On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel west of Havana, launching the Mariel Boatlift. The first of 125,000 Cuban refugees from Mariel reached Florida the next day.
125,000 Cubans fled to U.S. shores in about 1,700 boats, creating large waves of people that overwhelmed the U.S. Coast guard. Cuban guards had packed boat after boat, without considering safety, making some of the overcrowded boats barely seaworthy. Twenty-seven migrants died, including 14 on an overloaded boat that capsized on May 17.
The boatlift also began to have negative political implications for U.S. President Jimmy Carter. When it was discovered that a number of the exiles had been released from Cuban jails and mental health facilities, many were placed in refugee camps while others were held in federal prisons to undergo deportation hearings. Of the 125,000 “Marielitos,” as the refugees came to be known, who landed in Florida, more than 1,700 were jailed and another 587 were detained until they could find sponsors.
The exodus was finally ended by mutual agreement between the U.S. and Cuban governments in October 1980.
HISTORICAL BITS
| AMERICAN REVOLUTION | |
| New York adopts state constitution | 1777 |
| AUTOMOTIVE | |
| Danica Patrick becomes first woman to win Indy race | 2008 |
| CIVIL WAR | |
| Lee resigns from U.S. Army | 1861 |
| COLD WAR | |
| Korean Air Lines jet forced down over Soviet Union | 1978 |
| CRIME | |
| A massacre at Columbine High School | 1999 |
| DISASTER | |
| Massive oil spill begins in Gulf of Mexico | 2010 |
| GENERAL INTEREST | |
| Siege of Londonderry begins | 1689 |
| Ku Klux Act passed by Congress | 1871 |
| Curies isolate radium | 1902 |
| Columbine High School massacre | 1999 |
| HOLLYWOOD | |
| New sound process for films announced | 1926 |
| LITERARY | |
| First detective story is published | 1841 |
| MUSIC | |
| “Mambo King” Tito Puente is born | 1923 |
| OLD WEST | |
| Militia slaughters strikers at Ludlow, Colorado | 1914 |
| PRESIDENTIAL | |
| McKinley asks for declaration of war with Spain | 1898 |
| SPORTS | |
| Jordan scores 63 points in playoff game | 1986 |
| VIETNAM WAR | |
| Nixon announces more troop withdrawals | 1970 |
| “Fragging” on the rise in U.S. units | 1971 |
| WORLD WAR I | |
| Nivelle Offensive ends in failure | 1917 |
| WORLD WAR II | |
| Operation Corncob is launched while Hitler celebrates his birthday | 1945 |
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