Timeline of Cuban history

This is a timeline of Cuban history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Cuba and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Cuba. See also the list of colonial governors of Cuba and list of Presidents of Cuba.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

16th century

Year	Date	Event
1508		Sebastián de Ocampo circumnavigates Cuba, confirming that it is an island.
1510		Spanish set out from Hispaniola. The conquest of Cuba begins.
1511		The first governor of Cuba, the Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar leads a group of settlers in Baracoa.
1512		Indigenous Cuban resistance leader Hatuey is burned at the stake.
1514		Havana founded as San Cristóbal de la Habana.
1523		Emperor Charles V authorizes 4,000 gold pesos for the construction of cotton mills.
1527		The first African slaves arrive in Cuba.
1532		The first slave rebellion is crushed.
1537		A French fleet briefly occupies Havana.
		A rebellion by enslaved Africans and indigenous people is crushed.
		French corsairs blockade Santiago de Cuba.
1542		The Spanish crown abandons the encomienda colonial land settlement system.
1553		The Governor of Cuba relocates to Havana.
1555		French campaign against the Sudan usam
1578		French corsairs plunder Baracoa.
1586		The English privateer Francis Drake lands at Cape San Antonio but does not attack.
1597		Construction of the Morro Castle fortress is completed above the eastern entrance to Havana harbor.

17th century

Year	Date	Event
1603		Authorities decree that the sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death.
1607		Havana is named capital of Cuba.
1628		A Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plunders the Spanish fleet in Havana harbor.
1649		An epidemic kills a third of the island's population.
1662		An English fleet captained by Christopher Myngs captures Santiago de Cuba to open up trade with Jamaica.
1670		The English withdraw after Spain recognises England's ownership of Jamaica.
		Francisco Rodríguez de Ledesma becomes Governor of Cuba. He serves for ten years.

18th century

Year	Date	Event
1728		The University of Havana is founded.
1734		Juan Francisco de Güemes begins a 12-year tenure as Governor of Cuba.
1741		British Admiral Edward Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay, renaming it Cumberland Bay, during the War of Jenkins' Ear. His troops withdraw after being decimated by fevers and attacked by local guerrillas.
1747		Francisco Antonio Cagigal de la Vega begins a 13-year tenure as Governor of Cuba.
1748		Construction of Havana cathedral is completed.
	12 October	Battle of Havana. Skirmishes between British and Spanish fleets in Havana harbor.
1762	5 March	An English expedition leaves Portsmouth to attack Havana.
	30 July	British troops occupy Havana during the Seven Years' War.
1763		British troops suffer atrocious losses to fever. They cede Cuba to Spain in the Treaty of Paris.
1793		Some 30,000 white refugees from a slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue, which becomes the Haitian revolution, arrive in Cuba.
1799		Salvador de Muro y Salazar becomes Governor of Cuba 1799–1812.

19th century

Year	Date	Event
1812		Juan Ruíz de Apodaca becomes governor of Cuba 1812–16.
1819	22 April	Settlers from Bordeaux and Louisiana found the first European settlement at Cienfuegos.
1843		Leopoldo O'Donnell, Duke of Tetuan becomes governor of Cuba 1843–48.
1844		Known as the Year of the Lash, when an uprising of black slaves was brutally suppressed.
1853	28 January	José Martí is born in Havana.
1868		The first war of Cuban independence, also known as the Ten Years' War, begins. It lasts until 1878.
	10 October	Revolutionaries under the leadership of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes proclaim Cuban independence.
1869	10 April	An assembly of rebels against Spanish rule adopts the Guáimaro Constitution, which remains nominally in effect until the end of the Ten Years' War.
1878	10 February	The Pact of Zanjón, promising the end of slavery in Cuba, ends the Ten Years' War.
1879	August	A second uprising ("The Little War"), engineered by Antonio Maceo and Calixto García, begins. It is quelled by superior Spanish forces in the autumn of 1880.
1886		Slavery is abolished in Cuba.
1895	23 February	The Cuban revolution is relaunched under the leadership of José Martí and General Máximo Gómez y Báez.
	19 May	José Martí is killed by Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos.
	September	Spanish Captain-General Arsenio Martínez Campos is defeated at Peralejo and leaves Cuba in January 1887.
1896		Cuban rebels led by Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez execute a successful invasion along the length of the island. Maceo is killed by Spanish forces in December.
1897		Calixto Garcia takes a series of strategic fort complexes in the East, leaving the Spanish confined to coastal cities there.
1898	15 February	The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks while anchored in Havana harbor.
	10 December	The Treaty of Paris between Spain and the U.S. ends the Spanish–American War. Spain relinquishes sovereignty over Cuba.
1899	1 January	The Spanish colonial government withdraws and the last captain General Alfonso Jimenez Castellano hands over power to the North American Military Governor, General John Ruller Brooke.
	23 December	Leonard Wood becomes U.S. Provisional Governor of Cuba.

20th century

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.
1917	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.
	4 September	A group of military officers that includes Fulgencio Batista launches the "Sergeants' Revolt" and topples the provisional 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	16 June	ABC holds a demonstration at the Havana festival and its march is attacked by radical forces, including those of Antonio Guiteras.
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.
1943		The Soviet Union opens an embassy in Havana. Its first ambassador is Andrei Gromyko.
1951	5 August	Eduardo Chibás, leader of the Ortodoxo party and mentor of Fidel Castro, commits suicide during a live radio broadcast.
1952	March	Former president Batista, supported by the army, seizes power once more.
1953	26 July	Some 160 revolutionaries under the command of Fidel Castro launch an attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.
	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. Ex-president Prío exiled to Miami.
	November	The yacht Granma sets out from Mexico to Cuba with 82 men onboard, 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.
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. Raul Castro starts mass executions of captured military. Various urban rebels, mainly associated with Directorio, seize Havana
	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.
	17 May	The Cuban government enacts the Agrarian Reform Law which limits land 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) ranches or less if other agricultural land, no payment is made.
	17 July	Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado becomes President of Cuba, replacing Manuel Urrutia 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.
	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".
	5 July	All U.S. businesses and commercial property in Cuba is 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	Nationalization of all U.S. property is completed.
	26 December	Operation Peter Pan (Operación Pedro Pan) begins, an operation transporting 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		US Trade embargo on Cuba.
	1 January	Cuban government initiates national literacy scheme.
	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.
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.
	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 U.S.
	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.
	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.
	November	Compulsory military service introduced.
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.
1967	9 October	Che Guevara executed in La Higuera, Bolivia.
1968	March	All private bars and restaurants are finally closed down.
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.
	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.
1979	21 October	Huber Matos is released from prison after serving out his full term.
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.
1983	25 October	United States invades the island of Grenada and clash with Cuban troops.
1984		Cuba reduces its troop strength in Ethiopia to approximately 3,000 from 12,000.
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.
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.
1990	23 March	The U.S. launches TV Marti.
1991		Dissolution of Soviet Union has negative impact on the Cuban economy.
	May	Cuba removed all troops from Angola.
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.
1993	6 November	The Cuban government opens state enterprises to private investment.
1996	February	Cuban authorities arrest or detain at least 150 dissidents, marking the most widespread crackdown on opposition groups since the early 1960s.
	24 February	Cuban fighter jets shoot down two US-registered civilian aircraft over international waters, killing four men.
	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.

21st century

Year	Date	Event
2001	23 June	Fidel Castro almost faints following a televised speech.
2002	January	Russia's last military base in Cuba, at Lourdes, closes.
	6 May	U.S. Under Secretary of State John R. Bolton accuses Cuba of trying to develop biological weapons, adding the country to Washington's list of "axis of evil" countries.
	12 May	Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits Cuba. He praises the Varela project and criticizes the U.S. embargo.
2003	April	The Cuban government arrests 78 writers and dissidents, blaming U.S. provocation and interference from James Cason, the chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana.
2004	8 November	The Cuban government bans transactions in US dollars and imposes a 10% tax on dollar-peso conversions.
2005	20 May	Around 200 dissidents hold a public meeting, which its organizers call the first such gathering since the 1959 revolution.
	7 July	Hurricane Dennis causes widespread destruction in Cuba and leaves 16 people dead.
2006	31 July	Raúl Castro assumes the duties of president of Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from an emergency operation.
2008	19 February	Fidel Castro resigns as President of Cuba.
	24 February	Raúl is elected President by the National Assembly.
2014	17 December	U.S. President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro re-establish diplomatic ties between the two countries.
2016	20 March	U.S. President Barack Obama begins a three-day visit to Cuba.
2016	25 November	Raúl Castro announced "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening (03:29 GMT Saturday),"

See also

Cities in Cuba

• Timeline of Camagüey
• Timeline of Cienfuegos
• Timeline of Guantánamo
• Timeline of Havana
• Timeline of Holguín
• Timeline of Matanzas
• Timeline of Santiago de Cuba

Bibliography

• George Henry Townsend (1877), "Cuba", A Manual of Dates (5th ed.), London: Frederick Warne & Co. 
• Benjamin Vincent (1910), "Cuba", Haydn's Dictionary of Dates (25th ed.), London: Ward, Lock & Co. – via Hathi Trust 
• Hugh Thomas Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom (Paperback) Da Capo Press; Updated edition (April 1998) ISBN 0-306-80827-7
• "Cuba". Political Chronology of the Americas. Europa Publications. 2001. ISBN 978-1-85743-118-6. 
• Leopoldo Fornés Bonavía (2003). Cuba, cronología: cinco siglos de historia, política y cultura (in Spanish). Madrid: Editorial Verbum. ISBN 978-84-7962-248-0. 
• Clifford L. Staten (2005). "Timeline of Historical Events". History of Cuba. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6259-1. 

External links

• "Cuba Profile: Timeline". BBC News. 
• Cuba timeline : Cold War Chronology Educator guide. Accessed 5 October 2006.
• "Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader of revolution, dies at 90". BBC News.