

The U.S. government had supported Batista, a former soldier and Cuban dictator from 1933 to 1944, who seized power for a second time in a 1952 coup. After Castro and a group of followers, including the South American revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967), landed in Cuba to unseat the dictator in December 1956, the U.S. continued to back Batista. Suspicious of what they believed to be Castro's leftist ideology and worried that his ultimate goals might include attacks on the U.S.'s significant investments and property in Cuba, American officials were nearly unanimous in opposing his revolutionary movement.
Cuban support for Castro's revolution, however, grew in the late 1950s, partially due to his charisma and nationalistic rhetoric, but also because of increasingly rampant corruption, greed, brutality and inefficiency within the Batista government. This reality forced the U.S. to slowly withdraw its support from Batista and begin a search in Cuba for an alternative to both the dictator and Castro; these efforts failed.

On January 1, 1959, Batista and a number of his supporters fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic. Tens of thousands of Cubans (and thousands of Cuban Americans in the U.S.) celebrated the end of the dictator's regime. Castro's supporters moved quickly to establish their power. Judge Manuel Urrutia was named as provisional president. Castro and his band of guerrilla fighters triumphantly entered Havana on January 7.

Also on This Day
- Lead Story
- Batista forced out by Castro-led revolution, 1959
- American Revolution
- Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line, 1781
- Automotive
- Edsel Ford succeeds father as president of Ford, 1919
- Civil War
- The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, 1863
- Cold War
- Cuban dictator Batista falls from power, 1959
- Crime
- The real-life murder behind Looking For Mr. Goodbar, 1973
- Disaster
- Air India jet crashes just after takeoff, 1978
- General Interest
- New Year's Day, 45 B.C.
- Haitian independence proclaimed, 1803
- Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect, 1863
- First modern Mummers' Parade, 1876
- Hollywood
- Sneak preview of The Birth of a Nation, 1915
- Literary
- E.M. Forster is born, 1879
- Music
- Inmate Merle Haggard hears Johnny Cash play San Quentin State Prison, 1958
- Old West
- A Nebraska farmer files the first homestead claim, 1863
- Presidential
- Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation, 1863
- Vietnam War
- 1st Marine Division advance elements arrive, 1966
- Operation Sam Houston begins, 1967
- World War I
- British ship Formidable is torpedoed, 1915
- World War II
- United Nations created, 1942 Hidden Japanese surrender after Pacific War has ended, 1946
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