Year |
Date |
Event
|
1901 |
5 March |
The U.S.
Platt Amendment stipulates the conditions for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
|
12 June |
The Constitutional Convention adopts the
1901 Constitution in its final form, including the provisions of the
Platt Amendment.
|
1902 |
20 May |
The Cuban Republic is established under the
1901 Constitution.
Tomás Estrada Palma takes office as president.
|
1906 |
29 September |
Under attack from defeated political rivals, President
Tomás Estrada Palma seeks U.S. intervention and U.S. troops reoccupy Cuba under Provisional Governor
William Howard Taft.
|
13 October |
Charles Magoon becomes Provisional Governor of Cuba
|
1909 |
28 January |
U.S. occupation ends.
José Miguel Gómez of the Liberal Party becomes president.
|
1912 |
May–June |
The Gómez government suppresses the
Negro Rebellion, a revolt on the part of
Afro-Cubans.
|
1913 |
20 May |
The presidency of
Mario García Menocal begins.
|
1918 |
7 April |
Cuba enters World War I on the side of the Allies. Upon Menocal's reelection,
José Miguel Gómez and other Liberals launch a revolt known as the
Chambelona War. The U.S. intervenes on behalf of Menocal's government.
|
1921 |
20 May |
Alfredo Zayas becomes president.
|
1925 |
23 March |
By the
Hay-Quesada Treaty, the U.S. recognizes Cuban sovereignty over the
Isle of Pines.
|
20 May |
Gerardo Machado becomes president.
|
1926 |
13 August |
Fidel Castro is born in the province of
Holguín.
|
1928 |
10 January |
Julio Antonio Mella, a founder of the Communist Party in Cuba, is murdered in Mexico.
|
14 June |
Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, known as Che Guevara, is born in
Rosario,
Argentina.
|
1931 |
10 August |
Old Mambi warriors
Carlos Mendieta and
Mario García Menocal land forces at Rio Verde in an attempt to overthrow
Gerardo Machado. They are defeated by 14 August in military operations that include the first use of military aviation in Cuba.
|
1933 |
12 August |
Gerardo Machado is forced to leave Cuba in the face of violent opposition on the part of
ABC and
Antonio Guiteras Holmes, a general strike, and pressure from senior officers of Cuban Armed Forces and U.S. Ambassador
Sumner Welles. A provisional government is established, with
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada as president.
|
4 September |
A group of military officers that includes
Fulgencio Batista launches the
Sergeants' Revolt and topples the provisional government.
|
5 September |
The five-day, five-man coalition government called the
Pentarchy of 1933 lasted through Sept. 9.
|
10 September |
Ramón Grau (one of the pentarchy) becomes president and continues the
One Hundred Days Government.
|
2 October |
Enlisted men and sergeants loyal to Batista, joined by radical elements, force Army Officers from the Hotel Nacional in
heavy fighting.
|
9 November |
Blas Hernández, his followers, and some ABC members make a stand in old Atarés Castle. They are defeated by Batista loyalists. Hernández surrenders and is murdered.
|
1934 |
January 16 |
The One Hundred Days Government ends;
Carlos Hevia serves briefly as president.
|
January 18 |
Manuel Márquez Sterling is president for a few hours, followed by
Carlos Mendieta.
|
16 June |
ABC holds a demonstration at the Havana festival and its march is attacked by radical forces, including those of
Antonio Guiteras.[
citation needed]
|
1935 |
8 May |
Leading radical
Antonio Guiteras is betrayed and dies fighting Batista forces.
|
1938 |
September |
The Communist party is legalized again.
|
1940 |
10 October |
The
1940 Constitution, signed by the members of the Constitutional Assembly on 1 July, takes effect. It is suspended in 1952.
|
1941 |
9–11 December |
Cuba declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.
[3]
|
1943 |
|
The Soviet Union opens an embassy in Havana. Its first ambassador is
Andrei Gromyko.
[4]
|
1951 |
5 August |
Eduardo Chibás, leader of the
Ortodoxo party and mentor of
Fidel Castro, commits suicide during a live radio broadcast.
|
1952 |
10 March |
Former president Batista, supported by the army, seizes power once more. Ex-president Prío exiled to Miami, US.
|
1953 |
26 July |
Some 160 revolutionaries under the command of Fidel Castro launch an attack on the
Moncada barracks in
Santiago de Cuba and Cespedes barracks in
Bayamo
|
16 October |
On trial for his role in the attack on the Moncada barracks, Fidel Castro defends himself with a speech later published as "
History Will Absolve Me".
|
1954 |
September |
Che Guevara arrives in Mexico City.
|
November |
Batista dissolves parliament and is elected constitutional president unopposed.
|
1955 |
May |
Batista issues an amnesty that frees Fidel and other members of his movement from prison.
|
June |
Brothers Fidel and
Raúl Castro are introduced to Che Guevara in Mexico City.
|
1956 |
29 April |
Autentico Assault on
Goicuria Barracks in Matanzas fails.
[5]
[6]
|
November |
The yacht
Granma sets out from Mexico to Cuba with 82 men on board, including Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and
Camilo Cienfuegos.
|
2 December |
The Granma lands in
Oriente Province.
|
1957 |
17 January |
Castro's guerrillas score their first success by sacking an army outpost on the south coast, and start gaining followers in both Cuba and abroad.
|
13 March |
University students mount an attack on the Presidential Palace in Havana. Batista forewarned. Attackers mostly killed, others flee and are betrayed.
|
28 May |
Castro's 26 July movement, reinforced by militia led by Frank Pais, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero.
|
19 July |
Calixto Sánchez White leads a landing from the boat Corinthia at
Cabonico in north Oriente of
Auténtico and are defeated.
|
30 July |
Local police kill
Frank País, a leader of the 26 July movement, in the streets of
Santiago de Cuba.
|
5 September |
Forces loyal to Batista crush a naval revolt at Cayo Loco Naval Base in
Cienfuegos.
[7]
|
1958 |
February |
Raúl Castro takes leadership of about 500 pre-existing
Escopeteros guerrillas and opens a front in the Sierra de Cristal on Oriente's north coast.
|
13 March |
U.S. suspends shipments of arms to Batista's forces.
|
17 March |
Castro calls for a general revolt.
|
9 April |
A general strike, organized by the 26 July movement, is partially observed.
|
May |
Batista sends an army of 10,000 into the
Sierra Maestra to destroy Castro's 300 armed guerrillas and their supporters. By August, the rebels had defeated the army's advance and captured a huge amount of weaponry.
|
20–30 November |
Thirty key positions at Guisa are taken. In the following month most cities in Oriente fall to rebel hands.
|
December |
Guevara,
William Alexander Morgan, and forces of the
Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, an organization of university students, attack
Santa Clara.
|
28 December |
Rebel forces take Santa Clara.
|
31 December |
Camilo Cienfuegos leads revolutionary guerrillas to victory in Yaguajay;
Huber Matos enters Santiago.
|
1959 |
1 January |
President Batista resigns and flees the country. Fidel Castro's column enters Santiago de Cuba. The revolutionaries starts
military tribunals of captured military, with some receiving the death penalty. Various urban rebels, mainly associated with Directorio, seize Havana
Cuban revolutionaries call a General Strike to ensure governmental control
[8]
|
2 January |
Guevara and
Camilo Cienfuegos arrive in Havana.
|
5 January |
Manuel Urrutia named President of Cuba
|
8 January |
Fidel Castro arrives at Havana, speaks to crowds at Camp Columbia.
|
16 February |
Fidel Castro becomes
Premier of Cuba.
|
March |
Fabio Grobart is present at a series of meetings with Castro brothers, Guevara and Valdes at
Cojimar
|
20 April |
Fidel Castro speaks at
Princeton University,
New Jersey.
[9]
|
17 May |
The Cuban government enacts the
Agrarian Reform Law, seizing large (mostly corporate and foreign) holdings of agricultural land and redistributing it to smaller land owners. The new holdings are limited to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2).
|
17 July |
Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado becomes President of Cuba, replacing
Manuel Urrutia, who is forced to resign by Fidel Castro. Dorticós serves until 2 December 1976
|
28 October |
Plane carrying
Camilo Cienfuegos disappears during a night flight from
Camagüey to Havana. He is presumed dead.
|
11 December |
Trial of revolutionary
Huber Matos begins. Matos is found guilty of "treason and sedition".
|
1960 |
4 March |
The French freighter
La Coubre explodes while unloading in Havana harbor, and Fidel Castro calls it sabotage by the U.S. on 5 March.
[10]
|
17 March |
U.S. President
Dwight Eisenhower orders CIA director
Allen Dulles to train Cuban exiles for a covert invasion of Cuba.
|
6 April |
U.S. Secretary of State
Lester Mallory outlines objectives of embargo in a memo: "...inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government."
[11]
|
5 July |
All U.S. businesses and commercial property in Cuba are
nationalized at the direction of the Cuban government.
|
19 October |
U.S. imposes
embargo prohibiting all exports to Cuba except foodstuffs and medical supplies.
|
31 October |
Cuban nationalization of all U.S. property in Cuba is completed.[
citation needed]
|
26 December |
Operation Peter Pan (Operación Pedro Pan) begins, an operation transporting to the U.S. 14,000 children of parents opposed to the new government. The scheme continues until U.S. airports are closed to Cuban flights during 1962.
|
1961 |
|
U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.
|
1 January |
Cuban government initiates national literacy scheme.[
citation needed]
|
March |
Former rebel comandante
Humberto Sorí Marin and Catholic leaders shot.
|
15 April |
Bay of Pigs invasion.
|
18 April |
Nikita Khrushchev writes to
John F. Kennedy to end U.S. aggression against Cuba.
[12]
|
1962 |
31 January |
Cuba
expelled from the
Organization of American States.
|
17 August |
Central Intelligence Agency Director
John McCone suggests that the Soviet Union is constructing offensive missile installations in Cuba.
|
29 August |
At a news conference, U.S. President
John F. Kennedy tells reporters: "I'm not for invading Cuba at this time... an action like that... could lead to very serious consequences for many people."
|
31 August |
President Kennedy is informed that the 29 August U-2 mission confirms the presence of surface-to-air missile batteries in Cuba.
|
Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) |
16 October |
McGeorge Bundy informs President Kennedy that evidence shows Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. Kennedy immediately gathers a group that becomes known as "ExComm," the Executive Committee of the National Security Council.
|
22 October |
President Kennedy
addresses the nation on television, announcing a
blockade on arms shipments to Cuba.
|
23 October |
U.S. establishes air and sea blockade in response to photographs of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba. U.S. threatens to invade Cuba if the bases are not dismantled and warns that a nuclear attack launched from Cuba would be considered a Soviet attack requiring full retaliation.
|
28 October |
Khrushchev agrees to remove offensive weapons from Cuba, and the U.S. agrees to remove missiles from Turkey and promises not to invade Cuba.
|
1962 |
21 November |
U.S. ends Cuban blockade, satisfied that all bases are removed and Soviet jets will leave the island by 20 December.
|
1963 |
October |
2nd Agrarian reform.[
citation needed]
|
November |
Compulsory military service introduced.[
citation needed]
|
1964 |
|
OAS enforce embargo against Cuba.
|
1965 |
3 October |
The Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) become the governing
Communist Party of Cuba.
|
28 September |
Fidel announces Cubans can emigrate, which launches the
Camarioca boatlift and airlift.
[13]
|
1967 |
9 October |
Che Guevara executed in
La Higuera,
Bolivia.
|
1968 |
March |
All private bars and restaurants are finally closed down.[
citation needed]
|
1972 |
|
Cuba becomes a member of the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON).
|
1974 |
|
Maternity leave bill introduced by the Cuban government.
|
1975 |
|
The Soviet Union engages in a massive airlift of Cuban forces into
Angola.
|
|
The Family Code bill establishes the official goal of equal participation in the home.[
citation needed]
|
July |
OAS lifts the trade embargo and other sanctions.
|
1976 |
March |
South African forces backing the
UNITA rebel force withdraw from
Angola. It is regarded as a victory for Cuban forces.
|
15 February |
A referendum endorses the
1976 Constitution, which institutionalizes the principles of the Cuban Revolution. It takes effect of 24 February.
|
6 October |
Two time bombs destroy
Cubana Flight 455 departing from Barbados, via
Trinidad, to Cuba. Evidence implicated several CIA-linked
anti-Castro
Cuban exiles and members of the
Venezuelan secret police
DISIP.
|
2 December |
Fidel Castro becomes
President of Cuba.
|
1977 |
1 January |
Political and administrative division divides Cuba into fourteen provinces, 168 municipalities and the special municipality of
Isla de la Juventud.
|
May |
Fifty Cuban military personnel sent to Ethiopia.
[14]
|
1979 |
21 October |
Huber Matos is released from prison after serving out his full term.
[15]
|
1980 |
April–October |
The
Mariel Boatlift. Cuban authorities allow up to 125,000 people to depart Cuba by boat from
Mariel harbor for the U.S. The Cuban and U.S. governments agree to halt the exodus in October.
|
7 June |
U.S. President
Jimmy Carter orders the U.S. Justice Department to expel any Cubans who committed "serious crimes" in Cuba.
[16]
|
1983 |
25 October |
United States invades the island of
Grenada and clash with Cuban troops.
[17]
|
1984 |
|
Cuba reduces its troop strength in
Ethiopia to approximately 3,000 from 12,000.[
citation needed]
|
1987 |
|
Law #62 on the Penal Code introduced recognising discrimination based on any reason and the violation of the right of equality as a crime.[
citation needed]
|
1989 |
12 July |
Prominent general in the Cuban armed forces
Arnaldo Ochoa is executed after allegations of involvement in drug smuggling.
|
17 September |
The last Cuban troops leave Ethiopia.[
citation needed]
|
1990 |
23 March |
The U.S. launches
TV Marti.
|
1991 |
May |
Cuba removed all troops from
Angola.
|
26 December |
Special Period: The
Soviet Union (Cuba's closest economic partner) formally
dissolved, leading to a full loss of economic and military aid, causing a prolonged economic crisis through the 1990s.
|
1992 |
July |
The
National Assembly of Cuba passes the Constitutional Reform Law allowing for direct elections to the assembly by the Cuban people every five years.
[18]
|
1993 |
6 November |
The Cuban government opens state enterprises to private investment.[
citation needed]
|
1994 |
5 August |
Maleconazo: Protests break out in Havana due to economic hardships amidst the Special Period.
|
1996 |
February |
Cuban authorities arrest or detain at least 150 dissidents, marking the most widespread crackdown on opposition groups since the early 1960s.[
citation needed]
|
24 February |
Cuban fighter jets shoot down two US-registered civilian aircraft over international waters, killing four men.[
citation needed]
|
12 March |
In the U.S., the
Helms-Burton Act extends the U.S. embargo against Cuba to foreign companies.
|
1998 |
21 January |
Pope John Paul II becomes the first Pope to visit the island.
|
1999 |
|
Christian anti-abortion activist
Oscar Elías Biscet is detained by Cuban police for organizing meetings in Havana and Matanzas.
|
5 November |
Six-year/old
Elián González is found clinging to an inner tube in the
Straits of Florida.
|
2000 |
14 December |
Russian President
Vladimir Putin visits Cuba and signs accords aimed at boosting bilateral ties.[
citation needed]
|