June 14, 1928 Ernesto Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina, of parents Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna; he will be the eldest of five children.
January–July 1952 Ernesto Guevara travels around Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado.
March 10, 1952 General Fulgencio Batista carries out a coup d’état in Cuba.
July 6, 1953 After graduating as a doctor, Ernesto Guevara sets off again to travel through Latin America. He visits Bolivia, observing the aftermath of the 1952 revolution.
July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful armed attack on the Moncada army garrison in Santiago de Cuba, launching the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the Batista regime.
December 1953 Ernesto Guevara meets a group of survivors of the Moncada attack in San José, Costa Rica.
December 24, 1953 Ernesto Guevara arrives in Guatemala, then under the popularly elected government of Jacobo Árbenz.
January–June 1954 While in Guatemala, he studies Marxism and becomes involved in political activities, meeting exiled Cuban revolutionaries.
August 1954 Mercenary troops backed by the CIA enter Guatemala City and begin massacring Árbenz supporters.
September 21, 1954 Ernesto Guevara arrives in Mexico City after fleeing Guatemala.
July 1955 Ernesto Guevara meets Fidel Castro in Mexico City and immediately agrees to join the planned guerrilla expedition. The Cubans nickname him “Che,” an Argentine term of greeting.
November 25, 1956 Eighty-two combatants, including Che Guevara as troop doctor, sail for Cuba aboard the Granma.
December 2, 1956 The Granma reaches Cuba in Oriente province but are surprised by Batista’s troops at Alegría de Pío and dispersed.
July 1957 Che Guevara is selected to lead the second column of the Rebel Army and is promoted to the rank of commander.
August 31, 1958 Che Guevara leads an invasion column from the Sierra Maestra toward Las Villas province in central Cuba.
December 28, 1958 Che Guevara’s column initiates the battle of Santa Clara.
January 1, 1959 Batista flees Cuba. Santa Clara falls to the Rebel Army.
January 2, 1959 Fidel Castro calls for a general strike and the country is paralyzed. The Rebel Army columns of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos reach Havana.
January 8, 1959 Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.
February 9, 1959 Che Guevara is declared a Cuban citizen.
June 12–September 8, 1959 Che Guevara travels through Europe, Africa, and Asia; he signs a number of commercial, technical, and cultural agreements.
October 7, 1959 Che Guevara is designated head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA).
November 26, 1959 Che Guevara is appointed president of the National Bank of Cuba.
March 17, 1960 President Eisenhower approves a CIA plan to overthrow the revolutionary government and prepare for a Cuban exile army to invade Cuba.
October 21, 1960 Che Guevara leaves on an extended visit to the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, China, and North Korea.
January 3, 1961 Washington breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
February 23, 1961 The revolutionary government establishes the Ministry of Industry, headed by Che Guevara.
April 15, 1961 As a prelude to the planned invasion by US-organized forces, planes attack Santiago de Cuba and Havana.
April 16, 1961 At a mass rally Fidel Castro proclaims the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution.
April 17–19, 1961 One thousand five hundred Cuban-born mercenaries, organized and backed by the United States, invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs but are defeated within 72 hours. Che Guevara is sent to command troops in Pinar del Río province.
August 8, 1961 Che Guevara condemns US President Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress” in a fiery speech to Organization of American States (OAS) Economic and Social Conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, as head of Cuba’s delegation. Cuba is subsequently expelled from the OAS.
February 3, 1962 President Kennedy orders a total trade embargo against Cuba.
August 27–September 7, 1962 Che Guevara makes his second visit to the Soviet Union.
October 1962 President Kennedy initiates the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” Cuba responds by mobilizing its population for defense. Che Guevara is assigned to lead forces in Pinar del Río province in preparation for an imminent US invasion.
July 3–17, 1963 Che Guevara visits Algeria, recently independent under the government of Ahmed Ben Bella.
March 1964 Che Guevara meets with Tamara Bunke (Tania) to discuss her mission to move to Bolivia in anticipation of a future guerrilla expedition.
March 25, 1964 Che Guevara addresses the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.
November 4–9, 1964 Che Guevara visits the Soviet Union.
December 11, 1964 Che Guevara addresses the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
December 17, 1964 Che Guevara leaves New York for Africa, where he visits Algeria, Mali, Congo (Brazzaville), Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania, and Egypt.
February 24, 1965 Che Guevara addresses the Second Economic Seminar of the Organization of Afro-Asian Solidarity in Algiers.
March 14, 1965 Che Guevara returns to Cuba and shortly afterwards drops from public view.
April 1, 1965 Che Guevara delivers a farewell letter to Fidel Castro. He subsequently leaves Cuba on a Cuban-sponsored internationalist mission in the Congo, entering through Tanzania.
April 18, 1965 In answer to questions about Che Guevara’s whereabouts, Fidel Castro tells foreign reporters that Che “will always be where he is most useful to the revolution.”
June 16, 1965 Fidel Castro announces Che Guevara’s location will be revealed “when Commander Guevara wants it known.”
October 3, 1965 Fidel Castro publicly reads Che Guevara’s letter of farewell at a meeting to announce the Central Committee of the newly formed Cuban Communist Party.
November 21, 1965 Che Guevara leaves the Congo, and begins writing up his account of the mission.
December 1965 Fidel Castro arranges for Che Guevara to return to Cuba in secret. Che Guevara prepares for a Cuban-sponsored guerrilla expedition to Bolivia.
January 3–14, 1966 The Tricontinental Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America is held in Havana.
March 1966 The first Cuban combatants arrive in Bolivia to begin advance preparations for a guerrilla movement.
July 1966 Che Guevara meets with Cuban volunteers selected for the mission to Bolivia at a training camp in Cuba’s Pinar del Río province.
November 4, 1966 Che Guevara arrives in Bolivia in disguise and using the assumed name of Ramón Benítez.
November 7, 1966 Che Guevara and several others arrive at the farm on the Ñacahuazú River where the guerrilla detachment will be based.
December 31, 1966 Che Guevara meets with Bolivian Communist Party secretary Mario Monje. There is disagreement over perspectives for the planned guerrilla movement.
March 23, 1967 The first guerrilla military action takes place with combatants successfully ambushing a Bolivian army column, after which it is decided to make a public announcement on March 25 of the formation of the Bolivian National Liberation Army.
April 16, 1967 Publication of Che Guevara’s “Message to the Tri-continental,” which calls for the creation of “two, three, many Vietnams.”
April 17, 1967 The guerrilla detachment led by Joaquín (Vilo Acuña) is separated from the rest of the unit. The separation is supposed to last only a few days but the two groups are never able to reunite.
May 1967 US Special Forces arrive in Bolivia to train counter-insurgency troops of the Bolivian army.
July 1, 1967 President Barrientos publicly announces Che Guevara’s presence in Bolivia.
July 31–August 10, 1967 The 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.
August 31, 1967 Joaquín’s detachment is ambushed and annihilated while crossing the Río Grande at Puerto Mauricio (Vado de Yeso).
September 26, 1967 The guerrilla group falls into a Bolivian army ambush.
October 8, 1967 The remaining 17 guerrillas are trapped by army troops and conduct a desperate battle in the Quebrada del Yuro (El Yuro ravine). Che Guevara is seriously wounded and captured.
October 9, 1967 Che Guevara and two other captured guerrillas are murdered by Bolivian soldiers following instructions from the Bolivian government and Washington. The remains of Che Guevara and the other guerrillas are secretly buried in Bolivia.
October 15, 1967 In a television appearance Fidel Castro confirms news of Che Guevara’s death and declares three days of official mourning in Cuba. October 8 is designated the Day of the Heroic Guerrilla.
October 18, 1967 Fidel Castro delivers a memorial speech for Che Guevara in Havana’s Revolution Plaza before an audience of almost one million people.
July 1968 Che Guevara’s Bolivian Diary is published in Cuba and distributed free of charge to the Cuban people. It is simultaneously published in many countries to counter the CIA campaign to discredit the revolutionary movement in Latin America. With an introduction by Fidel Castro, it becomes an instant international best seller.
July 1997 Che Guevara’s remains are returned to Cuba and buried in Santa Clara along with the bodies of other guerrilla fighters found in Bolivia.