A chronology of key events
1492 - The navigator Christopher Columbus claims Cuba for Spain.
1526 - Importing of slaves from Africa begins.
1762 - Havana captured by a British force led by Admiral George Pocock
and Lord Albemarle.
1763 - Havana returned to Spain by the Treaty of Paris.
Wars of independence
1868-78 - Ten Years War of independence ends in a truce with Spain
promising reforms and greater autonomy - promises that were mostly never
met.
1886 - Slavery abolished.
1895-98 - Jose Marti leads a second war of independence; US declares war
on Spain.
1898 - US defeats Spain, which gives up all claims to Cuba and cedes it
to the US.
US tutelage
1902 - Cuba becomes independent with Tomas Estrada Palma as its
president; however, the Platt Amendment keeps the island under US
protection and gives the US the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.
1906-09 - Estrada resigns and the US occupies Cuba following a rebellion
led by Jose Miguel Gomez.
1909 - Jose Miguel Gomez becomes president following elections
supervised by the US, but is soon tarred by corruption.
1912 - US forces return to Cuba to help put down black protests against
discrimination.
1924 - Gerado Machado institutes vigorous measures, forwarding mining,
agriculture and public works, but subsequently establishing a brutal
dictatorship.
1925 - Socialist Party founded, forming the basis of the Communist Party.
1933 - Machado overthrown in a coup led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista.
1934 - The US abandons its right to intervene in Cuba's internal
affairs, revises Cuba's sugar quota and changes tariffs to favour Cuba.
1944 - Batista retires and is succeeded by the civilian Ramon Gray San
Martin.
1953 - Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful revolt against the Batista regime.
1956 - Castro lands in eastern Cuba from Mexico and takes to the Sierra
Maestra mountains where, aided by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he wages a
guerrilla war.
1958 - The US withdraws military aid to Batista.
Triumph of the revolution
1959 - Castro leads a 9,000-strong guerrilla army into Havana, forcing
Batista to flee. Castro becomes prime minister, his brother, Raul,
becomes his deputy and Guevara becomes third in command.
1960 - All US businesses in Cuba are nationalised without compensation;
US breaks off diplomatic relations with Havana.
1961 - US sponsors an abortive invasion by Cuban exiles at the Bay of
Pigs; Castro proclaims Cuba a communist state and begins to ally it with
the USSR.
1962 - Cuban missile crisis ignites when, fearing a US invasion, Castro
agrees to allow the USSR to deploy nuclear missiles on the island. The
crisis was subsequently resolved when the USSR agreed to remove the
missiles in return for the withdrawal of US nuclear missiles from Turkey.
1965 - Cuba's sole political party renamed the Cuban Communist Party.
1972 - Cuba becomes a full member of the Soviet-based Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance.
Interventions in Africa
1976 - Cuban Communist Party approves a new socialist constitution;
Castro elected president.
1976-81 - Cuba sends troops first to help Angola's left-wing MPLA
withstand a joint onslaught by South Africa, Unita and the FNLA and,
later, to help the Ethiopian regime defeat the Eritreans and Somalis.
1980 - Around 125,000 Cubans, many of them released convicts, flee to
the US.
1982 - Cuba, together with other Latin American states, gives Argentina
moral support in its dispute with Britain over the Falkland islands.
1988 - Cuba agrees to withdraw its troops from Angola following an
agreement with South Africa.
Surviving without the USSR
1991 - Soviet military advisers leave Cuba following the collapse of the
USSR.
1993 - The US tightens its embargo on Cuba, which introduces some market
reforms in order to stem the deterioration of its economy. These include
the legalisation of the US dollar, the transformation of many state
farms into semi-autonomous cooperatives, and the legalisation of limited
individual private enterprise.
1994 - Cuba signs an agreement with the US according to which the US
agrees to admit 20,000 Cubans a year in return for Cuba halting the
exodus of refugees.
1996 - US trade embargo made permanent in response to Cuba's shooting
down of two US aircraft operated by Miami-based Cuban exiles.
1998 - Pope John Paul II visits Cuba.
1998 - The US eases restrictions on the sending of money to relatives by
Cuban Americans.
1999 November - Cuban child Elian Gonzalez is picked up off the Florida
coast after the boat in which his mother, stepfather and others had
tried to escape to the US capsized. A huge campaign by Miami-based Cuban
exiles begins with the aim of preventing Elian from rejoining his father
in Cuba and of making him stay with relatives in Miami.
2000 June - Elian allowed to rejoin his father in Cuba after prolonged
court battles.
2000 October - US House of Representatives approves the sale of food and
medicines to Cuba.
2000 December - Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Cuba and signs
accords aimed at boosting bilateral ties.
2001 October - Cuba angrily criticises Russia's decision to shut down
the the Lourdes radio-electronic centre on the island, saying President
Putin took the decision as "a special gift" to US President George W
Bush ahead of a meeting between the two.
2002 January - Prisoners taken during US-led action in Afghanistan are
flown into Guantanamo Bay for interrogation as al-Qaeda suspects.
2002 January - Russia's last military base in Cuba, at Lourdes, closes down.
2002 April - Diplomatic crisis after UN Human Rights Commission again
criticises Cuba's rights record. The resolution is sponsored by Uruguay
and supported by many of Cuba's former allies including Mexico. Uruguay
breaks off ties with Cuba after Castro says it is a US lackey.
2002 May - 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 - Former US president Jimmy Carter makes a goodwill visit which
includes a tour of scientific centres, in response to US allegations
about biological weapons. Carter is the first former or serving US
president to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution.
2002 June - National Assembly amends the constitution to make socialist
system of government permanent and untouchable. Castro called for the
vote following criticisms from US President George W Bush.
Dissidents jailed
2003 March-April - Crackdown on dissidents draws international
condemnation. Seventy-five people are jailed for terms of up to 28
years; three men who hijacked a ferry in an attempt to reach the US are
executed.
2003 June - EU halts high-level official visits to Cuba in protest at
the country's recent human rights record.
2004 April - UN Human Rights Commission censures Cuba over its rights
record. Cuban foreign minister describes resolution - which passed by
single vote - as "ridiculous".
2004 May - US sanctions restrict US-Cuba family visits and cash
remittances from expatriates.
2004 October - President Castro announces ban on transactions in US
dollars, and imposes 10% tax on dollar-peso conversions.
2005 January - Havana says it is resuming diplomatic contacts with the
EU, frozen in 2003 following a crackdown on dissidents.
2005 May - Around 200 dissidents hold a public meeting, said by
organisers to be the first such gathering since the 1959 revolution.
2005 July - Hurricane Dennis causes widespread destruction and leaves 16
people dead.
2006 February - Propaganda war in Havana as President Castro unveils a
monument which blocks the view of illuminated messages - some of them
about human rights - displayed on the US mission building.
Castro hospitalised
2006 December - Fidel Castro's failure to appear at a parade to mark the
50th anniversary of his return to Cuba from exile prompts renewed
speculation about his future.
2007 April - A lawyer and a journalist are given lengthy jail terms
after secret trials, which rights activists see as a sign of a crackdown
on opposition activity.
2007 May - Castro fails to appear at Havana's annual May Day parade.
Days later he says he has had several operations.
Anger as the US drops charges against veteran anti-Castro militant Luis
Posada Carriles, who is a former CIA operative and Cuba's "Public Enemy
No. 1" accused of downing a Cuban airliner.
2007 July - First time since 1959 that Revolution Day is celebrated
without Castro present.
Castro issues statement on first anniversary of power handover saying he
is fighting for full recovery.
2007 September - Castro gives interview to Cuban TV. It is his first
television appearance in more than three months.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1203355.stm
Published: 2007/10/11 12:08:08 GMT
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