Fidel Alejandro Castro Biography and Timeline

Birth of Fidel Castro

Birth of Fidel Castro

Partido Ortodoxos

Castro joins the Partido Ortodoxos which had been newly formed by Eduardo Chibas

Education

Castro graduates from law school with a Doctor of Laws degree and began practicing law in a small partnership in Havana

Anti-Batista Opposition

Challenges Batista's coup through legal and political opposition.

Role range: 1952-1953

Coup

Fulgencio Batista leads a coup, successfully overthrowing the Government of President Carlos Prio Socarres

Moncada Barracks Attack

Fidel Castro leads the armed attack on the Moncada Barracks, the failed action from which the 26th of July Movement later takes its name.

Bayamo Barracks

Takes part in the failed Moncada and Bayamo barracks attacks.

Role range: 1953-1959

Moncada Barracks

Castro leads the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he is captured, tried, incarcerated and later released

Role range: 1953-1959

Moncada Barracks

Is tried and sentenced after the failed Moncada attack.

Role range: 1953-1959

Moncada Planning

Plans attacks on Moncada and Bayamo barracks.

Role range: 1953-1953

Moncada Trial Defence

During proceedings after the Moncada attack, Fidel Castro conducts his own defence and sets out political arguments later associated with the revolutionary movement.

Trial

Delivers his History Will Absolve Me defence speech at trial.

Role range: 1953-1959

History Will Absolve Me

Delivers his defence speech after the Moncada attack.

Role range: 1953-1953

Moncada Prison Sentence

Fidel Castro receives a fifteen-year prison sentence for his role in organizing and leading the attack on the Moncada Barracks.

Presidio Modelo

Is imprisoned after the Moncada trial.

Role range: 1953-1955

Arrest of Fidel Alejandro Castro

Is tried and sentenced after the failed Moncada attack.

Role range: 1953-1959

Political Amnesty

Fidel Castro is released from prison under Batista's political amnesty after serving about twenty-two months following the Moncada attack.

Amnesty

Is released from prison under Batista's amnesty.

Role range: 1953-1959

Arrest of Fidel Alejandro Castro

Castro is released due to a general amnesty from Batista

Role range: 1953-1959

Exile of Fidel Alejandro Castro

After his 1955 amnesty, Fidel Castro leaves Cuba for Mexico to organize an armed expedition against the Batista government.

Meeting with Che Guevara

Fidel Castro meets Ernesto Guevara in Mexico City and recruits him into the expeditionary group preparing to return to Cuba.

Exile of Fidel Alejandro Castro

Receives guerrilla training in Mexico before the Granma expedition.

Role range: 1953-1959

Exile of Fidel Alejandro Castro

The Castro brothers join other exiles in Mexico to prepare a revolution to overthrow Batista

Role range: 1953-1959

26th of July Movement

The 26th of July Movement takes its name from the failed July 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba.

Role range: 1953-1959

Mexican Police Detention

Mexican authorities detain Fidel Castro and other members of the exile expedition while they are preparing their planned return to Cuba.

Granma Departure

Fidel Castro leads eighty-two expeditionaries aboard the yacht Granma as it leaves Tuxpan, Mexico, bound for eastern Cuba.

Granma

Eighty-two members of the 26th of July Movement land from the yacht Granma in eastern Cuba and begin the guerrilla campaign against Batista.

Granma

Of the 82 who sailed aboard the Granma, only 15 eventually regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. 82 men from the 26th of July Movement land in Cuba, having sailed in the boat Granma from Tuxpan, Vera Cruz, ready to organize and lead a revolution

Invasion of Cuba

Of the 82 who sailed aboard the Granma, only 15 eventually regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. 82 men from the 26th of July Movement land in Cuba, having sailed in the boat Granma from Tuxpan, Vera Cruz, ready to organize and lead a revolution

Granma Landing

Lands from the Granma with Castro's rebel expedition.

Role range: 1953-1959

Granma

Lands from the Granma with Castro's rebel expedition.

Role range: 1953-1959

Granma Landing

Lands in eastern Cuba with the Granma expedition.

Role range: 1956-1956

Alegria de Pio Ambush

Government forces surprise the recently landed Granma expeditionaries at Alegría de Pío, scattering Castro's force and reducing it to small groups of survivors.

Coup

Lands in Cuba at the head of a revolutionary group and begins a campaign against Batista

Role range: 1953-1959

Granma Landing

Organizes, trains and leads for the guerrilla invasion of Cuba

Role range: 1953-1959

Sierra Maestra

Regroups survivors in the Sierra Maestra.

Role range: 1956-1959

Battle of La Plata

Wins an early guerrilla victory against an army outpost.

Role range: 1957-1957

Herbert Matthews Interview

Fidel Castro meets New York Times correspondent Herbert Matthews in the Sierra Maestra, helping demonstrate publicly that the rebel leader is alive and active.

New York Times Interview

Uses press coverage to strengthen rebel legitimacy.

Role range: 1957-1957

Revolutionary Directorate

The Revolutionary Directorate attacks Batista's palace and radio station.

Role range: 1953-1959