Let me start by saying that I'm not a big fan of Mental Floss and other trivia sites. I respect John Green as an author (even though I wouldn't read his books) but I always wished he'd stay away from history. This is one of the reasons why.

This video, titled "26 Little Things That Changed History Forever - mental_floss List Show (Ep. 234)", is exactly what you imagine it to be. It is absolutely filled with bad history and dubious interpretation of things "some historians claim".

I will be dealing with one "fact" in particular:

"fact" 6 - "Six U.S. bombers were LATE to the Bay of Pigs".

John Green: "In 1961, John F. Kennedy sent six American B-26s to the Bay of Pigs to help out with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. They ended up showing an hour late and were shot down. Most historians believe that they were confused by the shift in time-zones."

Now, this so-called 'fact' is incorrect. In fact, it's a mish-mash of different things that happened. Despite that and while I understand that this is supposed to be some sort of quick-fire 'here's a fact thrown at you' thingy, I can't see how this event changed "history forever".

But let's take a closer look, shall we?

At first, I was uncertain of what was referenced. JFK did not authorize to send any B-26s to the Bay of Pigs during the invasion. The CIA, however, did and I imagine that it is this event (which took place on April 18) and an event that took place the following day that has somehow been combined into one, false fact.

The first event took place on April 18, 1961, D-Day 1 (that is, a day after the invasion started). By this time, the Cuban and American invasion force on the invasion beaches were facing counterattack by ground forces as well as strafing by the Cuban air force. The situation looked more critical by the hour and while the invasion force did have fire support in the form of several B-26B Invader's, the pilots were already exhausted after almost non-stop sorties. The CIA made the choice to send six B-26s from the CIA airfield in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua to Red Beach (Playa Larga) to assist the force. These B-26 were not late, not send by the JFK nor were they confused by time-zones. They arrived, they spotted a convoy of tanks and other members of the Cuban Armed Forces and decided to act. Two of the B-26s attacked the convoy, trapping it between the destroyed lead vehicle and the last vehicle in the convoy. Professor Howard Jones tells us what happened next: "The convoy immobilized, all six B-26s repeatedly battered the chaotic mass with bombs, rockets, machine guns, and napalm, destroying seven tanks and twenty troop-filled trucks while inflicting eighteen hundred casualties and leaving two miles of smoke and fire burning upward." No B-26s were lost.

The second event took place on April 19, when the situation was so critical that an evacuation had already been authorized. Blue Beach in particular was facing a very serious threat and requested air support and cover in form of jets. JFK, at the time, was still concerned with being able to claim plausible deniability and was not prepared to get involved. However, JFK changed his mind and approved it early on the morning of the 19th with the condition that they would be used to defend transports (to evacuate the beaches) and B-26s (not authorized by the president, already available) without hitting ground targets or seeking combat. The B-26s left Puerto Cabezas on time and when they arrived at their planned rendezvous with the jets, they were nowhere to be seen. Pressing on, the bombers reached the landing beaches two B-26s were shot down. The jet support still hadn't arrived. As the B-26s, most of them damaged, made their way back to Puerto Cabezas, the jets from the USS Essex finally arrived on the scene - an hour after they should have made the rendezvous. Indeed, when the time was set for the rendezvous for the jets from the USS Essex, they had forgotten that Nicaragua was in a different time-zone than Cuba.

So, there you have it. While the idea that "most historians believe that they were confused by the shift in time-zones" is correct, perhaps Mr. Green (or whatever Mental Floss genius who wrote the script) should have actually read those historians before he mangled actual events into one visibly false "fact".

Sources:

The Bay of Pigs by Howard Jones (Oxford University Press, 2008)

The Bay of Pigs: Cuba 1961 by Alejandro de Quesada (Osprey Publishing, 2009)

Full disclosure: This was originally written for /r/AskHistorians and resubmitted here since it was simply too good to pass up.