Today is National Heroes Day, a public holiday in Grenada commemorating the killings of former prime minister Maurice Bishop and several members of his cabinet in 1983.
Maurice Bishop took power in 1979 following the ousting of Prime Minister Eric Gairy and held office until his death in 1983. After a palace coup organized by his deputy, Bernard Coard, he was held under house arrest at his residence. Thousands of his supporters marched to his house and freed him from arrest. He then led them to Fort Rupert, military headquarters, where he was taken prisoner and shot to death.
His execution was used by the United States as an excuse for the invasion of Grenada in an operation called ‘Urgent Fury’. A heavily-armed force of more than 7600 soldiers supported by a fleet led by an aircraft carrier and air force fighter-bombers was able to subdue the 1300 lightly-armed Granadian soldiers after a few days.
Maps used by the American military were tourist maps of Grenada overwritten by hand with coordinates. Navy ships providing naval gunfire and Marine, Air Force, and Navy fighter-bomber support aircraft providing close air support mistakenly killed American ground forces due to differences in charts and location coordinates, data, and methods of calling for fire support. A squadron of Rangers were left behind during an evacuation of a school campus and there were many other mishaps. The invasion was condemned by the UN General Assembly as a violation of international law.
SIGNZ
Today is the birthday, in 1944, of Peter Tosh, guitar, vocals, The Wailers, left in 1974, (1978 UK No.43 single ‘You Gotta Walk, Don’t Look Back’). Tosh was murdered by burglars at his home on 11th September 1987. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf8GjhXvOjU
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