Today In History: Obama Arrives In Cuba; Trump Blasts Rally Protesters; LBJ Sends Troops To Aid Marchers

March 20, 2017, is the 79th day of the year, with 286 days remaining. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase, with illumination at 52 percent.

Barack Obama is First President to Visit Cuba Since 1928

Barack Obama arrived in Cuba for a three-day visit in 2016, making history as the first in-office U.S. president to visit the island since Calvin Coolidge’s visit in 1928.

The president touched down with a tweet, using a Cuban phrase meaning “what’s up?”

“¿Que bolá Cuba?” Obama greeted via social media. “Just touched down here, looking forward to meeting and hearing directly from the Cuban people.”

An estimated American delegation between 800 and 1,200 descended upon Havana with the hope of closing the final chapter in Cold War history and solidifying the 44th president’s diplomatic legacy. Obama toured Old Havana with the company of his wife and daughters before visiting the Catholic church to express gratitude for helping to bring Cuba and the United States back together following torturous years of history. The trip was intended to encourage — not negotiate — further reform in the Caribbean country.

Donald Trump Blasts Protesters at Tucson Rally

Then-GOP frontrunner, in 2016, Donald Trump released a statement to the public following the violent turn his Saturday, March 19 campaign rally in Tucson took after pro-immigration rights activists shut down a main highway leading to the rally. A rally attendee was arrested after he punched and repeatedly kicked a protester while being escorted out of the rally by security.

“We don’t condone violence,” Trump told ABC News in a phone interview on March 20. “And we have very little violence — very, very little violence — at the rallies.”

The American people, per the First Amendment, have the right to peacefully assemble, but Trump argued against the demonstrators’ methods.

“They're really stopping our First Amendment rights," Trump said of the demonstrators. “They blocked a road; they put their cars in front of a road. We had thousands and thousands of people wanting to come. They were delayed for an hour because of these protesters.”

Trump subsequently made the claim that these demonstrators were “profit agitators.”

Lyndon B. Johnson Calls Troops to Protect Civil Rights Marchers

The year is 1965, and President Lyndon B. Johnson has notified Alabama’s Gov. George Wallace that the former will use federal authority to call upon the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a civil rights march, led by the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr., planned for Selma to Montgomery. The decision was a reaction to “Bloody Sunday,” when state troopers brutally assaulted peaceful civil rights marchers in Selma on March 7, a collection of events that shocked millions of Americans and motivated Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

An approximate total of 50,000 marchers followed King for 54 miles under the watchful eyes of 4,000 state and federal troops.

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Photo credit: Obama White House via Flickr