Today we celebrate one of the strangest anniversaries there is on the Canadian political history calendar. It was Christmas Eve 1976 and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his plane found themselves grounded at Gander, Newfoundland due to bad weather. Not one for standing around, Castro disembarked from his Soviet-built airplane and visited the airport’s cafeteria. Of course, word quickly spread that the famous Cuban revolutionary was hanging around the town’s airport.As luck (for him!) would have it, the local newspaper, the Gander Beacon, had a man at the airport by the name of Mr. Vokey, the paper’s business manager. The quick-thinking man had the airport manager, Jack James, ask Castro if he’d like to speak with the local press. The Cuban agreed and history was made.Vokey called back to the newsroom and a photographer drove out to meet the manager and, as it turned out, Fidel Castro. The latter agreed to be interviewed by the paper.Talk about a scoop! After answering a few question, and a visit to the airport gift shop, Castro announced that he’d like a tour of Gander. "Jack had his vehicle, I had mine, and the RCMP officer at the time, John Foster, had the police car," said Mr. Vokey. "We took Fidel and his delegation around town." As they drove by the local hospital, Castro noticed a bunch of kids tobogganing there. He was fascinated. So, the rag tag motorcade stopped, out got the distinguished visitor and over he went. Castro liked what he was seeing and borrowed one of the kid’s toboggans and off he went down the hill, falling off at the end. Still, he obviously enjoyed himself. "You'd have to see security with shoes on, up to their knees, almost to their waists in snow, going down to retrieve him," Vokey later recalled, adding that when he noticed that a nurse needed help getting her car unstuck due to a heavy snowfall, Castro grabbed a shovel and help dig out the vehicle. No, I am not making this story up. But all good things must come to an end and Castro returned to the airport and then flew back home to Cuba. It had been quite a day for Castro and his new Canadian friends. Definitely a Christmas Eve to remember. Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.