Today in History - March 13 | Coup announced on radio, 20 minutes before the attempt began
March 13
The death of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was announced in a radio broadcast on March 13, 1957.
But the news was not announced by broadcasters but by a student revolutionary who had seized control of the station at gunpoint.
José Antonio Echeverría estimated he would have three minutes before the station would be reoccupied by government forces.
So his speech lasted exactly 181 seconds.
Unbeknownst to Echeverría, his role in the revolutionary coup was the only successful part of the operation.
Echeverría had made the radio announcement 20 minutes before his co-conspirators had arrived at the presidential palace.
Because people were required to wear suits to enter the palace normally, the revolutionaries wore short-sleeved shirts to tell who was on their side.
But as the gunmen stormed the palace, they could not find Batista anywhere.
Before they found his hiding place, the Cuban military and police had arrived.
Most of those involved in the coup attempt were killed that day, including Echeverría.
Batista would flee the country two years later in the face of a more successful revolution, led by Fidel Castro.
Russian tsar Alexander II was murdered on March 13, 1881, when a bomb was thrown at his carriage.
The tsar was riding in a bombproof carriage when a bomb tossed under the wheels exploded.
But Alexander II was completely unharmed. He got out of the carriage to confront the culprit and look at the damage.
It was then that a second assassin threw a bomb at the tsar, causing profound injuries.
Alexander II was taken back to the palace where he died later that day.
The tsar had been known as a reformer to Russia's oppressive system of government.
His son and successor Alexander III witnessed his death, and brought in harsher police tactics to crack down on protesters and dissidents.
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