This is a timeline of Cuban history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Cuba and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Cuba. See also the list of colonial governors of Cuba and list of presidents of Cuba.
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1492 | 27 October | Christopher Columbus arrives in Cuba and claims the island for Spain. |
| Year | Date | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1508 | Sebastián de Ocampo circumnavigates Cuba, confirming that it is an island. | ||
| 1510 | Spanish set out from Hispaniola. The conquest of Cuba begins. | ||
| 1511 | The first governor of Cuba, the Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar leads a group of settlers in Baracoa. | ||
| 1512 | Indigenous Cuban resistance leader Hatuey is burned at the stake. | ||
| 1519 | Havana founded as San Cristóbal de la Habana (north coast) | ||
| 1523 | Emperor Charles V authorizes 4,000 gold pesos for the construction of cotton mills. | ||
| 1527 | The first African slaves arrive in Cuba. | ||
| 1532 | The first slave rebellion is crushed. | ||
| 1537 | A French fleet briefly occupies Havana. | ||
| French corsairs blockade Santiago de Cuba. | |||
| 1542 | The Spanish crown abandons the encomienda colonial land settlement system. | ||
| 1553 | The Governor of Cuba relocates to Havana. | ||
| 1555 | French campaign against the Sudan usam | ||
| 1578 | French corsairs plunder Baracoa. | ||
| 1586 | The English privateer Francis Drake lands at Cape San Antonio but does not attack. | ||
| 1597 | Construction of the Morro Castle fortress is completed above the eastern entrance to Havana harbor. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1603 | Authorities decree that the sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death. | |
| 1607 | Havana is named capital of Cuba. | |
| 1628 | A Dutch fleet led by Piet Heyn plunders the Spanish fleet in Havana harbor. | |
| 1649 | An epidemic of yellow fever kills a third of the island's European population.[1] | |
| 1662 | An English fleet captained by Christopher Myngs captures Santiago de Cuba to open up trade with Jamaica. | |
| 1670 | The English withdraw after Spain recognises England's ownership of Jamaica. | |
| becomes Governor of Cuba. He serves for ten years. |
| Year | Date | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1728 | The University of Havana is founded. | ||
| 1734 | begins a 12-year tenure as Governor of Cuba. | ||
| 1741 | British Admiral Edward Vernon briefly captures Guantánamo Bay, renaming it Cumberland Bay, during the War of Jenkins' Ear. His troops withdraw after being decimated by fevers and raids from Spanish troops. | ||
| 1747 | Francisco Cajigal de la Vega begins a 13-year tenure as Governor of Cuba. | ||
| 1748 | Construction of Havana cathedral is completed. | ||
| 12 October | Battle of Havana. Skirmishes between British and Spanish fleets end indecisively on a strategic level. | ||
| 1762 | 5 March | A massive British expedition leaves Portsmouth to capture Havana. | |
| 30 July | British troops capture Havana during the Seven Years' War. | ||
| 1763 | British troops suffer atrocious losses to disease. They cede Cuba to Spain in the Treaty of Paris. | ||
| 1793 | Some 30,000 French refugees from a slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue, which becomes the Haitian revolution, arrive in Cuba. | ||
| 1799 | Salvador de Muro y Salazar becomes Governor of Cuba 1799–1812. |
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1812 | Juan Ruíz de Apodaca becomes governor of Cuba 1812–17. | |
| 1819 | 22 April | Settlers from Bordeaux and Louisiana found the first European settlement at Cienfuegos. |
| 1843 | Leopoldo O'Donnell, Duke of Tetuan becomes governor of Cuba 1843–48. | |
| 1844 | Known as the Year of the Lash, when an uprising of black slaves was brutally suppressed. | |
| 1851 | The filibustering Lopez Expedition was defeated by Spanish authorities. | |
| 1853 | 28 January | José Martí is born in Havana. |
| 1868 | The first war of Cuban independence, also known as the Ten Years' War, begins. It lasts until 1878. | |
| 10 October | Revolutionaries under the leadership of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes proclaim Cuban independence. | |
| 1869 | 10 April | An assembly of rebels against Spanish rule adopts the Guáimaro Constitution, which remains nominally in effect until the end of the Ten Years' War.[2] |
| 1878 | 10 February | The Pact of Zanjón, promising the end of slavery in Cuba, ends the Ten Years' War. |
| 1879 | August | A second uprising ("The Little War"), engineered by Antonio Maceo and Calixto García, begins. It is quelled by superior Spanish forces in the autumn of 1880. |
| 1886 | 7 October | Slavery is abolished in Cuba. |
| 1895 | 24 February | The Cuban revolution is relaunched under the leadership of José Martí and General Máximo Gómez. |
| 19 May | José Martí is killed by Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos. | |
| September | Spanish Captain-General Arsenio Martínez Campos is defeated at Peralejo and leaves Cuba in January 1896. | |
| 1896 | Cuban rebels led by Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez execute a successful invasion along the length of the island. Maceo is killed by Spanish forces in December. | |
| 1897 | Calixto Garcia takes a series of strategic fort complexes in the East, leaving the Spanish confined to coastal cities there. | |
| 1898 | 15 February | The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks while anchored in Havana harbor. |
| 10 December | The Treaty of Paris between Spain and the U.S. ends the Spanish–American War. Spain relinquishes sovereignty over Cuba. | |
| 1899 | 1 January | The Spanish colonial government withdraws and the last captain General Alfonso Jimenez Castellano hands over power to the North American Military Governor, General John Ruller Brooke. |
| 23 December | Leonard Wood becomes U.S. Provisional Governor of Cuba. |
| Year | Date | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | 5 March | The U.S. Platt Amendment stipulates the conditions for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. | |
| 12 June | The Constitutional Convention adopts the 1901 Constitution in its final form, including the provisions of the Platt Amendment. | ||
| 1902 | 20 May | The Cuban Republic is established under the 1901 Constitution. Tomás Estrada Palma takes office as president. | |
| 1906 | 29 September | Under attack from defeated political rivals, President Tomás Estrada Palma seeks U.S. intervention and U.S. troops reoccupy Cuba under Provisional Governor William Howard Taft. | |
| 13 October | Charles Magoon becomes Provisional Governor of Cuba | ||
| 1909 | 28 January | U.S. occupation ends. José Miguel Gómez of the Liberal Party becomes president. | |
| 1912 | May–June | The Gómez government suppresses the Negro Rebellion, a revolt on the part of Afro-Cubans. | |
| 1913 | 20 May | The presidency of Mario García Menocal begins. | |
| 1918 | 7 April | Cuba enters World War I on the side of the Allies. Upon Menocal's reelection, José Miguel Gómez and other Liberals launch a revolt known as the Chambelona War. The U.S. intervenes on behalf of Menocal's government. | |
| 1921 | 20 May | Alfredo Zayas becomes president. | |
| 1925 | 23 March | By the Hay-Quesada Treaty, the U.S. recognizes Cuban sovereignty over the Isle of Pines. | |
| 20 May | Gerardo Machado becomes president. | ||
| 1926 | 13 August | Fidel Castro is born in the province of Holguín. | |
| 1928 | 10 January | Julio Antonio Mella, a founder of the Communist Party in Cuba, is murdered in Mexico. | |
| 14 June | Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, known as Che Guevara, is born in Rosario, Argentina. | ||
| 1931 | 10 August | Old Mambi warriors Carlos Mendieta and Mario García Menocal land forces at Rio Verde in an attempt to overthrow Gerardo Machado. They are defeated by 14 August in military operations that include the first use of military aviation in Cuba. | |
| 1933 | 12 August | Gerardo Machado is forced to leave Cuba in the face of violent opposition on the part of ABC and Antonio Guiteras Holmes, a general strike, and pressure from senior officers of Cuban Armed Forces and U.S. Ambassador Sumner Welles. A provisional government is established, with Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada as president. | |
| 4 September | A group of military officers that includes Fulgencio Batista launches the Sergeants' Revolt and topples the provisional government. | ||
| 5 September | The five-day, five-man coalition government called the Pentarchy of 1933 lasted through 9 Sept.. | ||
| 10 September | Ramón Grau (one of the pentarchy) becomes president and continues the One Hundred Days Government. | ||
| 2 October | Enlisted men and sergeants loyal to Batista, joined by radical elements, force Army Officers from the Hotel Nacional in heavy fighting. | ||
| 9 November | Blas Hernández, his followers, and some ABC members make a stand in old Atarés Castle. They are defeated by Batista loyalists. Hernández surrenders and is murdered. | ||
| 1934 | 16 January | The One Hundred Days Government ends; Carlos Hevia serves briefly as president. | |
| 18 January | Manuel Márquez Sterling is president for a few hours, followed by Carlos Mendieta. | ||
| 16 June | ABC holds a demonstration at the Havana festival and its march is attacked by radical forces, including those of Antonio Guiteras. | ||
| 1935 | 8 May | Leading radical Antonio Guiteras is betrayed and dies fighting Batista forces. | |
| 1938 | September | The Communist party is legalized again. | |
| 1940 | 10 October | The 1940 Constitution, signed by the members of the Constitutional Assembly on 1 July, takes effect. It is suspended in 1952. | |
| 1941 | 9–11 December | Cuba declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.[3] | |
| 1943 | The Soviet Union opens an embassy in Havana. Its first ambassador is Andrei Gromyko.[4] | ||
| 1951 | 5 August | Eduardo Chibás, leader of the Ortodoxo party and mentor of Fidel Castro, commits suicide during a live radio broadcast. | |
| 1952 | 10 March | Former president Batista, supported by the army, seizes power once more. Ex-president Prío exiled to Miami, US. | |
| 1953 | 26 July | Some 160 revolutionaries under the command of Fidel Castro launch an attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Cespedes barracks in Bayamo | |
| 16 October | On trial for his role in the attack on the Moncada barracks, Fidel Castro defends himself with a speech later published as "History Will Absolve Me". | ||
| 1954 | September | Che Guevara arrives in Mexico City. | |
| November | Batista dissolves parliament and is elected constitutional president unopposed. | ||
| 1955 | May | Batista issues an amnesty that frees Fidel and other members of his movement from prison. | |
| June | Brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro are introduced to Che Guevara in Mexico City. | ||
| 1956 | 29 April | Autentico Assault on Goicuria Barracks in Matanzas fails.[5] [6] | |
| November | The yacht Granma sets out from Mexico to Cuba with 82 men on board, including Raúl Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. | ||
| 2 December | The Granma lands in Oriente Province. | ||
| 1957 | 17 January | Castro's guerrillas score their first success by sacking an army outpost on the south coast, and start gaining followers in both Cuba and abroad. | |
| 13 March | University students mount an attack on the Presidential Palace in Havana. Batista forewarned. Attackers mostly killed, others flee and are betrayed. | ||
| 28 May | Castro's 26 July movement, reinforced by militia led by Frank Pais, overwhelm an army post in El Uvero. | ||
| 19 July | Calixto Sánchez White leads a landing from the boat Corinthia at Cabonico in north Oriente of Auténtico and are defeated. | ||
| 30 July | Local police kill Frank País, a leader of the 26 July movement, in the streets of Santiago de Cuba. | ||
| 5 September | Forces loyal to Batista crush a naval revolt at Cayo Loco Naval Base in Cienfuegos.[7] | ||
| 1958 | February | Raúl Castro takes leadership of about 500 pre-existing Escopeteros guerrillas and opens a front in the Sierra de Cristal on Oriente's north coast. | |
| 13 March | U.S. suspends shipments of arms to Batista's forces. | ||
| 17 March | Castro calls for a general revolt. | ||
| 9 April | A general strike, organized by the 26 July movement, is partially observed. | ||
| May | Batista sends an army of 10,000 into the Sierra Maestra to destroy Castro's 300 armed guerrillas and their supporters. By August, the rebels had defeated the army's advance and captured a huge amount of weaponry. | ||
| 20–30 November | Thirty key positions at Guisa are taken. In the following month most cities in Oriente fall to rebel hands. | ||
| December | Guevara, William Alexander Morgan, and forces of the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, an organization of university students, attack Santa Clara. | ||
| 28 December | Rebel forces take Santa Clara. | ||
| 31 December | Camilo Cienfuegos leads revolutionary guerrillas to victory in Yaguajay; Huber Matos enters Santiago. | ||
| 1959 | 1 January | President Batista resigns and flees the country. Fidel Castro's column enters Santiago de Cuba. The revolutionaries starts military tribunals of captured military, with some receiving the death penalty. Various urban rebels, mainly associated with Directorio, seize HavanaCuban revolutionaries call a General Strike to ensure governmental control[8] | |
| 2 January | Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos arrive in Havana. | ||
| 5 January | Manuel Urrutia named President of Cuba | ||
| 8 January | Fidel Castro arrives at Havana, speaks to crowds at Camp Columbia. | ||
| 16 February | Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba. | ||
| March | Fabio Grobart is present at a series of meetings with Castro brothers, Guevara and Valdes at Cojimar | ||
| 20 April | Fidel Castro speaks at Princeton University, New Jersey.[9] | ||
| 17 May | The Cuban government enacts the Agrarian Reform Law, seizing large (mostly corporate and foreign) holdings of agricultural land and redistributing it to smaller land owners. The new holdings are limited to 1000acres. | ||
| 17 July | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado becomes President of Cuba, replacing Manuel Urrutia, who is forced to resign by Fidel Castro. Dorticós serves until 2 December 1976 | ||
| 28 October | Plane carrying Camilo Cienfuegos disappears during a night flight from Camagüey to Havana. He is presumed dead. | ||
| 11 December | Trial of revolutionary Huber Matos begins. Matos is found guilty of "treason and sedition". | ||
| 1960 | 4 March | The French freighter La Coubre explodes while unloading in Havana harbor, and Fidel Castro calls it sabotage by the U.S. on 5 March.[10] | |
| 17 March | U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower orders CIA director Allen Dulles to train Cuban exiles for a covert invasion of Cuba. | ||
| 6 April | U.S. Secretary of State Lester Mallory outlines objectives of embargo in a memo: "...inconspicuous as possible, makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government."[11] | ||
| 5 July | All U.S. businesses and commercial property in Cuba are nationalized at the direction of the Cuban government. | ||
| 19 October | U.S. imposes embargo prohibiting all exports to Cuba except foodstuffs and medical supplies. | ||
| 31 October | Cuban nationalization of all U.S. property in Cuba is completed. | ||
| 26 December | Operation Peter Pan (Operación Pedro Pan) begins, an operation transporting to the U.S. 14,000 children of parents opposed to the new government. The scheme continues until U.S. airports are closed to Cuban flights during 1962. | ||
| 1961 | U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. | ||
| 1 January | Cuban government initiates national literacy scheme. | ||
| March | Former rebel comandante Humberto Sorí Marin and Catholic leaders shot. | ||
| 15 April | Bay of Pigs invasion. | ||
| 18 April | Nikita Khrushchev writes to John F. Kennedy to end U.S. aggression against Cuba.[12] | ||
| 1962 | 31 January | Cuba expelled from the Organization of American States. | |
| 17 August | Central Intelligence Agency Director John McCone suggests that the Soviet Union is constructing offensive missile installations in Cuba. | ||
| 29 August | At a news conference, U.S. President John F. 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." | ||
| 31 August | President Kennedy is informed that the 29 August U-2 mission confirms the presence of surface-to-air missile batteries in Cuba. | ||
| 16 October | McGeorge Bundy informs President Kennedy that 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. | ||
| 22 October | President Kennedy addresses the nation on television, announcing a blockade on arms shipments to Cuba. | ||
| 23 October | 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. | ||
| 28 October | 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 | 21 November | U.S. ends Cuban blockade, satisfied that all bases are removed and Soviet jets will leave the island by 20 December. | |
| 1963 | October | 2nd Agrarian reform. | |
| November | Compulsory military service introduced. | ||
| 1964 | OAS enforce embargo against Cuba. | ||
| 1965 | 3 October | The Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) become the governing Communist Party of Cuba. | |
| 28 September | Fidel announces Cubans can emigrate, which launches the Camarioca boatlift and airlift.[13] | ||
| 1967 | 9 October | Che Guevara executed in La Higuera, Bolivia. | |
| 1968 | March | All private bars and restaurants are finally closed down. | |
| 1972 | Cuba becomes a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). | ||
| 1974 | Maternity leave bill introduced by the Cuban government. | ||
| 1975 | The Soviet Union engages in a massive airlift of Cuban forces into Angola. | ||
| The Family Code bill establishes the official goal of equal participation in the home. | |||
| July | OAS lifts the trade embargo and other sanctions. | ||
| 1976 | March | South African forces backing the UNITA rebel force withdraw from Angola. It is regarded as a victory for Cuban forces. | |
| 15 February | A referendum endorses the 1976 Constitution, which institutionalizes the principles of the Cuban Revolution. It takes effect of 24 February. | ||
| 6 October | Two time bombs 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. | ||
| 2 December | Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba. | ||
| 1977 | 1 January | Political and administrative division divides Cuba into fourteen provinces, 168 municipalities and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud. | |
| May | Fifty Cuban military personnel sent to Ethiopia.[14] | ||
| 1979 | 21 October | Huber Matos is released from prison after serving out his full term.[15] | |
| 1980 | April–October | The Mariel Boatlift. Cuban authorities allow up to 125,000 people to depart Cuba by boat from Mariel harbor for the U.S. The Cuban and U.S. governments agree to halt the exodus in October. | |
| 7 June | U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders the U.S. Justice Department to expel any Cubans who committed "serious crimes" in Cuba.[16] | ||
| 1983 | 25 October | United States invades the island of Grenada and clash with Cuban troops.[17] | |
| 1984 | Cuba reduces 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. | |
| 17 September | The last Cuban troops leave Ethiopia. | ||
| 1990 | 23 March | The U.S. launches TV Marti. | |
| 1991 | May | Cuba removed all troops from Angola. | |
| 26 December | Special Period The Soviet Union (Cuba's closest economic partner) formally dissolved, leading to a full loss of economic and military aid, causing a prolonged economic crisis through the 1990s. | ||
| 1992 | July | The National Assembly of Cuba passes the Constitutional Reform Law allowing for direct elections to the assembly by the Cuban people every five years.[18] | |
| 1993 | 6 November | The Cuban government opens state enterprises to private investment. | |
| 1994 | 5 August | Maleconazo Protests break out in Havana due to economic hardships amidst the Special Period. | |
| 1996 | February | Cuban authorities arrest or detain at least 150 dissidents, marking the most widespread crackdown on opposition groups since the early 1960s. | |
| 24 February | Cuban fighter jets shoot down two US-registered civilian aircraft over international waters, killing four men. | ||
| 12 March | In the U.S., the Helms-Burton Act extends the U.S. embargo against Cuba to foreign companies. | ||
| 1998 | 21 January | 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. | ||
| 5 November | Six-year/old Elián González is found clinging to an inner tube in the Straits of Florida. | ||
| 2000 | 14 December | Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Cuba and signs accords aimed at boosting bilateral ties. |
| 2001 | 23 June | Fidel Castro almost faints following a televised speech. | |
| 2002 | January | Russia's last military base in Cuba, at Lourdes, closes. | |
| 6 May | U.S. Under Secretary of State John R. Bolton accuses Cuba of trying to develop biological weapons, adding the country to Washington's list of "axis of evil" countries. | ||
| 12 May | Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits Cuba. He praises the Varela project and criticizes the U.S. embargo. | ||
| 2003 | April | The Cuban government arrests 78 writers and dissidents, blaming U.S. provocation and interference from James Cason, the chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana. | |
| 2005 | 20 May | Around 200 dissidents hold a public meeting, which its organizers call the first such gathering since the 1959 revolution.[19] | |
| 7 July | Hurricane Dennis causes widespread destruction in Cuba and leaves 16 people dead. | ||
| 2006 | 31 July | Raúl Castro assumes the duties of president of Cuba while Fidel Castro recovers from an emergency operation. | |
| 2008 | 19 February | Fidel Castro resigns as President of Cuba.[20] | |
| 24 February | Raúl is elected president by the National Assembly.[21] | ||
| 2014 | 17 December | Cuban Thaw U.S. President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro re-establish diplomatic ties between the two countries.[22] | |
| 2016 | 20 March | U.S. President Barack Obama begins a three-day visit to Cuba.[23] | |
| 25 November | The death of Fidel Castro is announced. "The commander in chief of the Cuban revolution died at 22:29 hours this evening [03:29 GMT 25 November]." | ||
| 2017 | 16 June | U.S. President Donald Trump cancels the previous administration's diplomatic agreements with Cuba, ending the Cuban Thaw. | |
| 2018 | 19 April | Miguel Díaz-Canel succeeds Raul Castro as President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, becoming the first non-Castro leader of the country since the Cuban Revolution. | |
| 2020 | 11 March | Cuba confirms its first case of COVID-19.[24] | |
| 2021 | 11–17 July | The largest protest against the Cuban communist government since 1959 breaks out due to shortages amidst the severe crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, before being suppressed by the government. | |
| 2022 | 25 September | Cuba holds a referendum on amending the Family Code of the Constitution, legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption. The referendum is passed with 66.85% of votes in favor. |