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1492 Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba.
1511 Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés
conquer Cuba; Velázquez appointed Governor.
1515 Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founded Havana
, Cuba.
1519 Havana
moved from the Southern to Northern part of Cuba.
1829 Slave trade: HMS ''Pickle'' captures the armed slave ship ''Voladora'' off the coast of Cuba.
1875 Notorious New York City
politician Boss Tweed
escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then to Spain
.
1898 Spanish-American War
: The USS ''Maine'' explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba for then unknown reasons killing more than 260. This event helped lead the United States
to declare war on Spain
.
1898 Spanish-American War
: The United States Navy
begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish
merchant ship.
1899 End of Spanish
rule in Cuba.
1901 The U.S. Congress passes the Platt amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops.
1901 Cuba becomes US protectorate
1902 Cuba gains independence from the United States
1903 Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States
"in perpetuity"
1909 United States
troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War
.
1911 The destroyer ''USS Terry'' makes the first airplane
rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana
, Cuba.
1912 U.S. Marines land on Cuba
1926 Hurricane kills 650 in Cuba
1932 Tornado
and huge waves kills about thousand in Santa Crus del Sure in Cuba
1939 Holocaust: The SS ''St. Louis'', a ship carrying a cargo of 963 Jew
ish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida
after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe
, most of its passengers later die in Nazi
concentration camps.
1946 Havana Conference begins between US organized crime
bosses in Havana
, Cuba
1952 A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southern Florida
the next day. It is the earliest reported landfall from a tropical storm, and the earliest formation of a tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin.
1952 General Fulgencio Batista
takes power in Cuba - again
1956 Fidel Castro
and Che Guevara
depart from Tuxpan, Mexico
enroute to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht ''Granma'' with 82 men. After the ship passes a storm, it lands at Belici, Cuba, on December 2
1956 Fidel Castro
and his followers land on Cuba in the boat ''Granma''.
1958 Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio
. They release him 28 hours later
1958 In Cuba, ''Radio Rebelde'', radio of rebels of Fidel Castro
, begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra
1958 Rebel troops under Che Guevara
begin to invade Santa Clara in Cuba
1959 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista
flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro
advan
1959 In Cuba rebel troops lead by Che Guevara
and Camilo Cienfuegos enter Havana
.
1959 The United States
recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro
.
1959 Cuban communists execute 71 supporters of Fulgencio Batista
.
1959 Fidel Castro
becomes Premier of Cuba.
1959 Jesus Sosa Blanco, murderer of 108 people, executed in Cuba.
1960 August 6 — Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States
embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1960 December 2 — U.S.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
authorizes the use of $1M for the relief and resettlement of Cuban
refugees in Florida
. Cuban refugees have been arriving in Florida at the rate of 1,000 a week.
1961 President Dwight Eisenhower announces that the United States
has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.
1961 The Bay of Pigs Invasion
of Cuba begins, ending in failure April 19.
1962 A trade pact is signed between Cuba and the Soviet Union
.
1962 The Organization of American States
(OAS) suspends Cuba's membership.
1962 The U.S. announces its trade embargo against Cuba.
1962 The United States
Government bans all U.S.-related Cuban imports and exports.
1962 A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs
attackers.
1962 The Soviet Union
agrees to send arms to Cuba.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapon
s being installed. A stand-off then ensues the next day between the United States
and the Soviet Union
, putting the entire world under threat of a nuclear war.
1962 In a televised address, U.S. President John F. Kennedy
announces to the nation the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union
leader Nikita Khrushchev
announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
1962 The Soviets begin dismantling their missiles in Cuba.
1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union
agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy
ends the quarantine of the Caribbean
nation.
1962 Cuba releases last of the 1,113 participants of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.
1963 October 24 -Cuban contemporary artist Josignacio is born.
1963]]
1963 Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States
citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy
Administration.
1964 A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States
blockade of Cuba.
1964 Cuba cuts off the normal water supply to the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, in reprisal for the U.S. seizure 4 days earlier of 4 Cuban fishing boats off the coast of Florida
.
1965 U.S. troops are sent to the Dominican Republic
by President Lyndon B. Johnson
, "for the stated purpose of protecting US citizens and preventing an alleged Communist takeover of the country", thus thwarting the possibility of "another Cuba".
1965 The first group of Cuban refugees travels to the USA.
1965 Freedom Flights begin: Cuba and the United States
formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States (by 1971 250,000 Cubans take advantage of this program).
1966 Fidel Castro
blames China for spreading anti-Soviet propaganda among Cuban soldiers.
1966 The Cuban Adjustment Act comes into force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States
.
1970 October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British
Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec
terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada
grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
1976 Cuba's current constitution
is enacted.
1977 An Aeroflot plane crashes in Cuba, killing 69 people.
1978 Ethiopia
admits that its troops are fighting with the aid of Cuban soldiers against Somalia
n troops in Ogaden.
1980 The Mariel boatlift from Cuba begins.
1980 The Dominican embassy siege ends with all hostages released and the guerrillas flying to Cuba.
1981 Cuba suffers a major outbreak of Dengue fever, with 344 203 cases.
1989 Cuban
troops begin withdrawing from Angola
.
1990 Propaganda
: The United States
begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba.
1993 The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec
.
1995 Argentine
national Guillermo "Bill" Gaede is arrested in Phoenix, Arizona
on charges of industrial espionage. His sales to Cuba, China
, North Korea
and Iran
are believed to have involved Intel and AMD trade secrets worth USD$10-20 million.
1997 The remains of Che Guevara
are returned to Cuba for burial, alongside some of his other comrades.
1997 The remains of Che Guevara
are laid to rest with full military honours in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution thirty-nine years before.
2000 In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida
and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC, ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
2001 Hurricane Michelle hits Cuba, destroying crops and thousands of homes.
2002 Former President Jimmy Carter
arrives in Cuba for a 5-day visit with Fidel Castro
, becoming the first U.S. President, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2002 The US State Department releases a report naming 7 state sponsors of terrorism: Iran
,Iraq
,Cuba,Libya
,North Korea
,Sudan
,and Syria
.
2004 Hurricane Charley kills 27 people in Florida
after killing 4 in Cuba and 1 in Jamaica
. Charley made landfall near Cayo Costa, FL as a Category 4 hurricane
. Charley was the most intense hurricane to strike the United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
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Timeline
