1929
October. The Wall Street crash drags Cuba into its worse economic crisis. From 1928 to 1932, the price of sugar drops from 2.18 cents per pound to an all-time low of 0.57 cents.The sugar crop value totals $225,100,000.
March. A bill is introduced in Congress stating that "any Cuban who seeks the intervention or interference of a foreign power in the internal or external development of the national life" will be imprisoned for life. Under U.S. pressure, Machado vetoes the proposal.
By the end of the year, tobacco exports represent a total value of $43,067,000.
1930
January. The government announces a general reduction in the salaries of all public employees (except soldiers), and a new law forbids all public demonstrations by political parties or groups not legally registered.
March. Throughout the island, masses protest the government's delay in paying salaries of teachers and agricultural workers.
May 19. In Artemisa (near Havana) a meeting of Nationalists is interrupted by a group of soldiers. Eight people are killed and several dozen injured. The tragedy creates a national commotion and many national leaders are arrested.
May 28. Railroad workers declare a general strike. The army takes over the running of the trains, and several labor leaders are arrested.
May 30. Quoted in an article in the Diario de la Marina, Gerardo Machado takes full responsibility for the army's action in Artemisa on May 19.
June. Former President Mario G. Menocal makes statements critical of the government.
September 30. Tipped by José Soler of a planned demonstration by the University Student Directorate, police block the streets around the University of Havana and confront the students. After several arrests, Directorio leader Rafael Trejo is fatally wounded.
October 1. Machado's government suspends constitutional guarantees, charging that the students are "following orders from Moscow." Machado warns that he will act "without weakness or hesitation."
November 11. In Pinar del Río, Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara and several other cities, students lead violent demonstrations against the government.
By the end of November all schools are closed in Cuba, and Diario de la Marina, the oldest newspaper on the island, is forced to suspend publication.
December 28. The Havana Yacht Club is closed down by police on the allegation that it is being used by "conspirators" and enemies of the government.
1931
January 4. The entire membership of the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario is arrested. They remain in prison until March.
January 29. To avoid a decline in revenues, the government issues an Emergency Tax Law which creates a series of new taxes and increases several old ones.
February 14. 85 university professors are indicted on charges of sedition and conspiracy to overthrow the government. Among these is Dr. Ramón Grau San Martín.
June 21. Congress authorizes the suspension of constitutional guarantees.
June 30. The Supreme Court rejects all the arguments presented against the Emergency Tax Law issued on January 29.
July. Rumors circulate throughout Cuba about an imminent revolution.
July 9. Captain Calvo, chief of the government's repressive corps, is shot from a passing car and killed. After this event, terrorism and brutality become weapons used frequently by the government and the opposition.
August 10. Mendieta and Menocal attempt an uprising in the interior of the island, supposedly coordinated with members of Machado's army.
August 14. Mendieta and Menocal are easily captured in Río Verde, Pinar del Río.
September. A secret political organization is formed by Dr. Joaquín Martínez Saenz. Known as the ABC, their aim is the punishment of principal members of Machado's government in retribution for their bloody aggression against the opposition.
December 23. Machado announces in the Diario de la Marina that he will stay in office until May 20, 1935, "not a minute more or a minute less."
1932
February 6. Camilo Cienfuegos is born in the Havana neighborhood called La Vibora.
1933
As the year begins, Machado is deeply entrenched in power, using official brutality in an attempt to crush the opposition.
March. In Miami, a revolutionary junta is created including representatives from the principal opposition to Machado.
May 8. U.S. ambassador Benjamin Sumner Welles arrives in Havana. His background includes diplomatic experience in the Dominican Republic.
May 11. Sumner Welles and President Machado meet for the first time.
July 1. A meeting mediated by Sumner Welles takes place at the American Embassy in Havana, including members of the ABC, the OCRE, the Nationalists and others.
July 2. In the Diario de la Marina, Cosme de la Torriente asserts that the National Union is in favor of returning to the Constitution of 1901.
July 21. Sumner Welles insists on the restitution of constitutional guarantees, and Machado responds in a stern tone: "The re-establishment of the guarantees is a prerogative of the President of Cuba and will be done when the President considers it necessary."
July 25. Bus drivers declare a general strike.
July 26. The government approves a law that gives a general amnesty to all prisoners.
July 27. Machado addresses the Congress. "The mediation of Mr. Welles," he says, "cannot damage our sovereignty, because it is a result of his spontaneous desire and not of any instructions received from the government of the United States…" He reiterates that he will remain in office until May 20, 1935.
August 1. Streetcar workers join the strike.
August 4. The strike of bus drivers grows into a general strike that nearly paralyzes Havana. To break the strike, Machado reaches a compromise with Communist leaders, but before any action can be taken, the announcement of his resignation by a radio station sends jubilant crowds to the streets. As the crowds march towards the presidential palace they are met by police and about 20 people are killed, others injured.
August 9. The strike spreads throughout the island.
August 12. After an anti-Machado conspiracy in the army is forced into the open, a group of officers take possession of some military barracks and proclaim a rebellion against the government. Machado visits the Columbia Military Barracks to assess the situation, and a group of officers that includes Julio Sanguily and Erasmo Delgado inform him that to save Cuba from intervention he should resign. Machado resigns the presidency, and flies to Nassau in the Bahamas. Carlos M. Céspedes, the son of Cuba's legendary leader, takes over as provisional president.
August 13. Without consulting with the new President, U.S. Ambassador Sumner Welles invites leaders of the ABC to take part in Cuba's new provisional government.
August 14. Provisional President Carlos M. Céspedes announces his new cabinet, which includes fewer ABC members than Welles promised.
August 24. The Student Directory issues a Manifesto-Program to the Cuban People. The document is highly critical of the provisional government, the ABC, and the political power structure in Cuba.
August 26. At the Columbia military barracks, a "Junta de los Ocho," formed by dissatisfied sergeants, begin to meet in the enlisted men's club. The junta includes Sergeants Pablo Rodríquez, Fulgencio Batista, Eleuterio Pedraza and others.
September 5. In an uprising known as the "Revolt of the Sergeants," Fulgencio Batista takes over control of the island. Céspedes and his cabinet abandon the Presidential palace the next day.
September 5. The ABC declines all responsibility for the revolt.
September 10. From the balcony of the Presidential Palace, Ramón Grau San Martín takes the oath of office in front of large crowds. This government lasts 100 days, but engineers radical changes in Cuban society. It nullifies the Platt Amendment (except for the Guantánamo naval base lease) sets up an 8-hour working day, establishes a Department of Labor, opens the university to the poor, grants peasants the right to the land they were farming, gives women the right to vote, and reduces electricity rates by 40 percent. The new government includes Antonio Guiteras as Vice President. He is credited with keeping this government together for the time it lasts. U.S. Ambassador Sumner Welles refers to these changes as "communistic" and "irresponsible," and the U.S. government never recognizes the Grau-Guiteras government.
September 15. An article in the New York Times quotes students from the Directorio, who assert that their movement compares "most closely with the new revolutionary Republic of Spain."
September 16. In the front page of El País, Guiteras states: "In our capitalist system, no government has been so ready to defend the interests of workers and peasants as the present revolutionary government. Nevertheless, induced by American companies, the workers are unconsciously helping in trying to topple the government... It is essential that the worker become aware of the reality we are facing today. It is impossible for the masses to gain political control; thus, instead of opposing the revolutionary government they should cooperate with it to obtain the satisfaction of the most immediate demands of the workers, and to avoid being an instrument of imperialist companies. The National Confederation of Workers will be responsible before History for the setback that the masses will suffer if we give the Americans a pretext to intervene."
September 20. Decree No. 1693 establishes an eight-hour day for workers, and Decree No. 1703 requires that all professionals (lawyers, physicians, architects, etc.) become members of their respective professional organizations in order to continue practicing.
September 22. The Student Left Wing, (Ala Izquierda Estudiantil) formed by students who have moved away from the University Student Directorate, begins to protest the removal of certain professors from Havana schools.
September 29. The police uses weapons to disperse a demonstration organized by the Communist party to honor Julio Antonio Mella, whose ashes were just brought back from Mexico. 6 people are killed, and many others wounded.
October 2. The Department of Labor is created.
October 2. The Army attacks the National Hotel. 14 officers are killed in the battle, 17 wounded and the rest taken prisoner.
October 19. Grau invites Dr. Fernando Ortiz to join the cabinet and to propose a solution that could unify all revolutionary groups. Dr. Ortiz declines to join the cabinet but accepts the offer to propose a solution. Dr. Ortiz's proposal, to include representatives of all important political groups in a genuine "national" government fails due to mutual mistrust, suspicion and past resentment.
October 24. The ABC Radical withdraws its support for the revolutionary government.
"At the end of the October," writes Luis E. Aguilar in Cuba 1933: Prologue to Revolution, "hope for conciliation had died, terrorism in Havana increased, and the two most important sectors of the anti-Machado forces-the students and the ABC-were openly attacking each other."
November 3. A meeting at Sergio Carbo's house in Havana includes Grau, Guiteras, students and various other members of government, military command and the Revolutionary Junta. They have a recently passed decree that allows them to arrest (and, if necessary, kill) Fulgencio Batista. When he finally arrives with only one bodyguard, Batista notices that he is in danger and is able to talk his way out of the situation. Grau is later blamed for accepting Batista's apology.
November 5. After a difficult and emotional meeting the University Student Directorate dissolves.
November 8. Part of the Cuban Air Force and one unit of the Army rebel against the government. Nationalists lead by Rafael Iturralde and Colonel Blas Hernandez (the anti-Machado guerilla fighter) are joined by the ABC, lead by Carlos Saladrigas.
By noon, the rebels capture several police stations in Havana, and two planes attack the presidential palace. Rumors of the insurrection are spreading throughout the city. Batista later orders the Army to fight on the side of the government.
November 9. At 6 p.m., Grau announces victory for the government, and he condemns the actions of "false revolutionaries."
November 16. Horace G. Knowles, former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia and Nicaragua, accuses Sumner Welles of "openly helping the counterrevolution." He suggests that the U.S. should recognize the revolutionary government. [Only Uruguay and Mexico have recognized the government so far.]
November 24. Sumner Welles is replaced by Jefferson Caffery. [In Cuba, this is seen as proof that the U.S. intends to recognize the revolutionary government.]
December. A new law called "El Derecho de Tanteo" (The right of estimate) is passed, giving the government the right to be considered a potential buyer in any sugar transaction. This law is meant to eliminate the way American and Cuban companies avoid paying taxes by selling their sugar mills or land at very low prices to another company, often a subsidiary.
December 1. The Committee for the Defense of the Zafra (sugar crop) is formed by wealthy hacendados who announce their support for the revolutionary government.
December 8. Guiteras announces that any one caught stealing or damaging government property is to be shot on the spot.
December 18. U.S. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery arrives in Havana.From Cuba 1933: Prologue to Revolution, by Luis E. Aguilar:"Caffery belonged to the same school of suave diplomats as Sumner Welles. Without any previous personal involvement in the Cuban imbroglio, he had a chance to be impartial and to judge the situation from an objective standpoint. He had, nevertheless, similar and possibly even stronger convictions than Welles about whom the American government should or should not support. A political conservative of elegant manners, Caffery was once described as a "somewhat frostbitten diplomat of the old school, who holds to the Hamilton belief that those who have should rule." "Diplomacy, as I interpret it," he declared in Havana, "nowadays consists largely in cooperation with American business."
December 19. In the front page of Diario de la Marina, Caffery states that "my country's policy toward Cuba will remain the same."
December 22. A huge pro-government demonstration gathers in front of the Presidential Palace to thank the government for its nationalistic stance.
In 1933 Batista meets with mobster Meyer Lansky, and they forge a friendship and business relationship that lasts three decades.
1934
January 2. A new decree provides free registration at the University for low income students.
January 10. Ambassador Caffery reports to the U.S. State Department his opinion of the revolutionary government: "I agree with former Ambassador Welles as to the inefficiency, ineptitude and unpopularity with all the better classes in the country of the de facto government. It is supported only by the army and the ignorant masses who have been misled by utopian promises." Batista asks Caffery what must be done to obtain U.S. recognition. Caffery answers, "I will lay down no specific terms; the matter of your government is a Cuban matter and it is for you to decide what you will do about it."
January 11. In the presence of Batista, President Grau San Martín tells U.S. Ambassador Caffery that he is willing to accept a compromise with the opposition, and that he is willing to allow a non-political successor to guarantee fair elections.
January 14. Guiteras announces the nationalization of American-owned Electric Bond and Share Company. It is his last governmental act.
January 15. Now a Colonel, Fulgencio Batista, encouraged by Caffery, forces the resignation of the Grau-Guiteras government. In the front page of the Diario de la Marina, Guiteras states that "if the junta designates me, I will accept (the presidency). If the army opposes, we'll fight the army."Before a large crowd in Havana, Grau makes a short farewell address: "I have dictated some laws which are beneficial for the entire country… I have never submitted to any foreign embassy… I have tried to benefit the people, and I have used a firm hand against big companies." The following week he departs for Mexico.Carlos Hevia becomes the new provisional President.
January 17. Under political pressure from the military and opposition groups, Hevia addresses his resignation to Batista, and Carlos Mendieta steps in as the new provisional President. On the same day, Rubén Martínez Villena (leader of the Communist Party) dies in Havana.
January 20. The U.S. government recognizes the Batista-installed government government with Carlos Mendieta as President.
January. The Cuban Electric Company (a subsidiary of the American Electric Bond and Share Company) goes on strike and is later placed under temporary government control.
April 1. The current issue of the magazine Bohemia includes comments by Pablo de la Torriente: "Compromise, compromise, is always the advice of those false revolutionaries who never understand the real lesson of Danton: that in Cuba, as in any other place, what a revolutionary needs is audacity, audacity and more audacity."
May 29. Cuba and the U.S. sign the "Treaty on Relations," which eliminates the Platt Amendment and the Permanent Treaty of 1903, but allows the U.S. to continue using Guantánamo Bay.
Cuban women win the right to vote.
1935
March. The various revolutionary groups-the Auténticos, Guiteras' Joven Cuba, the ABC and the Communists, join forces in a general strike to topple Batista. The effort fails.
May 8. While preparing to leave Cuba and organize an armed invasion like that of José Martí forty years earlier, Guiteras is killed by the army.
1936
Civil war breaks out in Spain. About one thousand Cubans fight with the International Brigades to defend Spanish democracy.
Colonel Batista becomes General Batista.
June 13. Pablo de la Torriente Brau, member of the Student Left Wing (Ala Izquierda Estudiantil), pays tribute to Batista in a letter to Raúl Roa:"If we deny his personal courage, we can't deny his other qualities for leadership. He has the imagination of a stenographer, that is, a capacity to quickly interpret a confusing sign, a senseless paragraph or, if applied to politics, a difficult situation. On the other hand, he has the attributes of a demagogue: he is a good speaker, a man of projects, he knows the secret of the smile and the handshake. He constructs, steals, and improves himself… No doubt he is facing a difficult situation, but we should not forget that in Cuba today he is perhaps the man with the best political skills, that he knows how to solve problems, and that when measuring his forces he never forgets to also measure those of his enemies."The letter also states:"He belongs to that category of men who, in case of a revolution and if given enough time, would have a plane ready to fly." (Ironically, 22 years later, in December 1958, Batista does have a plane ready to fly.)
1937
May 21. Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is born in Havana.
1939
Cuban-owned sugar mills account for 22% of the island's total sugar production.
1940
The Constitution of 1940 is established by a national assembly that includes Blas Roca, a young shoemaker who helped organize the Revolution of 1933. The document strikes a balance between the rich and the working class, it protects individual and social rights, supports full employment and a minimum wage, extends social security, calls for equal pay for equal work and outlaws the huge plantations known as latifundias.
General Fulgencio Batista is elected Cuba's 14th president.
1943
Batista legalizes Cuba's Communist Party (established in 1925).
1944
Fidel Castro, a student about to enter a Jesuit high school in Havana, is proclaimed the best high school athlete in Cuba for the year 1943-44.
Ramón Grau San Martín is elected president. [Grau is the first Cuban leader to openly defy U.S. dominance, and support the causes of the lower classes.]
1945
October. Fidel Castro enters the University of Havana.
October 24. Cuba joins the United Nations.
1946
September 19. Famed mobster Charlie Lucky Luciano is issued a Cuban passport, and that same day he leaves Italy. Within two weeks he arrives in Cuba, where's he's met by Meyer Lansky.
November 29. Employees of Hotel Nacional go on strike, demanding a 30% salary increase.
December 22-26. Luciano precides over a large mafia meeting in Havana. . Attendees at the Hotel Nacional meeting include: Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Tommy Lucchese, Vito Genovese, Joe Bonanno, Santo Trafficante Jr. and Moe Dalitz. Among the topics discussed is the assassination of Bugsy Siegel. Coincidentally, Frank Sinatra makes his singing debut in Havana.
See a photo of Hotel Nacional
1947
February 23. Luciano is arrested at a restaurant in Vedado.
March 29. Luciano leaves Cuba on a Turkish freighter. Popular radio personality Eduardo Chibás reports on the departure in his Sunday night radio program.
May 15. The Cuban People's Party (Partido Del Pueblo Cubano) is formed. It becomes known as the Orthodox Party (Partido Ortodoxo).
"I had heard that Cubans are a deeply religious people. In two days here, I have learned that baseball is their religion."- Sam Lacy, 1947
1948
April 9. In Bogotá, Colombia, Fidel Castro participates in a popular uprising known as Bogotazo.
June 1. Carlos Prío Socarrás is elected president.
October 10. Carlos Prío succeeds Grau San Martín as president of Cuba.
Fulgencio Batista is elected in Las Villas to the Cuban Senate.
1951
Brief introduction to the 1950s
August 5. At the end of his popular radio show Eddy Chibás commits suicide.
December. The popular weekly magazine, "Bohemia," holds a public opinion poll that shows Batista (who's running for president) as a distant third.
1952
Fidel Castro, two years out of law school, runs for Congress as a candidate of the Orthodox Party.
March 10. Fulgencio Batista takes over (again) in a bloodless coup de etat. Elections, three months away, are canceled.
March 27. The U.S. recognizes Batista's government.
June 2. In Canada, Carlos Prío, Emilio Ochoa and other moderates meet to unite forces against Batista. Their union is known as the "Pact of Montreal."
1953
March 28. The Saturday Evening Post runs an article critical of crooked gambling. On the cover: "Suckers in Paradise: How Americans Loose Their Shirts in Caribbean Gambling Joints." In Havana, the author can only find two locations where the gambling is honest.
March 30. In Havana, 13 American "cardsharps" are arrested for running dishonest gambling operations. 11 are immediately deported.
July 6. Ernesto "Che" Guevara graduates from medical school in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
July 26. Fidel Castro leads a revolt in which 160 men and women attack the Moncada army barracks near Santiago de Cuba. The attack is a failure and surviving rebels are forced to retreat into the mountains. Large numbers of rebels are killed.
August 1. While sleeping in a hut, Fidel Castro is arrested and taken to a jail in Boniato (with other surviving members of the attack on the Moncada army barracks.
September 21. The trial begins in Santiago de Cuba for surviving rebels of the Moncada attack (on July 26). Castro and others are tried separately.
October 6. In Santiago de Cuba, 26 survivors of the Moncada attack are found guilty and sentenced to prison.
October 13. Twenty-six of the Moncada prisoners found guilty (on October 6) are sent to prison on the Isle of Pines. The women, Haydée Santamaría and Melba Hernández are sent Guanajay, outside Havana.
October 16. At his trial, Castro delivers a historic defense that ends with the phrase "history will absolve me" (la historia me absolverá). He is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
October 26. Batista announces that general elections will be held on November 1, 1954.
October 31. Batista outlaws the Cuban Communist Party.
November 19. In Mexico City, the Pact of Montreal is ratified by moderates who oppose Batista.
1954
February 20. Haydée Santamaría and Melba Hernández are released from prison.
March 28. During the Havana carnival, José Antonio Echeverría, Fructuoso Rodríguez and other leaders of the Federation of University Students (FEU) are attacked and beaten by the police.
May. A Cuba-wide campaign seeking amnesty for Castro and the Mocada prisoners is organized.
May 19. Melba Hernández travels to Mexico to organize veterans of Moncada.
May 25. Police in Havana raid a house where Aureliano Sánchez (AAA leader) is hiding. Sanchez escapes to the embassy from Uruguay, and travels to Mexico on June 5. Police discover a list of AAA members.
July. Fulgencio Batista announces that he will run for President.
July 26. On the first anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Army Barracks, a demonstration led by Haydée Santamaría and Melba Hernández is dispersed by police at Colón Cemetary.
July 14. In order to "legally" run for President of Cuba, Batista turns over the presidency to Dr. Andrés Domingo Morales del Castillo.
September 11. Poet Emilio Ballagas dies in Havana.
October. Castro's speech "History Will Absolve Me" is published and circulated throughout the island.
1955
January 23. Appointed president Andrés Domingo Morales signs a law that prohibits civil courts from taking on crimes by military personnel.
January 28. On the anniversary of Martí's birth, a group of people marching to where Martí is buried in Santiago de Cuba is attacked by the police.
February 6. U.S. Vice-President Richard Nixon arrives in Cuba.
February 11. In a letter sent from the U.S., Carlos Prío and other moderates ask Richard Nixon to pressure Batista to step down.
February 25. General Fulgencio Batista is inaugurated as President of Cuba. Rafael Guas Inclán is Vice President.
April. Head of the CIA, Allan Dulles, visits Cuba to organize the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (BRAC).
May 15. Fidel Castro and other veterans of the attack on the Moncada Army Barracks are released from prison in a general amnesty.
June 24. Fidel Castro leaves for Mexico.
BEFORE The Revolution - 2
1956
June 24 - July 3. In Mexico City, 28 Cuban revolutionaries and supporters are arrested. Castro is not released until July 24, and Che Guevara is released a week later.
November 25. On a 60-foot yacht named Granma, 82 men lead by Fidel Castro depart for Cuba.
November 30. In Santiago de Cuba, 300 young men led by Frank País in olive green uniforms and red and black armbands with the July 26 emblem, attack police headquarters, the Customs House and the harbor headquarters.
December 2. The Granma lands in Las Coloradas, Oriente province, after being delayed by weather and logistical problems, including poor communications between the expeditionaries and the Cuban undergroun.
December 5. The rebels are surprised by Batista's troops while resting on the edge of a cane field at Alegría de Pío, not far from the Sierra Maestra. The majority of the revolutionaries are killed or captured, but few escape to the Sierra Maestra, including the Castro brothers Fidel and Raúl, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida, Calixto García and a handful of others.
December 8. Don Cosme de la Torriente dies.
December 18. 12 survivors of the "Granma" expedition regroup at Purial (in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra mountains) and organize the first guerilla unit.
December 21. Che Guevara and Juan Almeida join the others at Purial. At this point the Rebel Army consists of 15 fighters with 7 weapons, and they begin to move higher into the Sierra Maestra mountains.
December 24. In Santiago de Cuba, leaders of the 26th-July Movement meet secretly to discuss support for the rebels in the Sierra Maestra.
1957
January. Cuban Defense Minister Santiago Rey visits Washington as an official guest of the U.S. government.
January 2. In Santiago, 4 youths are found dead in an empty building, including 14-year old William Soler. They had been arrested as suspects in revolutionary activities and tortured.
January 4. A procession of 500 women dressed in black and lead by William Soler's mother, moves slowly through the streets of Santiago. They carry a banner: "Stop the murders of our sons."
January 17. The war opens with a successful rebel attack on a small army garrison at the mouth of the La Plata River. The Rebel Army has 23 usable weapons.
January 21. Lt. Angel Sánches Mosquera leads a company of elite Batista troops into the Sierra Maestra mountains to search for the rebels. A larger unit, lead by Major Joaquín Casillas, follows.
January 22. At Arroyo del Infierno, rebels ambush a column of army soldiers.
February 9. Rebels are attacked by the Army at Altos de Espinosa and disperse for three days.
February 17. New York Times journalist Herbert Matthews arrives in the Sierra Maestra to interview Castro and the rebels.
March 11. In Santiago, Frank País is arrested for his participation in the November 30 uprising.
March 13. Student leader José Echeverría and a small group take over a radio station in Havana. He is killed while retreating to the university. In a simultaneous attack on the presidential palace, 35 rebels and 5 palace guards are killed.
March 30. The new Shell Oil refinery is inaugurated by Batista, who tells the press that there are no guerrillas in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
April 6. The Havana Hilton opens with a party attended by half of Batista's cabinet.
April 20. Under orders from Batista, Police Captain Esteban Ventura guns down 4 of the surviving student leaders of the March 13 Palace attack. The event is known as the 7 Humboldt Street massacre.
April 23. In the Sierra Maestra, Castro is interviewed on film by U.S. journalist Robert Taber. The film is shown by CBS-TV in May.
May 10. In Santiago, at the trial of "Granma" survivors, Judge Manuel Urrutia declares that all should be acquitted. Two other judges send men to prison for varying periods of up to 8 years.
May 14. Arthur Gardner, U.S. Ambassador to Cuba and a close friend of Batista, is removed from office. He is replaced a month later by Earl Smith.
May 18. In the Sierra Maestra, rebels receive a shipment of over two dozen automatic weapons and 6,000 rounds of ammunition (sent by the July 26 Movement in Santiago).
May 26. In Matanzas, a bomb seriously damages the old Tinguaro mill.
May 28. The first major battle of the war is a rebel attack on the El Uvero garrison in a small town south of the Sierra Maestra range. "For us," writes Guevara, "it was a victory that meant our guerrillas had reached full maturity. From this moment on, our morale increased enormously, our determination and hope for victory also increased, and though the months that followed were a hard test, we now had the key to the secret of how to beat the enemy."
June 4. United Press International (UPI) reports that 800 U.S.-trained and equipped Cuban troops will be sent to fight against the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra.
July 12. After days of discussion in the mountains, the Manifesto of the Sierra Maestra is issued, signed by Fidel Castro, Raúl Chibás and Felipe Pazos. Most of it is written by Castro, and calls for all Cubans to form a civic revolutionary front to "end the regime of force, the violation of individual rights, and the crimes of the police."
July 21. Ernesto Che Guevara is the first fighter promoted by Castro to Commander. He is named head of the Second Rebel Army Column
July 30. Chief of police, Colonel José Salas Cañizares kills Frank País, a 23-year-old leader of the July-26-Movement and a Castro ally.
July 31. In Santiago, a crowd of 60,000 attend a funeral march for Frank País. The crowds are too large for the police to control and the city closes down for three days.
August 15. A large number of arrests are carried out by Batista's police, including: Francisco Pérez Rivas, María Urquiola Lechuga, Mercedes Urquiola Lechuga, José Manuel Alvárez Santa Cruz (student, age 17), Francisco Miares Fernández (student, age 18), Manuel de Jesús Alfonso (age 15), Enrique Delgado Mayoral (age 18), Eliecer Cruz Cabrera (age 18), Eladio and Ignacio Alfonso Carrera (ages 16 and 19), José Herrera León (age 16), Ubaldo Fiallo Sánchez (age 20), Antonio Fernández Segura, Jorge Alvarez Tagle (age 19), Juan Fernández Segura, Francisco Gómez Bermejo (age 17), Pastor Valiente Hernández, Norberto Belanzoarán López and others.
August 20. At Palma Mocha, in the Las Cuevas region, the Rebel Army, lead by Fidel Castro, is victorious over Batista's army.
September 5. Members of the July-26-Movement in Cienfuegos attack the naval police headquarters and the garrison of the Rural Guards.
October. Ex-president of the Cuban Medical Association, Dr. Augusto Fernandez Conde, denounces the atrocities of the Batista regime at the World Medical Association meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.
November. The Miami Pact is signed by officials from the Authentic Party, Orthodox Party, Revolutionary Directorate, and others. The Pact creates the Cuban Liberation Junta, which is controlled by bourgeois opposition forces and does not oppose U.S. intervention.
November 4. El Cubano Libre, (The Free Cuban) the newspaper of the Rebel Army, is published by Guevara in the Sierra Maestra.
November 29. Rebel captain Ciro Redondo is killed in battle at Mar Verde. He is posthumously promoted to commander.
December 6. Led by Lt. Lalo Sardiñas, rebel troops clash with Batista's army at El Salto.
December 10. Hotel Riviera opens in Havana. (It costs $14 million, most of it supplied by the Cuban government for Meyer Lansky.) The floor show in the Copa Room is headlined by Ginger Rogers. Lansky complains that Rogers "can 'wiggle her ass, but she can't sing a goddam note."
A weekly news magazine, Revista Carteles, reports that twenty members of the Batista government own numbered Swiss bank accounts, each with deposits of more than $1 million.
American firms make profits of $77 million from their Cuban investments, while employing little more than 1 percent of the country's population.
By the late 1950’s, American capital control:90% of Cuba’s mines 80% of its public utilities50% of its railways40% of its sugar production 25% of its bank deposits
1958
Early in the year Batista receives $1,000,000 in military aid from the U.S. All of Batista's arms, planes tanks, ships, and military supplies come from the U.S., and his army is trained by a joint mission of the three branches of the U.S. armed forces.
February 24. On the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of Martí's War of Independence, Radio Rebelde begins transmission from "the free territory of Cuba."
March 1. Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida leave the Sierra Maestra with a column of 67 men to open a second front in the mountains north of Santiago, the Sierra Cristal.
In March, 45 civic institutions sign an open letter supporting the July-26-Movement, including the national organizations of lawyers, architects, public accountants, dentists, electrical engineers, social workers, professors, and veterinarians.
April 9. A national strikes fails due to timing errors and lack of popular support. This is a serious setback for the rebels.
May. Batista launches a vast offensive against the guerillas in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
May 25. In the Sierra Maestra mountains, the Rebel Army holds the first peasant assembly attended by 350. Among the topics discussed is a plan for agrarian reform.
June 29. In Santo Domingo, on the Sierra Maestra mountains, the rebels achieve a serious victory with many captured prisoners and supplies. (Prisoners are later released.)
July 11-21. The Battle of Jigüe lasts about ten days and marks a turning point in the war.
July 20. From the Sierra Maestra, Radio Rebelde broadcasts the text of the Caracas Pact, signed by Castro and others. It calls for armed insurrection to establish a provisional government and an end for U.S. support of Batista.
September 4. In the Sierra Maestra, the Mariana Grajales Platoon is formed. It consists of women fighters.
September 18. The Rebel Army defeats Batista's forces at Yara.
September 27-28. The Mariana Grajales Platoon participates in the battle to destroy Batista's military garrison in Cerro Pelado, Oriente.
October 9. The Rebel Army creates a new front to operate in the Oriente province. This Fourth Front is commanded by Delio Gómez Ochoa.
October 10. Law no. 3 of the Sierra Maestra is issued by the Rebel Army. It states that tenant farmers and sharecroppers are entitled to the land they work.
October 26-27. The Rebel Army captures the army garrison at Güinía de Miranda.
October 31. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his wife dine with the Cuban Ambassador at the Cuban Embassy in Washington to commemorate Teddy Roosevelt (who refused to allow the Cuban liberating army from entering Santiago in 1898).
November 2. The Rebel Army captures the army garrison at Alto Songo in Oriente province.
November 3. In a mock general election, Batista's presidential candidate, Andrés Rivero Agüero, is declared the winner.
December 9. The Rebel Army takes Baire and San Luis, in Oriente province.
December 9. In Havana, William D. Pawley meets with Batista for 3 hours, offering that the dictator retire to his home in Daytona Beach, Florida. Batista declines.
December 15-18. Che Guevara's column captures the city of Fomento.
December 19. The Rebel Army achieves victories at Jiguaní, Caimanera and Mayajigua (in Northern Las Villas).
December 22-25. The rebels capture the towns of Guayos, Cabaiguán, Placetas, Manicaragua, Cumanayagua, Camarones, Cruces, Lajas, Sagua de Tánamo, Puerto Padre and Sancti Spíritus.
December 27-28. The rebels capture Caibarién, Remedios and Palma Soriano.
December 26. U.S. native Alan Robert Nye is arrested by the Revolutionary Army in Baire, near Jiguany, and charged with a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro.
December 29. Che Guevara takes the city of Santa Clara and captures over 1,000 prisoners.
Terrence Cannon writes:"The U.S. did not send in the marines for one basic reason: it did not fear the Revolution. It was inconceivable to the U.S. policy makers that a revolution in Cuba could turn out badly for them. After all, U.S. companies owned the country."
It is estimated that by the end of 1958, 11,500 Cuban women earn their living as prostitutes.
Women comprise 14.8% of the Cuban work force.
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