The life of Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is born in the village of Biran in eastern Cuba, out of wedlock to a prosperous Spanish immigrant, Angel Maria Bautista Castro Arguiz, and the servant he had taken as a mistress, Lina Ruz.

Fidel Castro marries philosophy student Mirta Diaz-Balart.

Fidel Castro earns his law degree from the University of Havana and practices law with a college friend for two years before deciding to run for a parliamentary seat as an Orthodox Party candidate.

Fulgencio Batista, a former president and presidential candidate in the 1952 elections, overthrows President Carlos Prio Socarras, sets up a provisional government and announces the cancellation of the presidential election set for June 1.

In response to Fulgencio Batista’s unpopularity, Fidel Castro organizes a revolutionary movement and leads more than 100 followers in a failed attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba. He is captured later in a nearby mountain area and imprisoned.

Fidel Castro returns from exile in Mexico to attempt a second takeover, landing in Oriente Province with 81 followers. Most are captured or killed by the Cuban army, but Castro and others escape to the Sierra Maestra mountains. The L.A. Times initially reports that Castro is believed dead.

Sympathy toward Fidel Castro builds among university students and some professional, business and political leaders. The L.A. Times calls the rebel leader “David against Goliath,” more of a “threat to Batista as a symbol than as a military opponent.”

One hundred rebels, led by Fidel Castro, attack and capture an army station in Oriente Province near their Sierra Maestra mountain hideout. The unit had been assigned to “exterminate” the rebel forces.

After months of failed attacks, Oriente residents grow weary of the rebels’ presence. Fidel Castro makes a plea for more arms and ammunition.

Despite attempts by rebels to thwart elections, Fulgencio Batista-backed presidential candidate Andres Rivero Agureo wins. He pledges to strive for peace when he takes office the following year.

Rebel forces encircle Santa Clara and smaller towns in central Cuba. Ernesto “Che” Guevara boasts in a radio broadcast that “Havana will fall.”

President Fulgencio Batista flees to the Dominican Republic as Fidel Castro takes power.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters cheer Fidel Castro’s arrival in Havana.

Read Castro’s first interview since his victory over Batista

Saying he wants good relations with the U.S., Fidel Castro also warns that “gringos will die” if U.S. forces are sent to the island.

Fidel Castro is sworn in as Cuba’s prime minister. He appeals to Cubans to not be impatient with reforms but to “aid and understand us.”

In a visit to the U.S., Fidel Castro appears on “Meet the Press” and meets privately with Vice President Richard Nixon. He claims that his provisional Cuban government “does not want to stay in power one minute longer than is necessary before having free elections.” The Cuban leader also denies that there are any Communists in his government.

Castro issues a signed statement pledging not to become a dictator, in response to an American reporter’s repeated questioning. “When the people decide they do not want me, I will step down,” it ends.

Fidel Castro briefly resigns as prime minister amid rumors that the U.S. is planning an attack on Cuba from the Dominican Republic on Cuba. The L.A. Times calls Castro’s move “a political and psychological maneuver” designed to generate support from the people of Cuba.

A Cuban-Soviet trade agreement is signed, and soon after Cuba establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and most other Communist countries.

President Eisenhower breaks U.S. relations with Cuba.

Bay of Pigs invasion

Cuban missile crisis: Fidel Castro allows the U.S.S.R. to install within Cuba’s borders medium-range nuclear missiles aimed at the United States, ostensibly for the defense of Cuba. President Kennedy negotiates the missiles’ removal directly with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Castro is humiliated.

Pope John Paul II begins a five-day visit to Cuba. The papal journey through Havana’s streets came after John Paul shook President Fidel Castro’s hand and kissed two baskets of soil from a land that was officially atheist until six years ago.

With much of the Cuban nation and the world watching live, the pope declared: “May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba, so that this people … may look to the future with hope.”

Fidel Castro is formally removed from the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party for the first time since its formation nearly 50 years ago.

Fidel Castro meets with Pope Benedict XVI in Havana.

President Obama announces plans to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Fidel Castro dies at 90; revolutionary icon’s influence was felt far beyond Cuba