1961 - Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist Following a year of severely strained relations between the United States and Cuba, Cuban leader Fidel Castro openly declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist. The announcement sealed the bitter Cold War animosity between the two nations. Castro came to power in 1959 after leading a successful revolution against the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista. Almost from the start, the United States worried that Castro was too leftist in his politics. He implemented agrarian reform, expropriated foreign oil company holdings, and eventually seized all foreign-owned property in Cuba. He also established close diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the Russians were soon providing economic and military aid. By January 1961, the United States had severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. In April, the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion took place, wherein hundreds of rebels, armed and trained by the United States, attempted a landing in Cuba with the intent of overthrowing the Castro government. The attack ended in a dismal military defeat for the rebels and an embarrassing diplomatic setback for the United States. In December 1961, Castro made clear what most U.S. officials already believed. In a televised address on December 2, Castro declared, "I am a Marxist-Leninist and shall be one until the end of my life." He went on to state that, "Marxism or scientific socialism has become the revolutionary movement of the working class." He also noted that communism would be the dominant force in Cuban politics: "There cannot be three or four movements." Some questioned Castro's dedication to the communist cause, believing that his announcement was simply a stunt to get more Soviet assistance. Castro, however, has never deviated from his declared principles.
1864 - General Gracie killed at Petersburg Confederate General Archibald Gracie, Jr., is killed in the trenches at Petersburg, Virginia, when an artillery shell explodes near him. Gracie was born in New York in 1832. He was educated in Germany before he attended West Point, from which he graduated in 1854. Although his family lived in the North, his father owned a business in Mobile, Alabama, and Gracie moved there upon his resignation from the army in 1856. Gracie soon became an ardent supporter of the southern cause, and he was active in the Alabama state militia. In early 1861, before Alabama seceded from the Union, Gracie was ordered by the governor to seize the federal arsenal at Mount Vernon. Gracie joined the 3rd Alabama when hostilities erupted between North and South, and he served in Tennessee and Kentucky during the first part of the war. He was part of General Edmund Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky in 1862, and his service earned him a promotion to brigadier general. He fought at Chickamauga and Chattanooga in 1863, and his brigade joined General James Longstreet for the campaign against Knoxville in November. Gracie was wounded at the Battle of Bean's Station on December 15, but he continued with Longstreet back to Virginia when Longstreet rejoined Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Gracie's command protected Richmond in the summer of 1864, and his leadership at Drewry's Bluff was instrumental in holding Union General Benjamin Butler's force at bay near the Confederate capital. Gracie fought during the siege of Petersburg for the rest of the year, and he was recommended for promotion to major general. Unfortunately, he was killed before the rank was confirmed. Most of Gracie's family remained in the North, and his relatives arranged for transfer of his body to Union lines. He was buried in New York City.
Great info, Ross. But I have a doubt, there was another general Archibald Gracie in the early XX century. In fact, he was on board the RMS Titanic and survived. His close friend, president William Howard Taft, sent a radio-ship to help transmitting RMS Carpathia the list survivours. Wonder if they were related?
1154 - The only Englishman ever to be elected Pope,Nicholas Breakspear, becomes Pope Adrian IV. 1586 - Queen Elizabeth I confirms the death sentence on Mary Queen of Scots 1791 - Publication of the first issue of The Observer - the oldest Sunday newspaper in Britain. 1798 - British Prime Minister William Pitt theYounger announces the introduction of Income Tax to help finance the war against France. 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte is officially crowned Emperor of France after proclaiming himself Emperor in May. 1829 - Britain abolishes the Indian custom of 'Suttee' - the ritual suicide of a dead man's widow by joining her husband's funeral pyre. 1905 - Resignation of British Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. 1935 - Unemployed engineer Charles Darrow invents the game of Monopoly. It becomes the world's best-selling box game with more than 500 million sales. 1936 - British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin tells the House of Commons that King Edward VIII cannot marry American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson. 1937 - One of Britain's best-loved comics, the Dandy, is first published by DC Thompson. 1952 - At least 4,000 people die in a week from breathing difficulties during a severe London smog. 1975 - South Moluccan terrorists hijack a train and seize the Indonesian Consulate in Amsterdam. 1991 - American Terry Anderson is released by the Islamic Jihad in Lebanon - 2,454 days after being taken hostage in Beirut. 1997 - Europe's health ministers vote to ban tobacco advertising throughout the European Union although agree that motor-racing; which relies heavily on sponsorship and advertising by tobacco companies, should be exempt for another 8 years.
1987 - Protests against Soviet treatment of Jews take place in Washington and Moscow On the eve of Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev's arrival in the United States for a summit meeting with President Ronald Reagan, more than 200,000 protesters in Washington, and a much smaller number in Moscow, protest Soviet policies concerning Russian Jews. The protests succeeded in focusing public attention on human rights abuses in Russia but had little impact on the summit. The agenda for the Gorbachev-Reagan summit largely focused on weapons control issues, particularly the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. The Soviet presence in Afghanistan and support of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua were also topics for discussion. Over 200,000 protesters in Washington attempted to shift the focus to another issue-the Soviet government's treatment of Russian Jews. In particular, they called on the Soviets to allow Jewish emigration from Russia and for an end to Soviet oppression of Jewish dissidents and critics of the Soviet government. In a letter that was read to appease the protesters, President Reagan stated that he would "not be satisfied with less" than the "release of all refuseniks [jailed dissidents] and for complete freedom of religious and cultural expression." A demonstration set to coincide with the protests in Washington was roughly disrupted by Soviet plainclothes police in Moscow. The few dozen protesters had their signs and banners seized and destroyed and some were physically assaulted. Despite the protests and Reagan's rhetoric, the issue of Soviet human rights abuses played almost no role at the summit. The Soviets insisted that the protesters be ignored and U.S. officials, anxious to get an arms control agreement out of the summit, essentially complied with the Russian requests. A major arms agreement was, in fact, signed during the meeting.
IRISH FREE STATE DECLARED - December 6, 1921 The Irish Free State, comprising four-fifths of Ireland, is declared, ending a five-year Irish struggle for independence from Britain. Like other autonomous nations of the former British Empire, Ireland was to remain part of the British Commonwealth, symbolically subject to the king. The Irish Free State later severed ties with Britain and was renamed ýire, and is now called the Republic of Ireland. English rule over the island of Ireland dates back to the 12th century, and Queen Elizabeth I of England encouraged the large-scale immigration of Scottish Protestants in the 16th century. During ensuing centuries, a series of rebellions by Irish Catholics were put down as the Anglo-Irish minority extended their domination over the Catholic majority. Under absentee landlords, the Irish population was reduced to a subsistence diet based on potatoes, and when a potato blight struck the country in the 1840s, one million people starved to death while nearly two million more fled to the United States. A movement for Irish home rule gained momentum in the late 19th century, and in 1916 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising against British rule in Dublin. The rebellion was crushed, but widespread agitation for independence continued. In 1919, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a cease-fire was declared, and in January 1922 a faction of Irish nationalists signed a peace treaty with Britain, calling for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining in the United Kingdom. Civil war broke out even before the declaration of the Irish Free State on December 6, 1922, and ended with the victory of the Irish Free State over the Irish Republican forces in 1923. A constitution adopted by the Irish people in 1937 declared Ireland to be "a sovereign, independent, democratic state," and the Irish Free State was renamed ýire. ýire remained neutral during World War II, and in 1949 the Republic of Ireland Act severed the last remaining link with the Commonwealth. Conflicts persisted over Northern Ireland, however, and the IRA, outlawed in the south, went underground to try to regain the northern counties still ruled by Britain. Violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland escalated in the early 1970s, and to date the fighting has claimed more than 3,000 lives.
Just one point. There was also a famine in Scotland in the 1840s, but because the majority of the population worked in the new industries sweeping the country, the death toll was considerably less than Ireland (where the majority still worked on the land). The problem wasn't helped by the decision of Irish farmers to continue sending potato crops over to the British mainland at a profit, rather than sell them to the starving locals at a loss. Contrary to popular myth, the Corn Laws often stated as the fundamental cause of the famine were actually abolished in 1834. Being an import tax on goods from the Continent during the Napoleonic wars, they wouldn't have applied to Irish goods anyway, Ireland being part of Britain since the Treaty of Union in 1800. Sorry for rambling a bit.
