Today in History

February 23, 1903

Guantánamo

On this day in 1903, the government of Cuba granted the United States a lease in perpetuity to Guantánamo Bay. By the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States has obtained control of all of Cuba from Spain. An American citizen, Tomás Estrada Palma, became the first President of Cuba. Palma signed with President Theodore Roosevelt the Cuban American Treaty which recognized the sovereignty of Cuba and granted the lease of Guantánamo to the United States the purpose of "coaling and naval stations" for the sum of $2,000 a year.

Since the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to the head of government in Cuba, only one of the annual lease checks has ever been cashed.

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