11 March 1952: General Fulgencio Batista stages a coup in Havana. ‘About two-hundred people lined the sides of the Palace Square watching as calmly as if they were in a cinema.’
5 December 1956: Alistair Cooke reports on two days of conflict in Cuba. It is suspected that anti Batista rebels, led from Mexico by Fidel Castro, have been routed in a battle with reports of the rebel leader’s death. Batista’s entourage are wary, believing Castro may be attempting a ‘clever trick.’
3 March 1957: J Halcro Ferguson for the Observer reflects on Castro’s guerrilla campaign against Batista’s government and the damage it is doing to ‘Cuba’s strong man.’
4 November 1958: Following the hijacking of a Miami - Havana airliner by rebels, Alistair Cooke reports on the American perception of Cuba’s rebels.
3 January 1959: A series of rebel advances throughout December 1958 topple the Batista government. The general and his staff flee by plane as Castro, still widely perceived as a heroic and romantic rebel, assumes control of the island.
15 January 1959: ‘The idealism of Fidel Castro is a fast-fading legend’ states Alistair Cooke as reports emerge of mass show trials and summary executions of those accused of working with the former regime.
17 April 1959: Max Freedman reports on Castro’s visit to Washington where a hostile senate pronounces on the spectre of communism ‘within 90 miles of the United States mainland.’ This is the first of several visits to the US.
20 July 1960: Cubans, particularly among the priesthood, fear the growing influence of atheistic Russia on the island and the emergence of a Marxist state.
21 July 1960: A social diary from Havana: James Morris gives an insight into ‘the height of the Cuban season’, the fashions, the weather and outbursts of violence.
23 July 1960: Morris relates the reverence rural communities feel for their new leader - whilst anti-communist unrest simmers in Havana.
October 1962: American intelligence reveals Soviet ballistic missiles are being shipped to Cuba. President Kennedy orders a naval blockade of the island and calls on Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev to pull his ships back or risk potentially catastrophic conflict.
18 August 1970: It is revealed that Kennedy privately discussed the possibility of assassinating Castro in 1960. The CIA would later be revealed to have devised a series of outlandish assassination attempts.
8 September 1973: Castro defends the USSR at the Conference of Non-Aligned Nations.
25 November 2016: Castro’s death is announced; the Guardian collects together some of his most significant quotes.
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