Founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, the airline became a major company credited with many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems.

Flown cover autographed by pilot Cy Caldwell and carried from Key West, Florida | Key West, FL, to Havana, Cuba, on the first contract air mail flight operated by Pan American Airways, Oct 19, 1927

And it was Jacksonville where the steam packet to Havana waited to load the mail.

The airline also flew diplomatic mail to the U. S. Interest in Havana on a weekly basis.

Slidell and George Eustis, Jr. went aboard, and were informed that British mail packets did indeed dock at the port of Havana, but that the last one had just left, and that the next one, the paddle steamer RMS Trent, would arrive in three weeks.

In Cienfuegos he learned from a newspaper that Mason and Slidell were scheduled to leave Havana on November 7 in the British mail packet RMS Trent, bound first for St. Thomas and then England.

He made the company's inaugural mail flight to Havana, Cuba from Key West, Florida, that same year.

In another move, which would destroy Hispaniola's sugar industry, in 1561 Havana, more strategically located in relation to the Gulf Stream, was selected as the designated stopping point for the merchant flotas, which had a royal monopoly on commerce with the Americas.

An early indication of the central role that the DGI would play in the Cuban-Nicaraguan relationship is a meeting in Havana on July 27, 1979, at which diplomatic ties between the two countries were re-established after more than 25 years.

Sinatra would later testify about this in court, but announced that he didn't know any Carlo Gambino, but it got to a point where he had to explain why he was attending the Havana Conference in Cuba in 1946, showing up with $ 2, 000, 000 in a silver suitcase and a picture that showed Sinatra, Charles " Lucky " Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Albert " The Executioner " Anastasia, and Carlo Gambino having a drink by a pool.

During a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in the late 1940s, it was mutually agreed upon that, in exchange for kickbacks, Batista would offer Lansky and the Mafia control of Havana ’ s racetracks and casinos.

Batista would open Havana to large scale gambling, and his government would match, dollar for dollar, any hotel investment over $ 1 million, which would include a casino license.

1997 saw the arrival of contracts with airlines such as Britannia Airways and Iberia, which would use an Air Atlanta Icelandic plane for its routes from Barajas International Airport in Madrid to José Martí International Airport in Havana and to other points in the Caribbean.

He would split his time between the Eastern coast of the United States and Havana in 1947, a year in which he went 11-1-1 with 3 knockouts.

The nearness to Havana or Santiago would add credibility especially to those people that might have heard the blast or have seen the fire.

Leonov would later be the USSR's KGB man in Havana.

Tens of millions of lives would be lost as the cities and / or towns of St. John's, Halifax, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D. C., Miami, Havana, and many other cities on the Atlantic coast in Europe, South America and Africa.

He predicted that he would live to be 115, but died of kidney failure in Havana, twenty years short of his ambition.

Travelers would then be able to ferry from Key West to Havana, drive to the eastern tip of Cuba, ferry to Haiti, drive through Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and ferry again to Puerto Rico.

From 1957 to 1959, Rojas would make steady progress through the Reds ' minor league system, playing for the Wausau Lumberjacks in the C-level Northern League in 1957, the Savannah Redlegs in the Single A South Atlantic League in 1958, before coming home and playing for the Havana Sugar Kings in the AAA International League.

Consequently, he would spend the next three seasons at AAA, playing for Havana and the Jersey City Jerseys, where he would continue to struggle with his bat while being blocked in the majors by superior Reds ' second basemen in All Stars Johnny Temple, Billy Martin, and Don Blasingame.

Luciano opened the Havana Conference by discussing a topic that would greatly affect his authority within the American Mafia ; the position of " capo di tutti capi " or " boss of all bosses ".

On October 3, 1965, Ben Barka declared in a press conference prior to the Havana conference that the " two currents of the world revolution would be represented there: the current born with the October Revolution and the national liberation revolutions ' currents.

An early indication of the central role that the DI would play in the Cuban-Nicaraguan relationship a meeting in Havana on 27 July 1979, at which diplomatic ties between the two countries were re-established after over 25 years.

Arlington Park was founded by California businessman Harry D. " Curly " Brown who would later serve as president of Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba.

Havana would serve as the ensemble's base of operations, so to speak, for the next thirty-three years.

During the Machado dictatorships in Cuba, Havana citizens were forbidden to dance the conga, because rival groups would work themselves to high excitement and explode into street fighting.

Instead of concentrating his next attack on Havana with the intention of conquering Cuba, as expected, Vernon depart again to New Granada to attack Cartagena de Indias, the main port of the Viceroyalty and main point of the Indian fleet to the Iberian Peninsula.

After still more delays in Havana, what was ultimately a 28-ship convoy did not manage to depart for Spain until September 4, 1622, six weeks behind schedule.

McNair, 25, was seized March 20 with four Cubans and accused of trying to land a boatload of rifles in Pinar Del Rio, about 35 miles from Havana.

Other FBI men, talking with the pilot from the tower, conspired with him to delay the proposed flight to Havana.

Rumors flew from lip to lip that Fidel Castro was on his way to Havana, coming from the mountains where he had fought Batista for five years.

They captured a boat carrying 120 barrels of flour out of Havana, and shortly thereafter took 100 barrels of wine from a sloop out of Bermuda.

Havana Club was not a Bacardi brand, though Bacardi later bought the brand from the original owners, the Arechabala family, who had it seized from them by the Revolutionary Government without compensation.

Bacardi created Havana Club rum based on the original recipe from the Arechebala ’ s, and the product is crafted in Puerto Rico and currently sold in Florida.

Facing increased competition in the rum market from the now international brand Havana Club, the company concluded that it was important for sales to associate its rum with Cuba.

The name of Cuba itself, Havana, Camagüey, and many others were derived from the neo-Taíno language, and Indian words such as tobacco, hurricane and canoe were transferred to English and are used today.

While the rail infrastructure dates from colonial and early republican times, passenger service along the principal Havana to Santiago corridor is increasingly reliable and popular with tourists who can purchase tickets in Cuban convertible pesos.

* the Autopista Nacional ( A1 ) from Havana to Santa Clara and Sancti Spiritus, with additional short sections near Santiago and Guantanamo

* the Autopista Este-Oeste ( A4 ) from Havana to Pinar del Río

* the Autopista del Mediodia from Havana to San Antonio de los Baños

* an autopista from Havana to Melena del Sur

* an autopista from Havana to Mariel

Older roads include the Carretera Central, and the Via Blanca from Havana to Matanzas.

Routes that have benefited most so far are those from Havana to each of the 13 provincial capitals of the country.

A decommissioned bus from Seville, now operating in Havana

In Havana urban transportation is provided by a colourful selection of buses imported from the Soviet Union or Canada.

On 18 July 2007 it was reported that Cuba will receive 100 urban buses from Belarus before years end, destined for use in Havana.

One afternoon, a group of off-duty soldiers from the U. S. Signal Corps were gathered in a bar in Old Havana.

Although most of them disappeared in a shipwreck near La Havana, approximately 70 copies reached Lima, from where they were sent to Cuzco in the heart of the defunct Inca Empire.

Category: People from Havana

* 1911 – The destroyer makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.