54 Fun Facts About Fidel Castro

Which US president was in office when Castro's forces crushed the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961?

John F. Kennedy: his new administration approved an invasion the CIA had planned since 1960, and Castro's troops defeated it within three days.

From which region of Spain had Castro's father Ángel emigrated to Cuba?

Galicia: Ángel Castro first came to Cuba as a Spanish army conscript fighting Cuban independence, went home with the defeated army in 1898, then returned and grew rich farming sugarcane.

Which religious order ran the Dolores School and El Colegio de Belén, where Castro was educated?

The Jesuits: at Belén, their Havana school, Castro devoted much of his time to sport, starring at baseball, basketball and track.

What did Castro study at the University of Havana from 1945?

Law: he later put that training to use by conducting his own defence at his 1953 trial.

In 1947 Castro joined an invasion force assembled in Cuba to overthrow which dictator?

Rafael Trujillo: under US pressure, Cuba's own government arrested the force before it reached the Dominican Republic.

In which capital was Castro caught up in rioting in April 1948 after Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination?

Bogotá: during the riots Castro took up a rifle seized from a police station and sided with the Liberals against the army-backed Conservatives.

Which Cuban politician founded the Partido Ortodoxo, the anti-corruption party Castro joined as a young man?

Eduardo Chibás: unable to produce proof of a corruption charge he had made, he shot himself at a Havana radio station in 1951.

Batista's 1952 coup cancelled the elections in which Castro was a candidate for what?

The House of Representatives: after the coup cancelled the vote, Castro's legal challenges went nowhere, and he turned to armed rebellion.

Which military garrison did Castro's rebels attack on 26 July 1953?

The Moncada Barracks: the attack failed and Castro was captured, but the raid's date gave his 26th of July Movement its name.

Under what title was Castro's speech at his October 1953 sentencing later published?

History Will Absolve Me: Castro later had the speech published, and it became the manifesto of his 26th of July Movement.

Where was the Presidio Modelo, the prison that held Castro after his failed 1953 attack?

Isla de Pinos: after taking power, Castro's government used the same prison to hold its own opponents until it closed in 1967.

Two nephews of Castro's first wife, Mirta Díaz-Balart, went on to hold which role in US politics?

Republican congressmen: her nephews Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart were Florida lawmakers and fierce critics of Castro's government.

How did Castro get out of prison in 1955, less than two years into his 15-year sentence?

A general amnesty: Batista, keen to soften his authoritarian image, let the rebels go, believing Castro was no longer a threat.

In which country did Castro form the 26th of July Movement's exile force and meet Che Guevara?

Mexico: the rebels trained there for guerrilla war at a ranch outside Mexico City before sailing for Cuba.

Which Spanish Civil War veteran agreed to teach Castro's exiled rebels guerrilla warfare?

Alberto Bayo: in 1936 he had led a landing on Mallorca against the Nationalists, which failed and ended in retreat.

What was the name of the yacht that carried Castro and 81 fellow rebels to Cuba in 1956?

Granma: the leaky, overloaded yacht later gave its name to a Cuban province and to the Communist Party's newspaper.

Which New York Times journalist's 1957 interview in the mountains made Castro an international celebrity?

Herbert Matthews: his report proved Castro was alive after Batista's government had announced his death.

What was Batista's all-out 1958 offensive against the Sierra Maestra called?

Operation Verano: Castro's guerrillas halted the army's advance with land mines and ambushes, and the offensive's failure doomed Batista.

On arriving in the capital in January 1959, where did Castro set up his home and office?

The Havana Hilton: built with Batista's backing and opened in 1958, it was nationalised in 1960 and renamed the Habana Libre, 'Free Havana'.

Which US vice president met Castro in Washington in April 1959?

Richard Nixon: Eisenhower would not meet Castro, and Nixon's summary afterwards called him 'a leader of men', either naive about Communism or under Communist discipline.

Which moderate lawyer did Castro install as Cuba's provisional president in January 1959?

Manuel Urrutia: he was forced to resign within seven months, by which time Castro held the real power in Cuba.

Which gangster built Havana's Riviera casino hotel, only to lose it after Castro took power?

Meyer Lansky: shut out of Havana, he fled to the Bahamas and shifted his gambling interests there.

What did Castro announce in his May Day speech of 1960?

That there would be no more elections: a year earlier his slogan 'Revolution first, elections later' had only postponed them.

Which French ship exploded in Havana harbour in 1960, prompting Castro's cry 'Patria o Muerte'?

La Coubre: at the victims' memorial the next day, Alberto Korda took his famous photo of Che Guevara, Guerrillero Heroico.

Where did Castro stay for the 1960 UN General Assembly, receiving Khrushchev, Nasser and Nehru?

The Hotel Theresa: Castro moved to the Harlem hotel after a Midtown hotel reportedly demanded cash, and he met Malcolm X there.

About how long did Castro speak at the UN General Assembly in September 1960?

About 4.5 hours: he had opened by assuring the Assembly that he would try to be brief.

What were the neighbourhood spying organisations Castro created in September 1960 called?

Committees for the Defense of the Revolution: Castro wanted everyone to know who lived on each block, what they did and whom they met.

When the US banned most exports to Cuba in October 1960, how did Cuba retaliate?

Seizing US companies: that month Cuba nationalised all US-owned businesses, and in January 1961 Washington broke off diplomatic relations.

What was the name of the CIA-trained exile force that landed at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961?

Brigade 2506: Castro took personal command of the counter-offensive, and more than 1,100 of the invaders were captured.

For what did Castro exchange the Bay of Pigs prisoners with the US?

Food and medicine worth $53 million: the deal came after Castro's ransom demand went unpaid, and prisoners began flying home in December 1962.

How did Castro finish his 1961 line 'Within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution...'?

'...nothing': Castro drew that line in a 1961 speech to writers alarmed by the banning of the short film P.M.

What did Castro proudly declare himself on national television in December 1961?

A Marxist-Leninist: he vowed to stay one 'until the last day of my life', and weeks later the Organization of American States expelled Cuba.

What did Castro urge Khrushchev to do if the US invaded Cuba in 1962?

Launch a nuclear strike on the US: Castro urged it in his 'Armageddon Letter', but Khrushchev settled the crisis without consulting him.

Which two newspapers did Castro merge to create the party daily named after his yacht?

Hoy and Revolución: Revolución's editor, Carlos Franqui, later broke with Castro and spent decades attacking his government from exile.

Which Soviet loyalist was jailed in 1968 as leader of the pro-Moscow 'microfaction'?

Aníbal Escalante: Castro had already purged him once, in 1962, calling him 'sectarian' for building a party machine around himself.

When Cuba's 1970 sugar harvest fell short of its ten-million-ton goal, what did Castro do in a speech?

Offered to resign: he told the crowd it could find other leaders, and it shouted 'No!' and chanted his name.

To aid which country did Cuba send tank crews in 1973?

Syria: the Cuban tank crews kept fighting into 1974, months after the October 1973 ceasefire.

What was Cuba's 1975 military intervention in Angola called?

Operation Carlota: it was named after Carlota, an enslaved woman who led an 1843 slave rebellion in Cuba.

About how many Cuban troops did Castro send to Ethiopia in the Ogaden War?

About 17,000: they helped Ethiopia drive back Somalia's invasion of the Ogaden in 1978.

From which port did more than 100,000 Cubans leave for Florida in the 1980 boatlift?

Mariel: the exodus began after 10,000 Cubans crowded into the Peruvian embassy in Havana seeking asylum.

What did Castro's Cuba do in the 1982 Falklands War?

Backed Argentina: Castro's leftist Cuba sided with Argentina's right-wing military government against Britain.

Which habit did Castro give up for good?

Regularly smoking cigars: the CIA had reportedly plotted to kill him with poisoned or exploding cigars.

Which general, hero of Angola and Ethiopia, was executed in 1989 after a drug-smuggling trial?

Arnaldo Ochoa: Castro had named him a Hero of the Republic of Cuba in 1984, and the title was stripped after his trial.

What did Castro call the era of hardship after Soviet subsidies ended in 1991?

The Special Period in Time of Peace: with fuel scarce, hundreds of thousands of bicycles replaced cars on Cuba's streets.

During Cuba's 1990s economic crisis, which foreign currency did Castro's government make legal?

The US dollar: legalising the currency of Castro's great enemy created a dual economy in which the dollar reigned supreme.

Which pope did Castro invite to Cuba in January 1998?

John Paul II: his visit crowned Castro's drive for fresh international recognition in the hard years after Soviet aid ended.

Under his 2000 oil deal with Hugo Chávez, what did Castro send to Venezuela in return?

Doctors: many of the medics later deserted their missions in Venezuela, most of them fleeing to the United States.

After intestinal surgery in July 2006, to whom did Fidel delegate his presidential duties?

Raúl Castro: as president he went on to restore diplomatic relations with the US, reopening embassies in July 2015.

Which slogan closed Castro's death announcement?

Towards victory, always!: as the news spread, Cuban exiles in Miami's Little Havana gathered to celebrate his death.

In which village was Fidel Castro born on 13 August 1926?

Birán: at six, the rich landowner's son was sent from there to live with his teacher in Santiago de Cuba, in relative poverty.

With which country did Castro publicly break off relations at the 1973 Non-Aligned summit in Algiers?

Israel: Cuba's ambassador there until the break, the inventor Ricardo Wolf, went on to found the Wolf Prize.

Which Chinese honour was Castro awarded in December 2014?

The Confucius Peace Prize began in 2010 as a Chinese group's rejoinder to dissident Liu Xiaobo's Nobel; its 2014 award praised Castro for seeking peaceful solutions with the US.

What did Cuba ban after Castro's death in 2016, honouring his own wish?

Statues and streets named for him were barred at his own request, since he had opposed any cult of personality.

What did Fidel Castro do when Barack Obama visited Cuba in March 2016?

He stayed out of sight, then days later published 'Brother Obama', a caustic letter declaring that Cuba 'has no need of gifts from the empire'.