1492
-Columbus lands on Cuba and claims it in the name of Spain
1514
-Havana is founded and is named after an indian chief called San Cristobal de Habana
1519
-Havana becomes the last port of call for ships leaving for Spain
1538
-French pirates attack and burn the city of Havana
1554
-Santiago de Cuba is attacked by pirates
1555
-French pirates again attack and burn Havana for the second time
1597
-Castillo del Morro is built to protect the harbour of Havana from attack
1607
-Havana is officially named the capital of Cuba
1748
-The first university in Cuba is opened in Havana
1762
-Hundreds of slaves begin to arrive on the island
-(Jan)England declares war on Spain
-(June)Havana is captured by the British
1763
-The Spanish trade Florida for Havana with the British
1825
-Venezuela and Mexico plan to liberate Cuba but the US threatens to stop any attempt
1848
-The US offers to buy Cuba from Spain for $100 million
1853
-All slaves are declared free by decree
1854-The US offers $130 million to Spain for Cuba
1926
-(Aug 13)Fidel Castro is born in Biran in eastern Cuba
1944
-Fidel Castro is announced the best high school athlete in Cuba for the year 1943-44
1945
-Cuba joins the United Nations
1947
-The Orthodox party is founded
1951
-Fidel Castro graduates from law school
1952
-Fidel Castro runs for congress as a Orthodox party candidate
-(March 10)Fulgencio Batista takes power in a military coup
1953
-(July 26)Fidel Castro leads more than a hundred rebels on a failed assault on the Moncada Barracks near Santiago de Cuba in the east of the island. Most are killed in battle or quickly tortured and murdered,only a few survive and are captured
-(Oct 16)Fidel Castro makes a five hour speech at his trial ending it in the famous words "Condemn me if you will, History will absolve me!".He is sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence
1955
-(May 15)Fidel Castro and his fellow captives are released from prison following a general amnesty
-(June 24)Fidel Castro and his followers leave for Mexico where they meet a young Argentine doctor by the name of Ernesto Guevara who is quickly invited to and then joins the ranks of the rebels, who then train in guerrilla warfare
1956
-(Dec 2)About 82 rebels led by Fidel Castro land on the coast of the Oriente province in eastern Cuba on a 60-foot boat called the Granma.They are surprised by the army and nearly wiped out,there are only 13 or 14 survivors which included Fidel Castro, his brother Raul and Ernesto "Che" Guevara (which he is now called by the Cubans),they head for the Sierra Maestra mountain range and regroup to form a guerrilla unit where they recruit the peasants into their army
1957
-(Jan)The first of many rebel attacks begin
-(March 13)A student rebel group attack the presidential palace and take over a radio station in Havana, most are gunned down on the spot
-(July 30)Frank Pais an underground leader connected to the rebels is murdered by the police in Santiago de Cuba,thousands turn out on the streets for his funeral
1958
-Batasta's regime receives all kinds of military aid from the US
-(Feb 24)Radio Rebelde begins transmission
(March)Raul Castro sets up second front in the Sierra Cristol mountain range on the other side of Santiago de Cuba
-(May)Cuban troops numbering more than 10,000 surround the Sierra Maestra mountain range in an offensive to flush out and crush the rebel army of about 300 rebels, they are repelled and the war spreads east and west to central Cuba where Che Guevara marches more than 350km and opens a third front
-(Dec 29)Che Guevara and his men capture the city of Santa Clara in central Cuba and split the island in half
1959
-(Jan 1)Batista flees with his aides and their families overnight by plane to the Dominican Republic,Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos enter Havana and take command of the Cuban army, they declare victory over Batista's regime
-(Jan 7)Fidel Castro enters Havana and reinstates the constitution whhich was previously suspended by Batista,he takes the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
-(Jan 16)Fidel Castro becomes prime minister after the former prime minister resigns
-(March 3)The Cuban Telephone Company is nationalized
-(April 15)Fidel Castro visits the US
-(Oct 15)Raul Castro becomes the Minister for Defense
-(Oct 25)Camilo Cienfuegos dies in a plane during a solo night flight
1960
-(Feb)Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan visits Cuba and signs a trade deal with Fidel Castro
-(May 8)The Soviets establish diplomatic ties with Cuba
-(June & July)All US owned oil refineries,businesses and properties are nationalized by the Cuban government
1961
-(Jan 3)The US breaks diplomatic ties with Cuba
-(April 17)Nearly 1,500 CIA trained Cuban exiles disembark from US warships waiting offshore and land on Cuba's southern coastline at a place known as the Bay of Pigs intending to invade the island and overthrow Fidel Castro's government. The Cuban army and peoples militias defeat the invasion forces within 3 days and they take nearly 1,200 prisoners
-(April 19)Fidel Castro declares Cuba a socialist country
-(Oct)Towards the end of October the US discover that the Soviet Union has delivered nuclear missiles to Cuba and that missile launch sites have already been set up.The world stands on the brink of nuclear war. The Missile Crisis ends with an agreement that the Soviets take their missiles out of Cuba and the US take their missiles out of Turkey and that there will be no attempt in the future by the US to invade Cuba
1963
-(July 8)Cuban assets in the US are frozen
1964
-Fidel Castro visits Moscow in the Sovet Union
1967
-(Oct 9)Che Guevara is captured while fighting the army near the town of Vallegrande, Bolivia. He is held prisoner and executed by US trained Bolivian Army Rangers
1968
-(March 13)Every business in Cuba is natioalized
1971
-(Nov 10)Fidel Castro visits President Salvador Allende of Chile who was the first socialist president to be elected in South America
1972
-Fidel Castro makes a 63 day tour of Africa, Asia and the Soviet Union
1974
-(Jan 28)Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev makes a visit to Cuba
1976
-A new socialist constitution is annouced in Cuba
-(Dec 6)Fidel Castro is elected the President of the State Council
1977
-(Sept)The US and Cuba open Interest sections in each others capitals
1978
-(Aug-Oct)The Soviet Union's UN Mission,Cuba's UN Mission and its Interests Section are bombed in the US
1980
-(March 12)The Cubans start work on the construction of an airport in Grenada in the east of the Carribean
-(April-Sept)The Mariel Boatlift begins in the port of Mariel in western Cuba. More than a 125,000 Cubans travel on boats bound for the US
1981
-(Oct 30)The US starts navy exercises in the Carribean
-(Oct 31)Cuba mobilizes its forces and waits for an invasion but no invasion occurs
1983
-(Oct 25)The US invades Grenada and takes over the island fearing of communist expansion in the Carribean
1985
-(Oct 4)The US bans all Cuban officials and representatives from visiting its shores
1989
-The Berlin Wall falls in communist East Germany
1991
-Soviet troops withdraw from Cuba
-(Dec)The Soviet Union collapses and splits up
1993
-Cuba legalizes the US dollar
1994
-Cuba and the US sign an immigration agreement which leaves 20,000 Cubans into the US per annum
1995
-Cuba is granted an internet access line by a Canadian company
1996
-(Jan)Cuba's official website Cubaweb is launched on the world wide web
-(Jan 15)Cuba warns the US government that any planes flown by Cuban exiles into Cuban airspace will be intercepted and shot down
-(Feb 24)Two Cuban MiG's intercept and shoot down two light aircraft flown by Cuban exiles
-(Nov 19)Fidel Castro meets the Pope in the Vatican and invites him to Cuba
1998
-(Feb)The Pope visits Cuba
-(May)The European Union calls on the US to lift the Cuban trade embargo but the US refuses
-(July)Fidel Castro visits Jamaica,Grenada and Barbados
1999
-(Jan 1)The Cubans celebrate 40-years of revolution
2000
-(Sept 6)Fidel Castro makes a speech in New York at the Millenium Summit of world leaders
-(Dec 13)Russian President Vladamir Putin visits Cuba
2001
-(March 16)Fidel Castro nominated for the Noble Peace Prize
