Images of President John F. Kennedy and Fidel Castro. Image courtesy aim.org.

On this date in 1961, an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs by an estimated 1,200 anti-Castro exiles,  aided by the US government under President Kennedy, was crushed.

To learn more about the Kennedy administration, and particularly its role in the development of the United States space program, visit the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website here.