This day in history

An army of 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban exiles, who had been secretly recruited, trained and funded by the United States, invade their homeland at Bahia de Cochinos - the Bay of Pigs.

American President John F. Kennedy, disturbed by Fidel Castro's two year old communist regime in Cuba, approved the invasion, but at the last minute refused to order air support when it became apparent that the operation was doomed to failure. Within three days, the invasion force, abandoned by Kennedy and the American military, was forced to surrender to the communists.

About 100 Cuban exiles were killed in the fighting. The disastrous operation was a great humiliation for the Kennedy administration and significantly increased Cold War tensions. Castro did not return the surviving Cuban exiles until the United States sent millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Cuba.

Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, the head of Hamas, is killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza. 

A bomb explodes on a busy street in Brixton, south London, injuring 45 people. David Copeland, a right-wing extremist, is later arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the attack and for planting other bombs in London.  
 

The Khmer Rouge takes control of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, as the countries civil war ends and Pol Pot’s rule of Cambodia begins.