1953: Fidel Castro leads a revolt against the Batista regime. Although the attack is unsuccessful, it inspires the 26th of July Movement and is considered the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. Castro is jailed but eventually released and leaves for Mexico, where he continues to muster revolutionary forces.
1956: Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, the Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and a small band of guerrillas land in Cuba. Most of the group are killed, but a few make their way into the Sierra Maestra mountain range, where they recruit, rearm, and initiate a guerrilla war against Batista’s government. Because of strict censorship of the news, most Cubans are unaware that Fidel is still alive or that the 26th of July guerrillas are winning the war against Batista’s forces.
1959: In January, Castro and the rebels triumphantly enter Havana; Castro becomes prime minister, with his brother Raúl as commander in chief. All U.S. businesses in Cuba are eventually nationalized by the Cuban government.
1961: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba. A U.S.-sponsored invasion by counterrevolutionaries at the Bay of Pigs is quickly defeated by the Cuban military.
The Cuban Literacy Campaign to abolish illiteracy raises the official literacy rate from approximately 60 percent to 96 percent within one year. United Nations observers declare Cuba an “illiteracy-free” nation.
Castro declares Cuba a socialist state and develops an alliance with the Soviet Union. Many upper-and middle-class Cubans leave for the United States.
1962: The United States imposes an embargo on Cuba.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba, brings the two powers close to nuclear war.
1965: The Communist Party of Cuba, the only official political party, is formally established. There is another exodus of Cubans to the United States.
1976: The 1976 constitution institutionalizes the principals of the Cuban Revolution; Fidel Castro becomes president.
The flow of people northward continues. Some who leave Cuba fear repression from the government and seek political asylum in the United States; others leave for economic reasons as the Cuban economy falters through the 1970s and 1980s.
1980: Tensions between the United States and Cuba over immigration come to a head, leading to the Mariel boatlift.
1982: President Ronald Reagan adds Cuba to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism for its support of revolutionary movements in Latin America and Africa.
1991: The Cuban economy suffers after the collapse of the Soviet Union and a tightening of the U.S. embargo.
1994: A crisis arises when Castro announces that anyone who wants to leave Cuba may do so. People take to the Florida straits on rafts and small, unseaworthy boats. Many lives are lost.
2002: A museum dedicated to exploring and preserving the history of the Taíno people opens in Baracoa.
2004: The first census to investigate current-day Taíno descendants is announced.
2008: Fidel Castro retires and Raúl Castro takes over as president, promising to consult his older brother on all important matters. Relations with the European Union, Russia, and China begin to improve.
2011: Reforms encouraging private enterprise are approved by the Cuban government.
2013: Raúl Castro is reelected by the National Assembly and says he will stand down in 2018.
2015: The United States removes Cuba from its list of states that sponsor terrorism. Cuba and the United States reopen embassies, and some travel and trade restrictions are eased.
2016: U.S. president Barack Obama visits Cuba, raising hopes for a new era of improved diplomatic and economic relations, though the embargo remains in place.
Fidel Castro dies at age ninety.
2017: U.S. president Donald Trump announces a rollback of recently improved U.S.-Cuba relations.
Raúl Castro’s Communist regime continues. Cuba’s literacy rate remains one of the highest in the world, variously reported as 99.75 percent to 99.9 percent.