Hawsawi, who is accused by the US of aiding the hijackers behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is alleged to have plotted al-Qaida's bombing of an American naval ship in 2000. Captured by the CIA in the early 2000s, the men were rendered between black sites, where they were systematically tortured and subjected to brutal and degrading treatment. Methods included what the CIA referred to as 'rectal feeding', a form of sexual assault according to medical experts. Related: Rectal rehydration and broken limbs: the grisliest findings in the CIA torture report After several years in CIA detention, Hawsawi and Nashiri – who were among a group of approximately 17 of the CIA's 'high-value detainees' – were transferred to Guantánamo Bay in 2006. They have been there since. Both men face charges carrying the death penalty, though neither of their cases at a special US military court have yet gone to trial. Lawyers for the men have told the IPT there is credible evidence to infer that UK spy agencies, including MI5 and MI6, unlawfully 'aided, abetted, encouraged, facilitated, procured and/or conspired' with the US in their torture and mistreatment. Working in secret, the IPT has been examining the allegations over the past two years. Led by a senior judge, the tribunal is an unusual court that can adopt an inquisitorial process and has unique powers to obtain classified information from the intelligence agencies. So far, the government has successfully prevented any findings from the investigation being disclosed, even to the complainants' lawyers. But the trial is expected to compel the government to confront, in open court, uncomfortable legal questions about what constitutes complicity in torture. 'This level of judicial scrutiny is unprecedented,' said Chris Esdaile, a senior legal adviser at Redress, an NGO that works with torture victims and which represents Hawsawi. 'Until now, efforts to lift the veil of secrecy and consider the full extent of the UK's involvement in the CIA's black site programme have been thwarted.' When Cameron announced the judge-led public inquiry into allegations of UK complicity in the mistreatment of terrorism suspects in 2010, he told parliament: 'Let me state clearly: we need to know the answers.' Nine years later, the government abandoned that commitment. This was despite parliament's intelligence and security committee concluding that British intelligence officers had been involved in 'inexcusable' activities, including hundreds of cases in which prisoners were mistreated, and scores of rendition operations. Related: Criticism mounts over UK's post-9/11 role in torture and rendition Publishing its findings in 2018, the committee emphasised its work had been 'terminated prematurely' due in part to obstruction by ministers and spy chiefs. It insisted there were 'questions and incidents' that 'remain unanswered and uninvestigated'. Among its findings, however, were key details that Hawsawi and Nashiri's lawyers used to persuade the IPT to investigate. Crucially, the committee had highlighted instances in which MI6 had supplied questions to be used in CIA interrogations of two other high-value detainees it knew were being mistreated. On the eve of the trial, evidence has now emerged that in 2003, while Hawsawi was held by the US in a black site in Afghanistan where he was repeatedly tortured, CIA headquarters sent a cable to interrogators, telling them Hawsawi should be 'pressed' for information about alleged terrorist activity in the UK. The cable, which Hawsawi's lawyers are understood to have shared with the IPT, was declassified by the US in 2017 but only recently identified by Unredacted, a research unit at the University of Westminster that investigates UK national security practices. Its director, Sam Raphael, who has spent years researching the torture programme, said the cable suggested there had been a 'clear interest in interrogating Hawsawi about specific UK-based operatives and plots at a time when he was being subjected to the worst kind of treatment'. He added: 'It raises an obvious and important question the tribunal should address: was British intelligence, which we know was directly and deeply involved in post-9/11 prisoner abuse, feeding the questions to the CIA?' The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each. A spokesperson for the government declined to comment on the claims before the IPT. The government previously said that it 'does not confirm or deny allegations, assertions or speculation about the activities of UK intelligence agencies'. • This article was amended on 9 June 2025. The number of 'high-value detainees' at Guantánamo in 2006 was about 17, not 120 as an earlier version said.
New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
Jackie Robinson, Minnie Minoso mural vandalized in Miami
Police are investigating after vandals defaced a mural of baseball legends Jackie Robinson and Minnie Miñoso that is part of a collection of artwork honoring baseball players in Miami's Overtown neighborhood. The vandalism was discovered Sunday by a 7-year-old boy who asked his mother what the words and the Nazi symbols meant, community leaders said during a news conference. City workers have since partially covered the murals of Robinson and Miñoso, an Afro-Cuban player, with wooden boards. 3 Murals of baseball legends Minnie Miñoso, second from left, and Jackie Robinson, third from left, are covered with plywood after being defaced in Miami's Overtown neighborhood, Thursday, June 5, 2025, in Miami. AP The murals are along a fence at Dorsey Park, where Negro League teams once played baseball. 'I know you may not be able to show it on television, but we need the community to uncover the hurt and the hatred that is existing. The reason why this keeps being perpetuated is because we keep covering it up,' said Terrance Cribbs-Lorrant, an executive director with the city of Miami Black Police Precinct. On Wednesday, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick said in a statement that she is outraged by the 'vile act of hatred.' 3 A portrait of Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson in uniform. Getty Images 'We must treat this for what it is: a hate crime meant to instill fear and division. But we will not be intimidated. We will respond with unity, resilience, and an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and the preservation of our history,' she said. Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 when he became the first black player, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Miñoso became the league's first Afro-Latino player and the first black player for the Chicago White Sox. 3 Minnie Minoso was the MLB's first Afro-Latino player. New York Post The murals have been displayed in the park since 2011 and are a collaboration between artists Kyle Holbrook and Kadir Nelson and various community groups. Police have yet to make any arrests for the vandalism. 'This was more than a defaced mural — it was an attempt to silence our story,' said Dr. Saliha Nelson, CEO of Urgent, Inc. 'But we will not be erased. We will restore this mural and celebrate this space as a symbol of agency, pride, and excellence.'
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Buzz Feed
22 Wild Facts About Old Hollywood Celebrities
Shirley Temple was so popular and talented that there was a conspiracy theory she was not a child at all, but an adult with dwarfism. In fact, she was investigated by the Vatican, who sent a priest to confirm she was in fact a child — which they were, apparently, able to do. Many celebrities from the '40s were actually spies during World War II, including Josephine Baker. She lived in Nazi-occupied France and would flirt with Nazi officials and get them tispy until they divulged military secrets, then write the secrets down on invisible ink and stash them in her underwear. MLB Baseball player Moe Berg worked for the predecessor to the CIA (the Office of Strategic Services), and once traveled to Switzerland with orders to assasinate German scientiest Werner Heisenberg if he discovered the Germans might soon be able to develop an atomic bomb. Famous chef Julia Child worked for the same organization before becoming famous, with her most notable job being to create "cakes" that were used as shark repellant. And Cary Grant reportedly spied on people in Hollywood to find Nazi sympathizers, including the German-born Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow, who had married heiress Barbara Woolworth Hutton. Grant actually ended up marrying the heiress after she separated from her husband. Also during WWII, Audrey Hepburn (as a child) used to perform at secret concerts in the Netherlands to raise money for the Dutch resistance, risking discovery and punishment from Germans. Oh, and BTW, guess who was allegedly a Nazi informant? Coco Chanel. During World War II, Coco Chanel was named as a Nazi informant by friend Vera Bate (who herself confessed to being a German agent). The French government arrested Chanel, who had several ties with Nazi intelligence organization Abwehr and its members. Chanel was eventually released due to a lack of evidence and possible help from friend Winston Churchill. Chanel's Nazi ties remained hidden for decades, though her "fear and hatred for Jews" was allegedly "notorious." Lucille Ball once claimed that she picked up Morse code during WWII through her lead teeth fillings. While driving home (and having previously experienced picking up music through her teeth), she began to hear a "de-de-de-de" sound. "As soon as it started fading, I stopped the car and then started backing up until it was coming in full strength. DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE DE-DE-DE-DE! I tell you, I got the hell out of there real quick. The next day I told the MGM Security Office about it, and they called the FBI or something, and sure enough, they found an underground Japanese radio station. It was somebody's gardener, but sure enough, they were spies," Ball recounted. The story sounds completely ridiculous, but it's possible it was true. There is no record of Ball talking to the FBI, or Japanese spies being found in that area at that time, but there is evidence shrapnel in someone's body, at least, can pick up AM radio waves, which suggests lead tooth fillings could work the same way. Cary Grant tried LSD over a hundred times in the 1950s as a form of psychotherapy to deal with his childhood trauma. 'After weeks of treatment came a day when I saw the light,' Grant said. 'When I broke through, I felt an immeasurably beneficial cleansing of so many needless fears and guilts. I lost all the tension that I'd been crippling myself with. First I thought of all those wasted years. Second, I said, 'Oh my God, the humanity. Please come in.'' Eartha Kitt reportedly once had a threesome with James Dean and Paul Newman. She's been quoted as having said, 'Those two beauties transported me to heaven. I never knew that lovemaking could be so beautiful," though this quote is extremely difficult to confirm. In fact, there are quite a lot of scandalous sexual secrets from Old Hollywood that can't be 100% confirmed but are still fun to hear. For instance, there's speculation that Marlon Brando and James Dean had an S&M-based relationship. Ernest Hemingway once inspected F. Scott Fitzgerald's dick in the bathroom because Fitzgerald was worried it was too small after his wife Zelda complained about it. Hemingway assured him he was "perfectly fine,' telling Fitzgerald, "You look at yourself from above and you look foreshortened. Go over to the Louvre and look at the people in the statues and then go home and look at yourself in the mirror in profile." In another example featuring a famous writer, James Joyce wrote some truly scandalous love letters to his wife Nora Barnacle, many of which extolled her farts. 'You had an arse full of farts that night, darling, and I fucked them out of you, big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole. It is wonderful to fuck a farting woman when every fuck drives one out of her. I think I would know Nora's fart anywhere. I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women. It is a rather girlish noise not like the wet windy fart which I imagine fat wives have. It is sudden and dry and dirty like what a bold girl would let off in fun in a school dormitory at night. I hope Nora will let off no end of her farts in my face so that I may know their smell also.' Agatha Christie, possibly the most famous writer in the mystery genre, once created her own mystery when she disappeared in 1926 for 11 days — and the reason is still contested. After putting her daughter to bed, Christie (who was aware her husband was having an affair), drove off and her car was later found abandoned, hanging over the edge of a pit. She had left three letters behind, one to her brother-in-law claiming she had gone to a spa, another to her secretary with "scheduling details," and a third to her husband, who never revealed what the letter said. To find her, the police dredged a lake, brought in dogs, enlisted the help of over 10,000 people, and even looked to her novels for clues. She was eventually found at a spa, like she had told her brother-in-law — except according to her husband, she no longer remembered who she was or recognized him. She had checked in under his mistress' name. In the only time Christie ever spoke of it, she admitted to considering driving into the pit her car was found by, and hitting her head — this, accompanied by the trauma of her husband cheating and her mother dying, led to memory loss. Still, people have continued to speculate it was all a publicity stunt. Steve McQueen came very close to being killed by the Manson family along with Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Steven Parent. He had been invited to Tate's house that night, and the only reason he didn't go, according to his then-wife Neile Adams, was that he 'ran into a chickie and decided to go off with her instead." According to a biography of McQueen, he had been having an affair with a blonde woman at the time, and even invited her to come to Tate's with him. However, she said "she had a better idea for just the two of them." McQueen, unlike Tate,* was on a list of targets for the Manson family. His death was planned to look like a suicide. Tate and her friends weren't specifically targeted, according to prosecutors — she just happened to live in the house once owned by music producer Terry Melcher, who had rejected proposals to make a record with Manson. Speaking of serial killer Charles Manson — he was friendly with a number of big players in Hollywood, including Dennis Wilson and Mike Love, the co-founders of the Beach Boys. In fact, Manson and his friends actually moved into Wilson's house. Wilson later allegedly told Love that he'd seen Manson murder a Black man (though this is contested), causing Wilson to break off the friendship. Marilyn Monroe's last known words were to actor Peter Lawford, who was a brother-in-law to Robert and John F. Kennedy, as he had married their sister, Pat Kennedy. He stated she ended the call with, "Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to Jack, and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy." The Jack in reference was then-President JFK. This is noteworthy because there were longstanding rumors of an affair between JFK and Monroe, as well as Robert F. Kennedy and Monroe. There are also rumors that Robert F. Kennedy visited her that night, though this was denied by the Kennedys. Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, who was there all day and night and was the one to find her dead, later claimed Robert had visited and they'd fought. When Murray found Marilyn dead around 3:30 a.m., she was reportedly holding her phone, and then-LA chief of detectives Thad Brown reportedly claimed she was found with a crumpled-up piece of paper with the number for the White House on it. Besides her connections to the Kennedys, there were other suspicious details around Monroe's death. Murray initially called Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, who called the doctor who had prescribed the pills, Dr. Engelberg, before calling the police. The police did not arrive for close to an hour after Murray first saw Monroe's body. Lawford later claimed that he'd heard about her death at 1:30 a.m. The wife of Monroe's press relations manager Arthur Jacobs also later claimed that her husband had received the call that Marilyn was dead at 10:30. Natalie Wood, who starred in a number of films including West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause, and Gypsy, also died under extremely mysterious circumstances. The 43-year-old was with her husband Robert Wagner on his boat on a weekend vacation from filming Brainstorm when she drowned. According to Wagner himself (though he initially denied this), he and Wood argued, and then he went to bed without her. The next morning, her body was found a mile away. Wood had been drinking, and it's possible her death was an accident, but she was found with bruises that could mean she was attacked. Nearby witnesses had heard a woman scream. The captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, allegedly drunkenly confessed to Wood's sister years later that he'd seen Wagner push Wood, who then fell overboard, and that Wagner refused to rescue this is unconfirmed. Wagner has denied he had anything to do with Wood's death. But I mention this one specifically for a wild Hollywood fact that not many people seem to know — Christopher Walken, Wood's Brainstorm costar, had also been on the boat that night. He had reportedly also argued with Wagner, and Wagner was (according to Davern) angry Natalie had invited him. Walken has not said much about the night beyond affirming it was an accident and that he had nothing to do with it. "I don't know what happened. She slipped and fell in the water. I was in bed then. It was a terrible thing." He also said, "The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth. Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it." One of the wildest Hollywood secrets involves Loretta Young and Clark Gable. For years, there were rumors Young's adopted daughter Judy was actually her biological daughter, conceived with Clake Gable. The rumors wouldn't be proven true until Young admitted to them in her posthumous memoirs. It turned out Young had conducted an elaborate cover-up to make it seem like she had adopted the child. Loretta even reportedly had Judy's ears pinned back in an operation because they so resembled Gable's. Gable never had any role in her daughter Judy's life. Young refused to tell Judy the truth, and according to Judy's memoir, when Judy confronted her about the rumors, Young ran into the house and Young never spoke publicly about the circumstances of Judy's conception, according to her daughter-in-law, Linda Lewis, in the '90s, Young had asked her what date rape meant after hearing the term on Larry King Live. After Lewis explained, Young replied, "That's what happened between me and Clark.' On the train ride back from shooting Call of the Wild on location, Gable had allegedly snuck into Young's compartment. According to Lewis, Young didn't want Judy to know, so Lewis kept quiet until both Young and Judy were dead. Finally, we'll end with a few last examples featuring Errol Flynn, because the man had a wild life and allegedly did some wild things. First of all, he wrote in his autobiography that he once had a job castrating young sheep with his teeth. Second, Flynn once apparently showed up on the doorstep of Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, angry about something she had written about him, and began masturbating. "I began laughing, and continued laughing until he finished with a dramatic flourish all over my doorstep," Hopper reportedly told Paul Newman. "I'll say one thing for Errol. He's the only man I know who can ejaculate in front of a fully dressed woman who's laughing derisively during the entire process." And finally, David Niven claims that Flynn once brought him along to view 'the best-looking girls in L.A.'...which, as it turned out, meant parking by Hollywood High to watch the girls get out of school. He then allegedly told a police officer who questioned why they were there that he was "enjoying the scenery." What shocking old Hollywood facts do you know? Let us know in the comments!
