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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

August 16, 1960: Cyprus Independence, Cubans Disarmed, U-2 Pilot & His Soviet Lawyer, Trouble in the Caribbean, Cuba Exodus and Old Age Relief

Buglers in Nicosia, Cyprus, celebrated that country's independence from Great Britain on this day in 1960.

Cuba's delegation to a Organization of American States Conference in Costa Rica were stripped of their sidearms before being admitted to the conference, it was reported on this day in 1960.

In Moscow the family of Francis Gary Powers, whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, said they were "impressed" with his Soviet defense lawyer. His trial is to start tomorrow.

Trouble in the Caribbean is "rising with the velocity of a storm, blowing violently over all of Latin America and engulfing the United States with concern of Cuba's relations with the Soviet Union," according to a news analysis in the August 16, 1960 edition of the New York Times.

Commercial airline flights from Havana were reported to be crowded ahead of the August 22 deadline when government passes needed to leave the country are set to expire.

A floor flight is expected in the Senate on a plan to care for the aged. The battle is between a plan "based on Old Age and Survivors' Insurance" and "a more limited, relief-type plan." Senators Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy are supporting "the more liberal approach," according to an August 15, 1960 news article.