On this date in 1961, about 1,500 C.I.A.-trained Cuban exiles launched a botched invasion of Cuba and failed to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
On this date in 1865, Confederate Army General Robert Lee surrendered his army to Union Army General Ulysses Grant in Virginia.
On this date in 1967, N.A.S.A.’s incompetence and negligence caused astronauts ‘Gus’ Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee to die in a fire in Apollo spacecraft during a rehearsal in Cape Canaveral.