FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Spanish: Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by members of the U.S. military) is a United States military base located on 45 square miles (117 km2) of land and water on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It has been permanently leased to the United States since 1903 as a coaling station and naval base, making it the oldest overseas U.S. naval base in the world. The lease was $2,000 in gold per year until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value in gold in dollars; in 1974, the yearly lease was set to $4,085.
Since taking power in 1959, the Cuban communist government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil, arguing that the base “was imposed on Cuba by force” and is “illegal under international law.” Since 2002, the naval base has contained a military prison, for alleged unlawful combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places during the War on Terror. Cases of alleged torture of prisoners by the U.S. military, and their denial of protection under the Geneva Conventions, have been criticized.
The 1903 lease has no fixed expiration date, and as such it can only be ended if the US Navy decided to abandon the area or both countries agreed mutually to end the lease.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
How do egg producers know they are putting good eggs on the market?
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Cryophobia
Puzzle of the Day
The numerical state(s). (Abbreviations of U.S. states)
MI (1,001 in Roman numerals), Tenn (10), and MD (1,500 in Roman numerals).
Born
- Gustave Courbet (painter) – 1819
- Hattie McDaniel (actress; the first African American to win an Academy Award) – 1895
- Judy Garland (actress & singer) – 1922
- Eugene Parker (American astrophysicist; proposed the idea of solar wind in 1958 ) – 1927
- F. Lee Bailey (attorney) – 1933
- Jim Shea (Olympic gold medalist, Men’s Skeleton) – 1968
- Pokey Reese (baseball player) – 1973
- Tara Lipinski (figure skater) – 1982
- Princess Madeleine of Sweden – 1982
- Leelee Sobieski (actress) – 1982
Died
- Sir Robert Laird Borden (Canadian prime minister) – 1937
- Spencer Tracy (actor) – 1967
- Louis L’Amour (author) – 1988
- John Gotti (gangster) – 2002
- Ray Charles (singer) – 2004
- John A. Eddy (solar astronomer, coined the term Maunder Minimum) – 2009
- Gordie Howe (hockey player) – 2016
Events
- Bridget Bishop was the first person to be hanged at the Salem Witch trials– 1692
- Ben Franklin’s kite and key experiment proved lightning is electricity– 1752
- Canada Constitution Act is passed by British Parliament, creating Upper and Lower Canada– 1791
- Phoenix steamboat first in U.S. to sail on open sea– 1809
- First boat race between Oxford and Cambridge– 1829
- The United States Naval Academy graduated its first students– 1854
- U.S. Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba– 1898
- Alcoholics Anonymous founded – 1935
- The Deep premiered– 1977
- United States War Dogs Memorial was dedicated, Holmdel, New Jersey– 2006
Weather
- Yakutat, Alaska, reached 87 degrees F, a record for that town– 1995
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