A coup in Guatemala, launched on 18 June 1954, deposed the democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz (pictured in mural). The result of a covert operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–54, a period of representative democracy and liberal reform. The U.S. government was motivated by a Cold War predisposition to assume Árbenz was a communist, and by lobbying from the United Fruit Company for his overthrow. The CIA, authorized in August 1953 by Dwight Eisenhower to carry out the operation, armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men led by Carlos Castillo Armas. Most of the offensives of the invasion force were repelled, but a heavy campaign of psychological warfare and the possibility of a U.S. invasion intimidated the Guatemalan army, which eventually refused to fight. Árbenz resigned on 27 June, and Castillo Armas became president ten days later, the first in a series of authoritarian rulers in the country. The coup was widely criticized internationally, and contributed to long-lasting anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

860:

A fleet of about 200 Rus' vessels sailed into the Bosporus and started pillaging the suburbs of Constantinople. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_(860)

1858:

Charles Darwin received a manuscript by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace on natural selection, which prompted Darwin to publish his theory of evolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace

1972:

British European Airways Flight 548 crashed near the town of Staines less than three minutes after departing from London Heathrow Airport, killing all 118 people aboard, the worst air accident in the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_European_Airways_Flight_548

1981:

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology, made its first flight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-117_Nighthawk

2012:

Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was appointed crown prince of Saudi Arabia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_of_Saudi_Arabia

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

weevil: 1. Any of several small herbivorous beetles in the superfamily Curculionoidea, many having a distinctive snout. 2. Any of several small herbivorous beetles in the family Curculionidae belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea. 3. Any of several similar but more distantly related beetles such as the biscuit weevil (Stegobium paniceum). 4. (figuratively, derogatory) A loathsome person. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/weevil

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

We are connected with some people and never meet others, but it could easily have happened otherwise. Looking back over a lifetime, we describe what happened as if it had a plan. To fully understand how accidental and random life is — how vast the odds are against any single event taking place — would be humbling.   --Roger Ebert https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert