Chronology Of
Important Cuban Events
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The Colonial Period
1492 Christopher Columbus arrives on the island during his
initial voyage to the New World. He declares it “The most
beautiful place on Earth”
1493 The Pope gives Spain control of Cuba and the mission of
converting the natives to Christianity.
1510 Diego Velazquez and another 300 men start the conquest of
the island, establishing the first permanent settlement at
Baracoa.
1512 The native leader Hatuey leads the first battle for
independence, he is captured and burned at the stake.
1515 The Spanish had installed small settlements at Baracoa,
Bayarno, Santiago de Cuba, and Puerto Principe (today Camaguey),
Sancti Spiritus, Tnuldad, and Havana [in its initial site at the
southern end of the Island).
1519 Founding of Havana at its present site, on the northern
coast.
1519-21 Because of its strategic position, the "key to the New
World" as the Island came to be known, Cuba is used as a base.
It was the point of origin for Hernan Cortes in his notorious
conquest of Mexico. This function as the supply center for the
Spanish fleets on their way to and from the New World was a
constant in the history of colonial Cuba.
1536 The first pirate attacks against Havana occur.
1558 Havana becomes the official capital.
1586 Sir Francis Drake makes an unsuccessful attack on Havana.
1596 As the century draws to a close the indigenous population,
victimized by illness, mistreatment, and confrontations with
the Spanish, progressively disappeared until they are
practically extinct. Throughout the century, local labour was
little by little replaced with African slaves brought in to
work on the sugarcane plantations.
1620 Spain maintains a monopoly on Cuban trade, occasionally
Cuban producers supply contraband to pirates and privateers.
Cuba becomes the object of continual attacks from the English,
French and Dutch fleets who dispute control of the West Indies
with imperial Spain. Sugar and Tobacco are the principle exports.
1662 Famed British sailor captain Henry Morgan begins his series
of attacks on Cuban port towns.
1728 The University of Havana is founded.
1762 The English with 200 ships and more than 20,000 men capture
Havana and gain control the western part of the island.
1763 The Spanish recover Havana and the rest of the occupied territory by exchanging it for Florida.
1775-83 Following the American Revolutionary War and the independence of the former British north American colonies, Spain authorizes direct trade between Cuba and the United States.
1795 Following the black slaves' anti-colonial uprising, thousands of French flee Haiti and settle in eastern Cuba. At the end of the 18th century Cuba's population exceeds 300,000 inhabitants, the majority of them black slaves.
1808 Thomas Jefferson tries unsuccessfully to buy Cuba from Spain.
1818 King Fernando VII concedes free trade, thus accentuating the wealth of Cuba's ruling class.
1828 A surge of nationalist sentiment occurs. The ruling class is undecided about whether to fight for independence, to strive for reforms that increase Cuban autonomy without breaking with Imperial Spain, or to pact with the United States of America. Economic development contributes to an increased number of slaves on the island.
1837 Spain excludes Cuban senators from parliament and declares that Cuba will be governed by special laws. A period of intolerance and oppression begins under these special powers.
1843 From this year on there are various rebellions of slaves in the sugar fields.
1848 U.S. president James Polk attempts unsuccessfully to buy Cuba from Spain.
1850 400 U.S. troops land in Cuba and are defeated by the Spainish.
1850's The United States continues to demonstrate a desire to gain poession of Cuba from Spain. Between 1850 and 1857 various schemes and subterfuges designed to separate Cuba from Spanish rule emerge, despite Spain's severity in reacting against Cubans favoring independance.
1853 José Marti, Cuba’s most famous patriot, is born.
1854 U.S. president Franklin Pierce attempts unsuccessfully to buy Cuba from Spain.
1857 Separatist sentiment starts to recede from the political scene. A reformist movement rises up, favoring ample administrative autonomy for the island as well as a constructive opposition party. These proposals are largely ignored.
1868 October The native Cubans, captained by Manuel Cespedes initiate the first War of Independence against the Spanish colonialists in the eastern provinces. 1878 The pact of Zanjon brings the Ten Years War to a close, a period of uneasy peace follows.
1879 General Calixto Garcia and other leaders begin making contacts prior to the renewal of hostilities with Spain.
1880 Slavery is abolished by the Spanish parliament, although, in effect the slaves continue to work for their masters in return for a minimal monthly salary.
1886 Slavery of any kind is prohibited.
1887 José Marti travels to the U.S. to raise money to fund the liberation of Cuba.
1892 José Marti unifies the independence movement from exile in the United States, where he founds the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
1895 The second War of independence is led by José Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maxin1o Gómez. In the eastern provinces, known as the Oriente, armed combat for independence is begun. This time the conflict spreads quickly through the western provinces. Spain mobilizes more than 200,000 men in an attempt to stop the rebellion.
1898 With the Rebels on the verge of victory the mysterious explosion of the U.S. warship Maine, anchored in Havana harbor, serves as an excuse for a U.S. declaration of war. Under the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10 with no Cuba representative in attendance, Spain cedes Cuba to the United States along with Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The rebel’s victory is stolen as the island changes colonial masters.
1901 In return for American troop withdrawal, The United States imposes the Platt Amendment which grants the USA the right to intervene in the affairs of Cuba should Washington judge military intervention to be necessary.
The Republician Period
1902 The Republic of Cuba is formed.
1902 Tomas Estrada Palma becomes the first president of the new
republic.
1903 The United States establishes its naval base at Guantanamo.
1906 U.S. military intervention puts down an insurredtion.
The United States establishes a provisional government on the
island.
1912 The U.S. military intercedes in the “Negro insurrection”
led by Evaristo Estenoz, hero of the war of independence.
1917 President Woodrow Wilson sends U.S. troops to Cuba to
quell a Liberal Party uprising.
1924 The disastrous dictatorship of Gerardo Machado begins.
The first Communist party is founded.
1926 Fidel Castro is born in the Oriente province.
1928 June 14, Ernesto Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina,
of parents Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna.
1933 The era of the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado ends.
1934 Batista ousts the elected Dr Ramon Grau and remains in
charge until 1944 when Grau is re-elected.
1944 Batista flees to Florida taking with him an estimated $20
Million in spoils.
1945-51 Guevara is enrolled at medical school in Buenos Aires.
1952 January-July Guevara visits Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. While in Peru he works in a leper colony treating patients.
1952 March Batista returns from the USA to overthrow the
government of Carlos Prio Socarras in a military coup.
1953 March Guevara graduates as a doctor.
1953 July 6 After graduating, Guevara travels throughout Latin
America. He visits Bolivia, observing the impact of the 1952
revolution.
The Revolutionary Period
1953 July 26 Fidel Castro leads an armed attack on the Moncada
army garrison in Santiago de Cuba, launching the revolutionary
struggle to overthrow the Batista regime. The attack fails and
Batista's troops massacre more than 50 captured combatants.
Castro and other survivors are soon captured and imprisoned.
1953 December Guevara has first contact with a group of survivors
of the Moncada attack in San Jose, Costa Rica.
1953 December 24 Guevara arrives in Guatemala, then under the
elected government of Jacobo Arbenz.
1954 January 4th Guevara meets Nico López, a veteran of the
Moncada attack, in Guatemala City.
1954 January-June Unable to find a medical position in Guatemala,
Guevara obtains various odd jobs. He studies Marxism and becomes
involved in political activities, meeting exiled Cuban
revolutionaries.
1954 June 17 Mercenary forces backed by the CIA invade
Guatemala. Guevara volunteers to fight.
1954 June 27 Arbenz resigns.
1954 September 21 Guevara arrives in Mexico City after fleeing
Guatemala.
1955 May 15 Fidel Castro and other Moncada survivors are freed
from prison in Cuba due to a massive public campaign in defense
of their civil rights.
1955 June Guevara encounters Nico Lopez, who is also in Mexico
City. Several days later Lopez arranges a meeting for him with
Ráu1 Castro.
1955 July 7 Fidel Castro arrives in Mexico with the goal of
organizing an armed expedition to Cuba.
1955 July Guevara meets Fidel Castro and immediately enrolls as
the third confirmed member of the future guerrilla expedition.
Guevara subsequently becomes involved in training combatants,
with the Cubans giving him the nickname "Che", an Argentine term
of greeting.
1956 November 25 Eighty-two combatants, including Guevara as
doctor, sail for Cuba to spearhead an insurrection against
Batista aboard the small cabin cruiser Granma, leaving from
Tuxpan in Mexico.
1956 December 2 Gramna reaches Cuba at Las Coloradas beach in
Oriente Province. The rebel combatants are surprised by
Batistais troops and dispersed. A majority of the guerrillas are
either murdered or captured, Guevara is wounded.
1956 December 21 Guevara’s group reunites with Fidel Castro.
At this point there are 15 fighters in the Rebel Army.
1957 January 17 Rebel Army overruns an army in the battle of
La Plata.
1957 May 27-28, Battle of El Uvero takes place in the Sierra
Maestra, with a major victory for the Rebel Army as it captures
a well fortified army garrison.
July 1957 Rebel Army organizes a second column. Guevara is
selected to lead it and is promoted the rank of commander.
1958 May 24, Batista launches an all-out military offensive
against the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra. The offensive
eventually fails.
1958 August 31, Guevara leads an invasion column from the
Sierra Maestra toward Las Villas Province in central Cuba, and
days later signs the Pedrero Pact with the March 13
Revolutionary Directorate, which had a strong guerrilla base
there. Several days earlier Carnilo Cienfuegos had been ordered
to lead another column toward Pinar del Rio Province on the
western end of Cuba.
1958 October 16, The Rebel Army column led by Guevara arrives
in the Escambray Mountains.
1958 December Rebel columns of Guevara and the March 13
Revolutionary Directorate, and Cienfuegos with a small guerrilla
troop of the Popular Socialist Party, capture a number of towns
in Las Villas Province and effectively cut the island in half.
1958 December 28, Guevara column begins the battle of Santa
Clara, the capital of Las Villas.
1959 January 1 Batista flees Cuba. A military junta takes over.
Fidel Castro opposes the new junta and calls for the
revolutionary struggle to continue. Santa Clara falls to the
rebel army. Guevara and Cienfuegos are ordered immediately to
Havana.
1959 January 2 Cuban workers respond to Fidel Castro's call for
a general strike and the country is paralyzed. The Rebel Army
columns of Guevara and Cienfuegos arrive in Havana.
1959 January 8 Fidel Castro arrives in Havana, greeted by
hundreds of thousands of people.
1959 February 9 Guevara is declared a Cuban citizen in
recognition of his contribution to Cuba's liberation.
1959 February 16 Fidel Castro becomes prime minister.
1959 May 17 The Cuban government enacts its Agrarian Reform Law:
distributing all farmlands over 1,000 acres to landless peasants
and workers, and prohibiting foreign ownership of land — which
had owned 75 % of Cuba's most fertile land. The Cuban government
buys all foreign owned land with 20 year fixed-term
government bonds paying an annual interest rate of 4.5 percent
(higher than most U.S. government bond rates at the time).
Over 200,000 Cuban families own land for the first time in their
lives as a result of the reform.
1959 June 5 The Cuban government reaches agreements with foreign landowners
in Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Sweden.
U.S. landowners refuse all attempts to negotiate.
1959 October 7 Guevara is designated head of the Department of
Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (lNRA).
1959 October 21, Following an attempt to initiate a
counterrevolutionary uprising, Huber Matos, military commander
of Camaguey Province, is arrested by army chief of staff Camilo
Cienfuegos.
1959 October 28, Camilo Cienfuegos's plane goes down over the sea.
Guevara and Castro join in the search for the wreckage but
Cienfuegos's body is never recovered.
1959 November 26, Guevara is appointed president of the National
Bank of Cuba.
1960 February A French ship bringing arms to Cuba is sabotaged
and explodes in Havana harbour. CIA agents are strongly
suspected of perpetrating this and other episodes of
industrial and agricultural sabotage
throughout the island to destablise
the revolutionary government. Castro uses the slogan "Patria o Muerte"
for the first time during the burial of the victims.
1960 May Cuba restores diplomatic relations with the Soviet
Union.
1960 October Cuba nationalises all major foreign banks and
companies to counter what Castro calls “U.S. economic aggression”.
The USA imposes an embargo on all imports to Cuba.
1960 November Castro visits the U.N. in New York city and
speaks for 4 hours, criticizing U.S. monopolists and
imperialists.
1960 December Cuba establishes diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
1961 January The US severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1961 April 17-19 1,500 mercenaries, organised and
backed by the United States, invade Cuba at the
Bay of Pigs on
the southern coast. The aim was to establish a "provisional
government" to appeal for direct U.S. intervention. They are
defeated within 72 hours, with the last ones surrendering at
Playa Giron (Giron Beach), which has come to be the name used
by the Cubans for the battle. Guevara is sent to command troops
in Pinar del Rio Province. In the wake of the Bay of pigs.
Castro announces that Cuba is a socialist country.
1962 January American pressure sees Cuba expelled from the
Organisation of American States.
1962 June To deter a second America backed invasion Cuban
agrees to the deployment of Soviet medium range nuclear missiles
on the island.
1962 October 22 President Kennedy initiates the "Cuban Missile
Crisis", denouncing Cuba's acquisition of missiles capable of
carrying nuclear warheads for defense against U.S. attack.
Washington imposes a naval blockade on Cuba. Cuba responds by
mobilizing its population for defense. Guevara is assigned to
lead forces in Pinar del Rio Province in preparation for an
imminent U.S. invasion. President Kennedy demands that Premier
Khrushchev recall Soviet nuclear weapons bound for Cuba.
1962 October 28 Soviet Premier and Stalingrad veteran Khrushchev
agrees to remove Soviet missiles in exchange for US pledge not
to invade Cuba and the removal of similar US missiles based in
Turkey.
1962 November The USA lifts its naval blockade but Kennedy
indicates that the USA will continue to pursue a policy of
economic and political hostility against Cuba.
1963 March In a speech given in Costa Rica, Kennedy declares
that “He will build a wall around Cuba”. This spiteful sentiment
is to shape American foreign policy towards Cuba right up to the
present day.
1964 February The USA expels over 700 Cuban workers from the
military base in Guantanamo.
1964 March Guevara meets with Tamara Bunke (Tania) and discusses
her mission to move to Bolivia in anticipation of a future
guerrilla expedition.
1964 December 9 Guevara leaves Cuba on a three-month state visit,
speaking at the United Nations. He then visits a number of
African countries.
1965 March Cuba donates 10,000 tons of sugar to North Vietnam
as a gesture of solidarity for its war against the USA.
1965 March 14 Guevara returns to Cuba and shortly afterwards
drops from public view.
1965 April 1 Guevara delivers a farewell letter to Fidel Castro.
He subsequently leaves Cuba on an internationalist mission in
the Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo), entering through Tanzania. Guevara
operates under the name Tatu, Swahili for “number two”.
1965 April 18 In answer to questions about Guevara's whereabouts,
Castro tells foreign reporters that Guevara “will always be
where he is most useful to the revolution”.
1965 June 16 Castro announces Guevara's whereabouts will be
revealed “when Commander Guevara wants it known.”
1965 October 3 Castro publicly reads Guevara's letter of
farewell at a meeting to announce the Central Committee of the
newly-formed Communist Party of Cuba.
1965 December Castro arranges for Guevara to return to Cuba in
secret. Guevara prepares for an expedition to Bolivia, hoping to
export the revolution.
1966 January 3-14, Tricontinental Conference of Solidarity of
the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America is held in Havana.
1966 March Arrival in Bolivia of the first Cuban combatants to
begin advance preparations for a guerrilla detachment.
1966 July Guevara meets with Cuban volunteers selected for the
mission to Bolivia at a training camp in Cuba's Pinar del Rio
Province.
1966 November 4 Guevara arrives in Bolivia in disguise and using
an assumed name.
1966 November 7 Guevara arrives at site where Bolivian guerrilla
movement wil1 be based and records the first entry in his Bolivian
diary.
l966 November-December More guerrilla combatants arrive and base
camps are established.
1966 December 31 Guevara meets with Bolivian Communist Party
secretary Mario Monje. There is disagreement over perspectives
for the planned guerrilla expedition.
1967 February 1-March 20 Guerrilla detachment leaves the base
camp to explore the region.
1967 March 23 First guerrilla military action takes place with
combatants successfully ambushing a Bolivian army column.
1967 April 10 Guerrilla column conducts a successful ambush of
Bolivian troops.
1967 April 16 Publication of Guevara's Message to the
Tricontinental with his call for the creation of two, three,
many Vietnams throughout Latin America.
1967 April 17 Guerrilla detachment led by Joaquin is separated
from the rest of the unit. The separation is supposed to last
only three days but the two groups are unable to reunite.
1967 April 20 Régis Debray is arrested after having spent several
weeks with a guerrilla unit. He is subsequently tried and
sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.
1967 May U.S. Special Forces arrive in Bolivia to train
counterinsurgency troops of the Bolivian army.
1967 July 6 Guerrillas occupy the town of Sumaipata.
1967 July 26 Guevara gives a speech to guerrillas on the
significance of the July 26, 1953, attack on the Moncada
garrison.
1967 July 31-August 10, Organization of Latin American
Solidarity (OLAS) conference is held in Havana. The conference
supports guerrilla movements throughout Latin America. Che
Guevara is elected honorary chair.
1967 August 4 Deserter leads the Bolivian army to the guerrillas'
main supply cache, documents seized lead to arrest of key urban
contacts.
1967 August 31 Joaquin’s detachment is ambushed and annihilated
while crossing a river after an informer leads government troops
to the site.
1967 September 26 Guerrillas walk into an ambush. Three are
killed and CIA backed government forces encircle the remaining
guerrilla forces.
1967 October 8 Remaining 17 guerrillas are trapped by Bolivian
troops and conduct a desperate battle. Guevara is seriously
wounded and captured.
1967 October 9 Guevara and two other captured guerrillas are
murdered following instructions from the Bolivian government
and Washington.
1967 October 15 In a television appearance Fidel Castro confirms
news of Guevara's death and declares three days of official
mourning in Cuba. October 8 is designated Day of the Heroic
Guerrilla.
1967 October 18 Castro delivers memorial speech for Guevara in
Havana's Revolution Plaza before an audience of almost one
million people.
1968 Februarv 22 Three Cuban survivors cross border into Chile,
after having traveled across the Andes on foot to elude Bolivian
army. They later return to Cuba.
1968 Mid-March Microfilm of Guevara's Bolivian diary arrives in
Cuba.
1968 July 1 Guevara's Bolivian diary published in Cuba is
distributed free of charge to the Cuban people. The
introduction is by Fidel Castro.
1972 July Cuba becomes a founding member of COMECON (Council
for Mutual Economic Assistance).
1973 Statistics are published that reveal Cuba to have the
lowest infant mortality rate in Latin America.
1974 Soviet President Brezhnev visits Cuba.
1974 Cuba re-establishes diplomatic relations with the Federal
Republic of Germany. Cuba sends the first of its troops to
Angola to resist incursion by South Africa backed forces.
1976 April Bombs explode in the Cuban Embassy in Lisbon and
the Cuban Mission to the United Nations.
1978 April Cuba signs a protocol on commercia1 co-operation
with the Soviet Union.
1979 June Cuban Americans are allowed to visit their families in
Cuba.
l980 April "The Mariel Boat Lift" occurs. The CIA funded exiles
establish Florida based Radio stations which broadcast
counterrevolutionary propaganda into Cuba hoping to ferment
civil unrest and encourage Cubans to attempt the treacherous
journey across the Florida straits to the U.S. In response
Castro invites anyone wishing to leave Cuba to exit from the
port of Mariel and 120,000 Cubans take up his offer.
The volume of people forces the U.S. to change it’s “open door”
policy.
1981 August Cuba sends more troops to Angola following the
invasion of that country by South African forces.
1983 October The USA invades Grenada and 24 Cuban construction
workers are killed fighting with American soldiers.
1984 June Cuba decides to boycott the Los Angeles Olympics.
1984 December Cuba agrees to take back 2,700 undesirables, who
left Cuba for the USA during the Mariel Boat Lift. The USA signs
an accord agreeing to accept 20,000 Cuban immigrants per year.
The deal is never fully implemented.
1985 Miami exiles launch "Radio Marti", another right wing station
which broadcasts anti-Castro propaganda into Cuba. Cuba suspends
the immigration accord in protest.
1988 Cuban and Angolan Troops defeat South African forces in the
battle of Cuito Cuanavale. South Africa agrees to negotiations
over its role in Angola. Later both Cuba and South Africa sign
a treaty agreeing to withdraw all troops from the country and
establish a timetable for independence in Angola.
1989-1991 The Soviet Union and the eastern block disintegrate
and Cuba loses its principal trading partner. The “special period”
begins.
1992 “The Cuban Democracy Act” punishes overseas subsidiaries
of U.S. corporations that trade with Cuba. The fact that this
extra territorial legislation violates international law does
not stop the U.S. senate enacting it.
1994 August The loss of the soviet union hits Cuba hard.
The USA repeals its policy of granting asylum to all those
leaving Cuba and those picked up at sea are taken to Guantanamo
military base.
1994 September Castro announces that farmers may sell any
surplus stock on the open market once they have met their
government quotas.
1996 February After repeated warnings the Cuban airforce shoots
down two planes flown by the Miami-based organisation 'Brothers
to the Rescue', a U.S. backed dissident exile group committed
to the overthrow of Cuban government. The U.S. claims the
incident took place in international airspace while the Cubans
are adamant than the incident occurred within the islands
territory.
1996 March The US Senate approves the Helms-Burton Bill which
further tightens the US economic embargo on Cuba. The decision
is greeted with widespread condemnation by the European Union,
United Nations and many sections of American public opinion.
1997 June Che Guevara's remains are discovered in a shallow
grave in Vallegrande, Bolivia. They are later flown back to
Havana.
1997 Christmas is celebrated in preparation for a papal visit.
1998 Pope John Paul II visits Cuban to the delight of Cuban
catholics. The Cuban government criticises an American
initiative to send “humanitarian aid” while maintaining a 36
year old blockade.
2000 The Clinton era ends with the blockade still firmly in place.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuban has forged closer
cultural, economic and political links with Europe.
2001 Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin visits Cuban,
indicating a revival of the relationship between the two nations.
2002 Large areas of Cuba devestated by hurricanes. US agrees
to humanitarian sales of food to Cuba provided purchases are
paid for in cash. Cuba agrees. All other aspects of the blockade
remain firmly in place.
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