After The Revolution

1959

January 2. Manuel Urrutia is installed as President and José Miró Cardona as Prime Minister.

January 7. Castro arrives in Havana. The U.S. officially recognizes the new Cuban government.

February 7. Cuba's Constitution of 1940 is reinstated (it was suspended by General Batista after his coup in 1952).

February 16. Fidel Castro, Commander of the Rebel Army, replaces Miró Cardona as Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government.

March 3. The Cuban government nationalizes the Cuban Telephone Company, an affiliate of ITT, and reduces telephone rates.

March 26. A plot to assassinate Fidel Castro is uncovered. It involves pro-Batista exiles Rolando Masferrer and Ernesto de la Fe.

April 15-26. Castro visits the U.S. as a guest of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

May 17. Castro signs Agrarian Reform Act, which expropriates over 1,000 acres of farmlands and forbids foreign land ownership.

June. In Cairo, Che Guevara makes the first official contact with the Soviet Union.

July 16. After President Urrutia resigns, Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado becomes Cuba's 19th president.

July 26. Castro returns to his post of Prime Minister.

October 15. Raúl Castro becomes defense minister (the title is later changed to Minister of the Armed Forces).

October 19. Huber Matos, a leading figure in the revolutionary war, resigns his post as military commander of Camagüey province, along with 14 officers, because of the "rising influence of communism" in the revolution. He is arrested by Camilo Cienfuegos for treason.

October 25. Camilo Cienfuego's plane mysteriously disappears during a night flight.

1960

February 6. Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan arrives in Havana. The visit results in a trade agreement in which the Soviet Union agrees to purchase 5 million tons of sugar over a five-year period. The Soviets will supply Cuba with crude oil and petroleum products, as well as with wheat, iron, fertilizers, and machinery. They also provide Cuba with a $100 million credit at 2.5 percent interest.

February 29. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles rejects an offer from Cuba to begin negotiations because of Cuba's condition that the U.S. take no unilateral action that could damage the Cuban economy while the talks are in progress.

March 17. President Eisenhower approves a covert action plan against Cuba that includes the use of a "powerful propaganda campaign" designed to overthrow Castro. The plan includes:
a) the termination of sugar purchases
b) the end of oil deliveries
c) continuation of the arms embargo in effect since mid-1958
d) the organization of a paramilitary force of Cuban exiles to invade the island.

April 19. The first shipment of Soviet oil arrives in Havana.

May 8. Cuba and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.

May 17. Radio Swan, an anti-Castro radio station created by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) goes on the air in response to the Eisenhower-approved plan for covert operations. By the summer, several clandestine stations and CIA-funded stations in the U.S. join Radio Swan in broadcasting to Cuba.

July 6. President Eisenhower cancels the 700,000 tons of sugar remaining in Cuba’s quota for 1960.

July 8. The Soviet Union announces that it will purchase the 700,000 tons of sugar cut by the U.S..

July 23. China agrees to purchase 500,000 tons of sugar from Cuba each year for five years. This is the first commercial treaty between the two countries.

August. The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) is founded. It is run by Raúl Castro's wife, Vilma Espín Guilloys.

September 17. Cuba nationalizes all U.S. banks, including First National City Bank of New York, First National Bank of Boston and Chase Manhattan Bank.

September 18. Fidel Castro goes to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly.

October 13. As the Urban Reform Law goes into effect, 382 locally owned firms, including sugar mills, banks and large industries, are nationalized.

October 19. U.S. imposes a partial economic embargo on Cuba that excludes food and medicine.

October 24. Cuba nationalizes additional properties owned by American interests in response to the economic embargo imposed by the U.S.

December 26. A dozen Cuban children travel from Havana airport to the U.S., beginning Operation Pedro Pan.

1961

January 2. At the UN Security Council, Cuba charges that the U.S. is preparing an invasion.

January 3. The U.S. breaks off official diplomatic relations with Cuba.

January 25. Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo and a group of members of the Second Front of Escambray during the revolution arrive in Key West, Florida, on a fleet of three fishing boats.

February 16. Lino Fernandez and 500 of his men (who oppose the revolution) are captured and taken to jail in Santa Clara.

March 29. Cuban soldiers arrest CIA agent Carlos Antonio Rodríquez Cabo, aka El Gallego. He is accused of various acts of terrorism.

April 9. In Havana, a terrorist bomb explodes in the store El Encanto. Another bomb explodes near the Pepsi Cola factory.

April 13. Another explosion at the store El Encanto destroys the 7-story building.

April 15. Cuban airfields are bombed by "mystery planes" in order to destroy the Revolution’s air force. A total of 8 B-26 bombers attack airfields at Ciudad Libertad (in Havana), San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba. The attacks wipe out 27 percent of Cuba's fighter planes.

April 17. Cuban exiles, trained, armed and funded by the CIA, invade Cuba at Bay of Pigs (known in Cuba as Playa Girón). After three days of fighting the invading force is defeated by the Cuban army.

November 30. U.S. President John F. Kennedy authorizes Operation Mongoose, which aims to eliminate Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.

1962

February 4. Castro responds to Cuba's suspension from the OAS with the Second Declaration of Havana, calling upon the people of Latin America to rise up against imperialism and declaring, "The duty of a revolutionary is to make the revolution."

February 7. President Kennedy broadens the partial trade restrictions imposed by Eisenhower to a ban on all trade with Cuba, except for non-subsidized sale of foods and medicines.

February 15. An assortment of U.S. naval vessels (including aircraft carriers) gather about the Cuban coastline.

March. Food rationing begins.

March 23. President Kennedy expands the Cuban embargo to include imports of all goods made from or containing Cuban materials, even if made in other countries.

Between January and August, 5,780 counterrevolutionary actions are reportedly carried out in Cuba. 716 involve sabotage of important economic objectives.

September 27. In Havana, five CIA agents are arrested and large quantities of weapons are confiscated.

October 2. U.S. government sends cables to all Latin American governments and NATO countries outlining new measures to tighten the economic embargo.

October 14. The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. reconnaissance aircraft photograph Soviet construction of intermediate-range missile sites in Cuba.

President Kennedy demands the withdrawal of Soviet missiles and imposes a naval blockade. Kruschev agrees on condition that Cuba receives guarantee of non-aggression from the U.S. and Jupiter missiles aimed at the Soviet Union are removed from Turkey.

October 25. Soviet officials agree to remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba.

1963

April 27. Castro begins a 5-week visit to the Soviet Union.

June 19. President Kennedy authorizes the CIA to renew support for exile attacks on selected Cuban targets.

November 17. President Kennedy meets with French journalist Jean Daniel and asks that he tell Castro that he is now ready to negotiate normal relations and drop the embargo. According to former Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, "If Kennedy had lived I am confident that he would have negotiated that agreement and dropped the embargo because he was upset with the way the Soviet Union was playing a strong role in Cuba and Latin America…"

November 22. U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

1964

July 26. The Organization of American States (OAS) adopts mandatory sanctions against Cuba, requiring all members to sever diplomatic and trade relations. Only Mexico refuses to comply.

1965

April 1. Che Guevara resigns his Cuban citizenship and leaves to wage armed struggle in Latin America.

October 3. The new Communsit Party of Cuba is inaugurated.

October 10. Hundreds of Cubans begin to leave the island from Camarioca (a small fishing port). The port is opened to foreign boats, and within two months about 7,500 refugees have arrived in the U.S.

1966

November 2. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the Cuban Adjustment Act, which exempts Cuban immigrants from general U.S. migration laws. Any Cuban who has reached U.S. territory since January 1, 1959 is eligible for permanent residency after two years. 123,000 Cubans immediately apply for permanent status.

1967

1968

January 23. Raul Castro (Minister of the Armed Forces and Second Secretary to the Cuban Communist Party, convenes a meeting of the party's Central Committee to hold a trial of 37 members (including Anibal Escalante) for "micro factionalist activities" which include "encouraging the Soviet Union to apply economic sanctions against Cuba." The charges amount to treason. It is asserted that had the micro faction succeeded, "it would have subordinated Cuban sovereignty" to the Soviets.

March 13. Castro launches the "revolutionary offensive" which nationalizes 55,000 small businesses and leads to state control of nearly all trades and services.

1969

July 26. Castro announces the start of a campaign to produce ten million tons of sugar in the next harvest.

1970

1972

1973

April 6. Eastern Airlines flight 8894 lands at Miami International Airport at 11:55 A.M. with the last 84 passengers of the Cuban airlift. Since 1965, 3,049 flights had brought 260,561 Cubans to the U.S., making this the largest airborne refugee operation in American history.

1975

July 28. The Organization of American States (OAS) votes to end political and economic sanctions against Cuba. This opens the way for each member nation to determine for itself if wants to have diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba, which many had already begun to establish.

August 21. The U.S. announces that it will allow foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to sell products in Cuba, and that it would no longer penalize other nations for trade with Cuba.

November 5. At the request of the newly inaugurated Angolan government, Cuba sends a large contingent of troops to help the Angolans repel an invasion by South African forces launched on October 23.

1976

October 6. Cuban airliner crashes after an explosion nine minutes out of Barbados, killing 73 people, most of them teenagers. Luis Posada Carrilles, an anti-Castro activist trained by the CIA, is charged with the bombing. In 1998, Carrilles admits to (and later denies) over a decade of anti-Castro terrorist activities funded by the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), a Miami-based non-profit organization and the most powerful lobby in Washington.

October 15. At a mass funeral for the victims of the October 6 bombing, Castro blames the sabotage on the CIA.

October. Orlando Bosch is arrested in Venezuela in connection with downing of the Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

December 3. Fidel Castro is elected president of the State Council, which, under the new constitution, consolidates the previous positions of president and prime minister. The new president serves as head of state, head of government, and commander in chief of the Armed Forces.

1977

April 27. The U.S. and Cuba sign a maritime boundary and fishing rights accord.

September. The U.S. and Cuba open interests sections in each other’s capitals.

1978

July 31. Castro calls for the removal of U.S. military bases from Guantanamo Bay. Bombings of the Cuban United Nations Mission, the Cuban Interests Section, and the Soviet Mission by anti-Castro exile groups follow throughout the fall.

September 9. In New York, Cuban exiles bomb the Cuban Mission to the United Nations.

1979

June 19. In the U.S., Rep. Ted Weiss (D-NY) introduces unsuccessful legislation to end the U.S. trade blockade against Cuba and re-establish diplomatic relations.

1980

March. Farmers are allowed to sell the surplus to their state quotas in "farmer's markets" where prices are unregulated and transactions are between private individuals.

April 1. Twelve people seeking asylum crash a minibus through the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana. Within the week, the Cuban government removes the guards from the embassy and Peru opens the embassy grounds to those who wish to enter. Over 7,000 Cubans storm the Peruvian embassy seeking asylum.

1981

1982

1983

1984

May 14. The U.S. Department of Defense reports that it will spend $43 million to refurbish Guantanamo Naval Base.

June 29. U.S. Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson leaves Cuba after a series of meetings that result in the release of 26 prisoners, further openings for the church in Cuba, and the agreement to open talks on immigration issues with the U.S.

1985

January 24. Five U.S. Catholic Church leaders meet with Castro and high Cuban officials. This follows the opening earlier in the month of the Office of Religious Affairs, which signals improved relations between churches and the Cuban government.

May 20. RADIO MARTÍ, backed by Reagan Republicans and Cuban hard-liners, begins to broadcast news and information from the U.S. to Cuba.

1986

April 11. The Soviet Union agrees to a 5-year, $3 billion program of economic credit and aid to Cuba.

1987

March 11. The United Nations Human Rights Commission votes down a U.S. resolution that harshly criticizes Cuba for alleged human rights violations.

July 6. Cuban television begins airing a 7-part documentary about the espionage activities carried out by U.S. officials stationed in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

1988

1990

June. The Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Miami is bombed for exhibiting work by artists living in Cuba.

1991

October. After Cuba's Fourth Party Congress, only five of the Political Bureau's members from 1975 are still at their posts.

1993

1994

July 13. At least 35 men, women and children die at sea when their tugboat (called the "13 de Marzo") sinks seven miles out of Havana. 31 survivors are picked up by the coast guard.

September 9. A migration agreement is reached between U.S. and Cuba, allowing for a minimum of 20,000 immigrants per year.

1995

May 2. An Immigration agreement is reaffirmed by Cuba and the U.S., providing for the direct return of rafters to the island.

October. Concilio Cubano is formed, bringing together over 100 political, humanitarian, union and professional groups that agree on five points: a nonviolent stance, an amnesty for all political prisoners, an orderly transition to democracy, a juridical system that assures human rights, and the right of all Cubans worldwide to participate in the transition.

1996

March 12. President Clinton signs the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act (also known as the Helms-Burton Act) which imposes penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba, permits U.S. citizens to sue foreign investors who make use of American-owned property seized by the Cuban government, and denies entry into the U.S. to such foreign investors.

1997

November 18. A U.S. defense intelligence report concludes that "Cuba does not pose a significant military threat to the U.S. or to other countries I the region."

1998

May – June. European countries call for an end to the embargo. Some warn that Title III of the Helms-Burton Act contradicts international law and may cause problems if not revoked.

1999