April 17 Birthday
On April 17, 1961, approximately 1,400 Cuban exiles trained and armed by the CIA landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba. The plan, developed during the Eisenhower administration and approved by Kennedy, was to establish a beachhead, spark a popular uprising against Castro, and provide a pretext for US military intervention. None of it worked. The landing was spotted immediately. Castro's forces had been tipped off by Cuban intelligence. The exiles were pinned on the beach and defeated in three days. 114 were killed and 1,189 captured. Kennedy refused to provide US air support, fearing Soviet retaliation. The captured exiles were ransomed for $53 million in food and medicine. The invasion strengthened Castro's position and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis eighteen months later. Martin Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms on April 17, 1521. He had been summoned by Emperor Charles V and ordered to recant his writings. Luther asked for a day to consider. On the next day, he delivered his answer: "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason... I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything... Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen." The emperor declared him an outlaw, but Luther was protected by Frederick the Wise, who staged a "kidnapping" and took him to the Wartburg, where Luther translated the New Testament into German in eleven weeks. Apollo 13 splashed down on April 17, 1970, after a harrowing four-day return. The command module, cold and dark, was powered up just hours before reentry — Mission Control was not certain the batteries could handle it. The capsule entered the atmosphere on a trajectory so steep that radio blackout lasted six minutes — three minutes longer than normal. Then parachutes appeared, and the capsule landed in the Pacific. The crew was recovered by the USS Iwo Jima. Jim Lovell never walked on the Moon. He was the only astronaut to fly to the Moon twice without landing. Nikita Khrushchev, born this day in 1894, was the son of a coal miner. He took over after Stalin's death in 1953 and delivered the Secret Speech in 1956, denouncing Stalin's cult of personality and his crimes. The speech was supposed to be secret but was leaked by the CIA. It caused shock and defections within communist parties worldwide. Khrushchev survived the Cuban Missile Crisis, built the Berlin Wall, and put the first human in space. He was deposed in 1964 while on vacation and lived the rest of his life under house arrest. People born on April 17 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Diamond and the birth flower is Daisy. Historical events on April 17 include 1521: Martin Luther appears before the Diet of Worms ("Here I stand, I can do no other"), 1961: Bay of Pigs invasion begins — CIA-backed Cuban exiles land at Playa Girón, 1970: Apollo 13 crew splashes down safely in the Pacific. Famous people born on April 17 include Nikita Khrushchev (1894), Thornton Wilder (1897), Sean Bean (1959).