| 1868 |
|
| 10 October: |
Declaration of rebellion (the Grito de Yara) against Spain by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes; start of the Ten Years War. |
| 1878 |
|
| 11 February: |
Peace of Zanjón ends the war; at Baraguá, Antonio Maceo rejects the rebel leaders’ surrender, but by May is forced to surrender himself. |
| 1879–80 |
Guerra Chiquita (Little War) against Spain in the East. |
| 1892 |
José Martí founds the Cuban Revolutionary Party in the United States. |
| 1895 |
|
| 24 February: |
Declaration of Independence (Grito de Baire). |
| 19 May: |
Martí is killed. |
| 1898 |
|
| 15 February: |
Sinking of the USS Maine. |
| 25 April: |
United States declares war on Spain, beginning the Spanish—American War. |
| 17 July: |
Spain surrenders. |
| 1899 |
Treaty of Paris decides Cuba’s future and Spanish withdrawal; the start of US military occupation. |
| 1901 |
The Cuban Constitutional Convention is obliged to incorporate the wording of the Platt Amendment into the future Constitution, tying independent Cuba legally to the United States. |
| 1902 |
|
| 20 May: |
Cuban independence and withdrawal of US troops. |
| 1903 |
Reciprocity Treaty ties Cuba commercially to the US sugar market and manufactures. |
| 1906 |
Anti-government rebellion brings the first US military intervention (till 1909) under the terms of the Platt Amendment (part of the Permanent Treaty with the United States). |
| 1912 |
Black protests suppressed with much bloodshed and thousands of deaths (bringing US troops into Cuba to protect US sugar and commercial interests in the affected areas). |
| 1917 |
Third US military intervention (till 1923). |
| 1920 |
Collapse of the Cuban sugar industry (after a price collapse) leads to greater US economic hold of sugar and banking, itself generating the first stirrings of leftist radicalism and student nationalism since independence. |
| 1925 |
Foundation of the Cuban Communist Party. |
| 1933 |
August: Overthrow of Gerardo Machado leads to revolution in September, by an alliance of students and non-commissioned army officers under Fulgencio Batista. |
| 1934 |
|
| January: |
Batista ends the revolution by seizing power, beginning six years of authoritarian rule through puppet presidents. Ramón Grau San Martín and former student rebels found the Authentic Cuban Revolutionary Party (Auténticos) in Mexico. |
| 1938 |
Political alliance between Batista and the Communist Party leads to Communist influence in the trade unions and a leftist slant to the Constitution of 1940. |
| 1940 |
Batista elected at the head of the Democratic Socialist Coalition. |
| 1942 |
Two Communist ministers join Batista’s Cabinet. |
| 1944 |
Grau and the Auténticos elected. |
| 1947 |
Eduardo Chibás founds the Cuban People’s Party (Ortodoxos) to fight corruption. |
| 1948 |
Grau succeeded by Carlos Prío (also an Auténtico). |
| 1951 |
Chibas commits suicide. |
| 1952 |
|
| 10 March: |
Batista returns to power through a coup. |
| 1957 |
|
| 13 March: |
Student rebels attack the Presidential Palace; leader, José Antonio Echevarría, killed. |
| 1926 |
|
| 13 August: |
Born in Birán, near Mayarí, in Oriente province. |
| 1935 |
De La Salle College in Santiago. |
| 1939 |
Jesuit Colegio de Dolores, Santiago. |
| 1942 |
Jesuit Colegio de Belén, Havana. |
| 1945 |
Enters University of Havana to study law. |
| 1947 |
Participates in abortive Cayo Confites expedition to overthrow Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic); joins the new Ortodoxo Party. |
| 1948 |
In Bogotá, Colombia, for a continental student conference; coincides with unrest after the assassination of the popular leader Gaitán. In October, marries Mirtha Díaz-Balart. |
| 1949 |
Son (Fidel) is born. |
| 1950 |
Graduates from university; begins to practise law. |
| 1952 |
An Ortodoxo candidate in the April elections which Batista pre-empts with his 10 March coup. |
| 1953 |
|
| 26 July: |
Leads the attack on the Moncada and Bayamo barracks, in Oriente. |
| 1 August: |
Arrested. |
| 16 October: |
Tried and sentenced to fifteen years. |
| 1955 |
|
| May: |
Released (with Raúl and others) in an amnesty. |
| June: |
26 July Movement founded. |
| July: |
Exile in Mexico; meets Che Guevara. |
| 1956 |
|
| 25 November: |
The yacht Granma leaves Tuxpán, Mexico, for Cuba, with eighty-two rebels. |
| 30 November: |
Failed uprising in Santiago, leading to the death of the organizer, Frank País |
| 2 December: |
Granma lands in Oriente, near Manzanillo. |
| 5 December: |
Surviving rebels dispersed at Alegría del Pio, in the Sierra Maestra. |
| 18–20 |
|
| December: |
Fifteen surviving rebels regroup in the Sierra. |
| 1957 |
|
| 17 January: |
First small victory at La Plata barracks. |
| 17 February: |
Interview in the Sierra with Herbert Matthews of the New York Times. |
| 1958 |
|
| 1 March: |
Two more fronts set up in Oriente. |
| 9 April: |
Failed general strike. |
| 25 May: |
Failed offensive against the rebels by the Cuban Army. |
| August: |
Two columns march westward. |
| 1959 |
|
| 1 January: |
Rebel victory. |
| February: |
Fidel Castro as PM. |
| March: |
First Urban Reform law (50 per cent reduction of rents). |
| April: |
Castro’s New York visit; Nixon authorizes training of exiles. |
| May: |
Agrarian reform leads to first US economic sanctions. |
| July: |
Resignation of President Urrutia (replaced by Osvaldo Dorticós). |
| October: |
Creation of militias; death of Camilo Cienfuegos. |
| 1960 |
|
| February: |
Cuban–Soviet oil–sugar deal. |
| March: |
Establishment of JUCEPLAN planning agency. |
| May: |
Closure of Diario de la Marina and other critical papers. |
| August: |
Creation of Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). |
| June–July: |
US–Cuban economic retaliations. |
| September: |
Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR)/First Declaration of Havana. |
| October: |
US export embargo; Second Urban Reform law. |
| 1961 |
|
| January: |
Start of fusion of groups into Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI); US–Cuban diplomatic break; Literacy Campaign begins. |
| February: |
Creation of National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP). |
| 17–19 April: |
Bay of Pigs (Playa Girón); declaration of Revolution’s ‘socialist character’ (18 April). |
| June: |
‘Words to the Intellectuals’ declares cultural policy. |
| August: |
National Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) created. |
| 1962 |
|
| January: |
Cuba’s expulsion from Organization of American States (OAS). |
| March: |
‘Escalante affair’; creation of Union of Communist Youth (UJC). |
| October: |
Missile Crisis (Crisis del Caribe). |
| 1963 |
ORI replaced by Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba (PURSC). |
| February: |
Formal US embargo begins. |
| October: |
Agrarian reform. |
| 1965 |
|
| April: |
Departure of Che Guevara for Africa. |
| October: |
Founding of Communist Party of Cuba. |
| 1966 |
Start of ‘moral economy’ and ‘ten million-ton harvest’ strategy. |
| January: |
Tricontinental Conference in Havana, leading to the Organization of Latin American Solidarity). |
| 1967 |
|
| 9 October: |
Death of Guevara in Bolivia. |
| 1968 |
|
| January: |
Second ‘Escalante affair’(‘microfaction affair’); Cultural Congress of Havana. |
| March: |
‘Revolutionary Offensive’ nationalizes around 56,000 enterprises. |
| August: |
Ambivalence over Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. |
| 1970 |
Ten million-ton harvest. |