Fidel Castro stormed Havana with his guerrilla fighters to take back Cuba from Dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Shortly after, he began taking back land from foreign owners and nationalizing United States-owned banks and oil refineries.
This led to the United States officially cutting diplomatic ties on January 3, 1961. Their relationship since then has been rocky at best, going through multiple attempts to normalize relations between the two countries.
1961
The U.S. and Cuba clash in armed combat during the Bay of Pigs invasion, ending in a quick three-day victory for Cuba against U.S.-trained Cuban exiles.
1962
Only words are exchanged during the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis after the U.S. threatens a response if a Soviet nuclear attack were to launch from Cuba.
1963
President John F. Kennedy reaches out to Fidel Castro to try to normalize relations only three years after ending diplomatic ties. Kennedy is assassinated before they can talk.
1965
The U.S. starts airlifting refugees to the States, carrying more than 45,000 in just the first year.
1972
Cuba and the U.S. discuss the rampant problem of airline hijackings and come to an anti-hijacking agreement.
1974
In high-level secret talks, two U.S. senators visit Cuba for the first time since breaking off diplomatic ties, followed by an announcement that they’ll be normalizing relations.
1975
The U.S. discloses more than eight failed assassination attempts on Fidel Castro.
1976
Normalization talks end with Cuba’s military involvement in Angola.
1977
President Jimmy Carter allows U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba and spend $100.
1980
The Mariel boatlift brings 125,000 more refugees to the U.S.
1981
President Ronald Reagan implements an aggressive policy against Cuba after Jimmy Carter’s relaxed policy.
1982
The U.S. places Cuba on their State-Sponsored Terrorism list.
May 1984
The U.S. announces it will spend $43M restoring the Guantanamo naval base, a few years after Castro demands they leave.
Dec 1984
The countries reach an immigration agreement with the U.S. allowing 20,000 immigrants a year.
1990
The U.S. passes an amendment banning all trade from U.S. foreign subsidies with Cuba and proposes sanctions against countries that buy Cuban products.
1992
The Cuban Democracy Act is passed and signed by President George H. W. Bush, banning all trade, including food and medicine, travel by U.S. citizens and families sending money back to Cuba.
1993
Castro ends the ban on the U.S. dollar due to their failing economy.
1996
Cuba shoots down two planes with anti-Castro protesters from Miami causing the U.S. to strengthen the trade embargo further.
1998
The Pentagon no longer sees Cuba as a threat and encourages dialogue between the two countries.
1999
Elian Gonzalez is rescued from a capsized boat where his mother died and taken to the U.S. Cuban exiles fight for him to stay in the U.S. while Cuban citizens fight for him to come back.
June 2000
Gonzalez is returned back to Cuba to be with his father.
June 2001
The Cuban Five are convicted of espionage in Miami.
November 2001
Hurricane Michelle hits Havana prompting Cuba to buy grain from the U.S. for the first time in more than 40 years.
May 2002
Jimmy Carter travels to Cuba as the first former or serving president visit since before 1959.
2003
President George W. Bush tightens the travel embargo for families from one visit a year to one visit every three years.
2004
Cuba bans the use of U.S. currency once again.
2006
A U.S. delegation visits Cuba, after Fidel Castro goes in for heart surgery and Raul Castro is acting president, but is denied a meeting.
2007
Raul Castro, now officially president, agrees to talk but only after the U.S. election.
April 2009
President Barack Obama lifts restrictions on family travel and remittances.
Dec 2009
Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor in Cuba, is detained in Cuba for spying.
2011
One of the Cuban five is released from prison after completing his time.
2013
President Obama and Raul Castro shake hands at Nelson Mandela’s memorial.
2013-2014
Cuba and the U.S. hold multiple secret talks encouraged by Pope Francis and held in Canada and the Vatican.
December 2014
Cuba releases Alan Gross in a prisoner exchange for the three remaining Cuban Five.
Jan 2015
Restrictions on travel are relaxed and limited imports of Cuban cigars and rum are allowed.
April 2015
President Obama removes Cuba from the State Sponsored Terrorism list after 33 years.
July 2015
Cuba and the U.S. open embassies in Washington and Havana.
August 2015
Secretary of State John Kerry becomes the first secretary of state since 1945 to visit Cuba and raises the American flag at the U.S. embassy in Havana.
Five major world events that have happened since the United States and Cuba cut ties
The U.S. lands a manned mission to the moon
On July 20, 1969, only eight years after the US and Cuba cut ties, the US successfully landed Apollo 11 on the moon carrying Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. This was the first manned moon landing. According to NASA, 530 million people watching Armstrong take his first few steps.
The Berlin Wall falls
On November 9, 1989, an announcement was made declaring that citizens of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, could cross the border at any time. That night, people cross the border freely and bit-by-bit take home pieces of the wall.
The World Wide Web
In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist from the UK, started to work on a way share information over the Internet. The next year Berners-Lee came out with the World Wide Web that included three fundamental technologies: the HTML language, the URL identifier, and HTTP retrieval. A few years later it was announced that the World Wide Web would be free to use for anyone with a computer.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Cuba and the Soviet Union worked together quite a bit in the early years of the US cutting off diplomatic relations. In 1991, The Soviet Union was officially dissolved on December 25 after 11 Soviet republics met and agreed that they would all be independent states. This stemmed from then Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev giving back liberties that had been taken during Stalin’s time and restructuring the economy.
Planet definitions kick out Pluto
In 2006, 45 years after cutting diplomatic ties, it was announced that Pluto did not fit the definition of a planet and was no longer considered a planet; instead it was considered a dwarf planet. According to NASA, after finding Eris, a dwarf planet past Pluto, astronomers decided that Pluto was not an actual planet because of its size and location in space.
