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The history of Cuba could be divided into four general time periods. The first period being the pre-colonial era, when Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian peoples known as the Taíno and Ciboney. The second period, colonial Cuba, begins in 1492, when Christopher Columbus sighted the island during his first voyage of discovery. Cuba subsequently became a Spanish colony, and remained so until the Spanish-American War of 1898. The third period, republican Cuba, follows Cuba's formal independence in 1902, and is characterised by the island's close association with the United States. The fourth period follows the Cuban revolution of 1959 led by Fidel Castro and the transformation of Cuba into a declared socialist republic.
[edit] Pre-colonial Cuba
- 5300 BC or earlier. Initial colonization of the Antilles by archaic hunter gatherers.[1]
- 1603 Authorities decree that the sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death.
- 1607 Havana officially named capital of Cuba.
- 1628 Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plunders the Spanish fleet in Havana harbor
- 1649 Epidemic kills a third of the island's population.
- 1662 English fleet captained by Christopher Myngs captures Santiago de Cuba to open up trade with neighbouring Jamaica
- 1670 English retreat after Spain recognises England's ownership of Jamaica.
- 1670 Francisco Rodríguez de Ledesma becomes Governor of Cuba. He serves for ten years.
- 1812 Juan Ruíz de Apodaca becomes governor of Cuba 1812-16.
- 1843 Leopoldo O'Donnell, Duke of Tetuan becomes governor of Cuba 1843-48.
- 1844 So-called Year of the Lash when an uprising of black slaves, known as the Conspiración de La Escalera (Conspiracy of the Ladder), was brutally suppressed.
- 1853 January 28 José Julián Martí Pérez born in Havana.
- 1866-78 First war of Cuban independence. Also known as the Ten Years' War.
- 1868 October 10 , Revolutionaries under the leadership of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes proclaims Cuban independence.
- 1878 February 8, Pact of Zanjón ends Ten Years' War and ends uprising.
- 1879 August, A second uprising ("The Little War"), engineered by Calixto García, begins but is quelled by superior Spanish forces in autumn 1880.
- 1886 Slavery abolished
- 1890 February, José Sánchez Gómez becomes provisional Governor of Cuba.
- 1895 23 February Mounting discontent culminated in a resumption of the Cuban revolution, under the leadership of the writer and patriot José Martí and General Máximo Gómez y Báez. Also known as the
- 1895 May 19 José Martí killed in battle with Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos.
- 1895 September, Arsenio Martínez Campos is governor of Cuba until January
- 1898 June 6th–10th Invasion of Guantánamo Bay American and Cuban forces invade the strategically and commercially important area of Guantanamo Bay during the Spanish-American war.
- 1898 March 17, U.S. Senator, and former War Secretary Redfield Proctor protests against Spanish controlled concentration camps
- 1898 December 10, Treaty of Peace in Paris ends the Spanish-American War by which Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba.
- 1899 January 1, The Spanish colonial government withdraw and the last captain General Alfonso Jimenez Castellano hands over power to the North American Military Governor, General John Ruller Brooke.
- 1899 December 23 Leonard Wood becomes US Provisional Governor of Cuba
- 1951 August 15 Eduardo Chibás, leader of the Ortodoxo party and mentor of Fidel Castro commits suicide on live radio.
- 1952 March Former president Batista, supported by the army, seizes power.
- 1953 July 26 Some 160 revolutionaries under the command of Fidel Castro launch an attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba.
- 1953 October 16 Fidel Castro makes "History Will Absolve Me" speech in his own defense against the charges brought on him after the attack on the Moncada Barracks.
- 1954 September Che Guevara arrives in Mexico City.
- 1954 November Batista dissolves parliament and is elected constitutional president without opposition.
- 1955 May Fidel and surviving members of his movement are released from prison under an amnesty from Batista.
- 1955 June Brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro are introduced to Che Guevara in Mexico City.
- 1956 November 25 Fidel Castro, with some 80 insurgents including Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos set sail from Mexico for Cuba on the yacht Granma.
- 1956 December 2 Granma lands in Oriente Province.
- 1957 January 17, Castro's guerrillas score their first success by sacking an army outpost on the south coast, and started gaining followers in both Cuba and abroad.
- 1957 March 13, University students mount an unsuccessful attack on the Presidential Palace in Havana.
- 1957 May 28 1957, Castro's 26th July movement overwhelm an army post in El Uvero.
- 1957 July 30 Cuban revolutionary Frank País is killed in the streets of Santiago de Cuba by police while campaigning for the overthrow of Batista government.
- 1958 February Raúl Castro opens a front in the Sierra de Cristal on Oriente's north coast.
- 1958 March 13 U.S. suspends shipments of arms to Batista's forces.
- 1958 March 17 Castro calls for a general revolt.
- 1958 April 9 A general strike, organized by the 26th of July movement, is partially observed.
- 1958 May Batista sends an army of 10,000 into the Sierra Maestra to destroy Castro's 300 armed guerrillas. By August, the rebels had defeated the army's advance and captured a huge amount of arms.
- 1958 November 1 A Cubana aircraft en route from Miami to Havana is hijacked by militants but crashes. The hijackers were trying to land at Sierra Cristal in Eastern Cuba to deliver weapons to Raúl Castro's rebels. It is the first of what was to become many Cuba-U.S. hijackings[2]
- 1958 December Guevara directs a rebel attack on Santa Clara
- 1958 December 28 Guevara's guerrilla troops seize Santa Clara.
- 1958 December 31 Camilo Cienfuegos leads revolutionary guerrillas to victory in Yaguajay.
- 1960 March 4, the freighter La Coubre a 4,310-ton French vessel carrying 76 tons of Belgian munitions explodes while it being unloaded in Havana harbor.
- 1960 March 17, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower orders CIA director Allen Dulles to train Cuban-exiles for a covert invasion of Cuba.
- 1960 July 5 All U.S. businesses and commercial property in Cuba is nationalized at the direction of the Cuban government.
- 1960 October 19, U.S. imposes embargo prohibiting all exports to Cuba except foodstuffs and medical supplies.
- 1960 October 31, nationalization of all U.S. property is completed.
- 1960 December 26, 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 the in 1962.
- 1962 January 31 Cuba expelled from the OAS.
- 1962 August 17, CIA Director John McCone suggests that the Soviet Union is constructing offensive missile installations in Cuba.
- 1962 August 29, At a news conference, President 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."
- 1962 August 31, President Kennedy is informed that the August 29 U-2 mission confirms the presence of surface-to-air missile batteries in Cuba.
- 1962 October 16, McGeorge Bundy informs President Kennedy that "hard photographic 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.
- 1962 October 22, President Kennedy addresses the U.S.
- 1962 October 23, 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.
- 1962 October 28, 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 November 21 U.S. ends Cuban blockade, satisfied that all bases are removed and Soviet jets will leave the island by December 20.
[edit] 1963-69
- 1972 Cuba becomes a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON).
- 1975 July OAS lift the trade embargo and other sanctions.
- 1974 Maternity leave bill introduced by the Cuban government.
- 1975 The Soviet Union engages in a massive airlift of Cuban forces into Angola.
- 1975 The Family Code bill establishes the official goal of equal participation in the home.
- 1976 March South African forces backing the UNITA rebel force withdraw from Angola. It is regarded as a victory for Cuban forces.
- 1976 October 6 Two timebombs 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.
- 1976 December 2 Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba.
- 1977 January 1 Political and administrative division divides Cuba into fourteen provinces, 168 municipalities and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud.
- 1977 May 50 Cuban military personnel sent to Ethiopia.
- 1979 October 21, Huber Matos is released from prison having served out his full term. He was reunited in Costa Rica with his wife and children, who had left Cuba in 1963, and moved to Miami.
- 1980 April Mariel Boat Lift. Cuban Government announces that anyone wishing to leave Cuba may depart by boat from Mariel port, prompting an exodus of up to 125,000 people to the U.S.
- 1980 June 7 U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders Justice department to expel Cubans who have committed "serious crimes" in Cuba.
- 1983 October 25 United States invade the island of Grenada and also clash with Cuban troops.
- 1984 Cuba reduce 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.
- 1989 September 17 The last Cuban troops leave Ethiopia.
- 1990 March 23, U.S. launch TV Marti
- 1991 May Cuba remove all troops from Angola.
- 1992 July National Assembly of Cuba passes the Constitutional Reform Law allowing for direct elections to the assembly by the Cuban people every five years.[4]
- 1993 November 6, Cuban government announce it is opening state enterprises to private investment.
- 1996 February, Cuban authorities arrest or detain at least 150 dissidents, marking the most widespread crackdown on opposition groups in the country since the early 1960s.
- 1996 March 12. The Helms-Burton Act, which extends the U.S. embargo against Cuba to foreign companies is passed.
- 1998 January 21, 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.
- 1999 November 5, 6 year old Elián González is found in the Straits of Florida clinging to an inner tube.
Cuban leader
Fidel Castro amidst crowds in Brazil, 2003. In 2006 Castro had an emergency operation which led to a period out of the public eye for the first time since 1959. Presidential and other duties were performed by his brother and Vice President
Raúl Castro
- 2000 December 14 Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Cuba and signs accords aimed at boosting bilateral ties.
- 2001 January 1 Cuba celebrates the beginning of the millennium a year later than the majority of the western world. Official government line asserts that: "the second millennium and the 20th century are considered to end on 31 December of the year 2000." [5]
- 2001 June 23, Fidel Castro faints during a televised speech.
- 2002 January, Russia's last military base in Cuba, at Lourdes, closes down.
- 2002 May 6, US Under Secretary of State John Bolton accuses Cuba of trying to develop biological weapons, adding the country to Washington's list of "axis of evil" countries.
- 2002 May 12, Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter becomes the first U.S. president past or present to visit Cuba. He praises the Varela project and criticizes the U.S. embargo.
- 2003 April Cuban government arrest 78 writers and dissidents blaming U.S. provocation and interference from James Cason, the chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana.
- 2004 November 8, Ban on transactions in US dollars, and imposition of 10% tax on dollar-peso conversions introduced.
- 2005 May 20, Around 200 dissidents hold a public meeting, said by organisers to be the first such gathering since the 1959 revolution.[6]
- 2005 July 7 Hurricane Dennis causes widespread destruction and leaves 16 people dead.
- 2006 July 31, Raúl Castro assumes presidential duties as Fidel Castro recovers from an emergency operation.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
