Significant Events in US-Cuba Relations After the 1959 Revolution

The United States and Cuba officially announced on Wednesday, December 17 (Azar 26) that they are ready to normalize diplomatic relations. This decision marks a significant shift in decades of hostile relations between the US and the island of Cuba. Reuters has reviewed five decades of relations between Washington and Havana. • January 1, 1959 - Fulgencio Batista, the US-backed dictator, fled Cuba, and Fidel Castro and his revolutionary army took over the leadership of the country. • January 3, 1961 - After Cuba nationalized US-owned industries and assets, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba. • April 16, 1961 - Fidel Castro declared the Cuban Revolution a socialist revolution. The next day, Cuban exiles, supported by the CIA, invaded Cuba from the Bay of Pigs. Their attack failed. • February 7, 1962 - The US unilaterally suspended trade relations with Cuba. This embargo remains in effect today. • October 1962 - The US became aware of the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, escalating US-Soviet relations. This missile crisis brought the two countries to the brink of nuclear war. Tensions between the two countries ended with the return of the ships carrying these missiles by the Soviets, a US commitment not to militarily attack Cuba, and the secret closure of US missile bases in Turkey. • April to October 1980 - Cuba allowed 125,000 Cubans to emigrate in a mass migration from the Mariel port to the United States. This action became known as the Mariel boatlift. • December 1991 - The collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's largest supporter, led to a severe economic crisis on the island. Cuba has yet to recover from the consequences of this crisis. • August - September 1994 - More than 35,000 people left Cuba for the US in small, dangerous boats. • July 31, 2006 - Fidel Castro temporarily handed over leadership of Cuba to his brother Raul Castro after undergoing emergency gastrointestinal surgery. • February 24, 2008 - The National Assembly of Cuba elected Raul Castro to succeed the ailing Fidel Castro. • December 2009 - Cuba detained Alan Gross, an American citizen and contractor for the US Agency for International Development. Alan Gross was convicted of illegally bringing technology to Cuba and attempting to set up a covert internet service for Cuban Jews. • January 2011 - The White House eased travel restrictions to Cuba to establish relations between the people of the two countries, known as 'people-to-people' engagement. • December 17, 2014 - Alan Gross was released and returned to the US by plane, and in exchange for the release of three Cuban intelligence agents in the US, an American spy detained in Cuba was freed. Washington announced that it would establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and many trade restrictions would be eased.