| | Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline |
| | Cuba was first inhabited by Native American Indians |
| 1492 | Discovered by Christopher Columbus |
| 1500's | Colonised by the Spanish under the leadership of Diego de Velazquez in 1511 |
| 1526 | Slaves were shipped from Africa |
| 1762 | Havana was captured by a British force led by Admiral George Pocock and Lord Albemarle. |
| 1763 | Treaty of Paris: Havana returned to Spain |
| 1868 | 1868-1878: Ten Years War of independence |
| 1886 | Slavery was abolished |
| 1895 | 1895-1898: Second war of independence lead by Jose Marti |
| 1895 | US declares war on Spain |
| 1898 | US defeat Spain all Spanish claims to Cuba are relinquished and cedes it to the US. |
| 1902 | Cuba becomes independent but the Platt Amendment keeps Cuba under US protection which retains the right to intervene in internal affairs of Cuba Tomas Estrada Palma elected president
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| 1906 | 1906-1909: President Estrada resigns and the US occupies Cuban territory following a rebellion led by Jose Miguel Gomez
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| 1909 | Jose Miguel Gomez elected president |
| 1912 | Black protests against discrimination and US forces return to Cuba |
| 1924 | Gerado Machado establishes a dictatorship |
| 1925 | Socialist Party founded leading to Cuban Communist |
| 1933 | Gerado Machado overthrown in a coup led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista. |
| 1934 | US relinquishes right to intervene in internal affairs of Cuba |
| 1944 | Fulgencio Batista retires and Ramon Gray San Martin becomes President of Cuba |
| 1952 | Fulgencio Batista takes power again |
| 1953 | Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful revolution against Batista |
| 1956 | Fidel Castro and Che Guevara lead the revolution |
| 1958 | US withdraws military aid to Fulgencio Batista |
| 1959 | January 1: Fidel Castro leads the Communist revolution with Che Guevara and the rebel army overthrows President Fulgencio Batista
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| 1960 | December 19: Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their Communist policies. A Cuban Communist State was set up with Russian backing. Fidel Castro allows the USSR to deploy nuclear missiles on the island
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| 1961 | Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline |
| 1962 |
| 1972 | Cuba becomes a member of the Soviet based Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. |
| 1976 | Fidel Castro elected president. |
| 1970's | Cuba sends troops to intervene in African disputes |
| 1988 | Cuba withdraws its troops from Angola following an agreement with South Africa. |
| 1991 | Collapse of the USSR |
| 1996 | US trade embargo |
| 2006 | July: President Fidel Castro undergoes surgery and temporarily hands over control of the government to his brother, Raul. |
