On this day in 1961, 1500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles supported by the US Air Force land on the Bay of Pigs in Cuba 🇨🇺 to begin a military operation to overthrow communist revolutionary Fidel Castro and the Cuban government.

While they had expected popular support, the exact opposite happened with the Cuban population and the armed forces rallying around Fidel Castro. It took just 3 days for Castro’s forces to defeat the US-sponsored invasion and the result was humiliation for the United States and JFK.