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Birth and Early Years
Fidel Castro was born to a wealthy father and a servant mother in the Cuban town of Biran. He went to a few different schools, and after all standard schooling he attended the University of Havana, studying law. He quickly became interested in politics and joined an anti-corruption group, participating in an abandoned coup against Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic. Upon finishing university, he moved on to founding a law office. (History.com) -
Stock Market Crash
The stock market crash in 1929 was the direct result of poor investing and people not understanding how to sell stocks. People bought by margin, and only invested in large companies, leading to high prices and high investments that would devastate the market once they fell as demand tapered off. And that they did, as people who had invested too much, or invested money they didn't have, were suddenly ruined by the lack of value of stocks they had invested in. -
Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany. After a career as an anti-government revolutionary, he finally took power and resolved to improve Germany, and restore it to its pre-war glory. Many people were very confident that he would do this, and while Hitler did make improvements to Germany, he would bring it to ruin after WWII, with the nation being divvied up by the Allies and U.S.S.R. after his death. -
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The Leader Captured
Fidel Castro was captured after the failed attack on the Moncada barracks. He was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment, but would only be held for 3. During his jail time, he was allowed to receive letters, and founded a school in the prison. However, eventually these privileges were taken away after he encouraged the prisoners to sing anti-Batista songs during a visit by the dictator. During fraudulently held elections, Batista released Castro for good publicity. -
Moncada Attack
The Moncada barracks attack was the beginning of Fidel Castro's war on Batista, the Cuban dictator at the time. It was, by all means, suicidal. Castro led a force of 160 rebels in an attack on the Moncada barracks, hoping to spark a rebellion. He was heavily discouraged from this course of action by his former professor, whom he had spoken to about the attack beforehand. Disregarding these words of advice, he went through with the attack, which would result in his capture. (Britannica 2018) -
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Glorious Revolution
Fidel Castro's revolution began with an attack on the Moncada barracks in Oriente. It failed, and Castro was captured for some time. Upon his release, he gathered a new group of revolutionaries, and a failed landing was attempted on a Cuban beach. With most of his men dead, Fidel retreated into the mountains. There, he would wage continuous guerilla warfare, slaughtering Batista's forces until, eventually, he began capturing towns and cities. Batista fled in 1959. (Britannica 2018) -
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The Revolution Rules
Fidel Castro had succeeded. He had driven out Batista, and claimed Cuba as his own. He would govern in a variety of ways, at first the Prime Minister, then the head of a cabinet of men, and eventually it became clear he was not much more than a dictator. During his rule of Cuba, he would get involved in global politics, supporting third world communist countries, allying himself with the U.S.S.R. for periods of time and condemning the U.S.A. -
Pan-African Congress Founded
This political group was determined to separate from the African National Congress. They were a nationalist movement, and were supporters of colonialist involvements in Africa, and were a splinter group of the ANC. They formed after they were barred from ANC meetings. They would originally advocate for peaceful protest, but after one attempt left 69 dead and 180 injured, they formed a militarised wing and attempted a failed coup. Pages
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The Leader's Life at Risk
For a long period of time after WWII, the CIA had begun attempting assassinations on various political figures across the world. Up until recently, they denied this ever happened. EVentually, it was admitted to, and they released information about some of the people they tried killing, such as Fidel Castro, whom they used things such as: A disease ridden diving suit, and exploding conch shell, exploding cigars, and poisoned milkshakes (he had a passion for dairy.) -
The Communist Revelation
Fidel Castro was under immense stress. The US had ended diplomatic relations and sponsored an attempted invasion, the Bay of Pigs. In response, he decided to reveal the system his nation would be functioning under. "What the imperialists cannot forgive us, is that we have made a Socialist revolution under their noses." He was a Marxist, and, as the US does in terms of communism, the government were furious. They needed to undo this bastion of communism, and soon. -
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The Bay of Pigs
In March of 1960, training began on a group of Cuban exiles, in preparation for a C.I.A. backed invasion of Cuba. They were planning to send 1400 exiles into Cuba, with support from American bombers. However, on the day of the invasion, the bombers missed their targets, leaving the exiles stranded on the beach without support. It became public the bombers were American, and further support was denied. The exiles were quickly defeated, with over 100 killed and 1,200 captured. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis
During one of it's periods of alliance with the USSR, Cuba agreed to allow multiple Russian nuclear missiles to be stored upon its soil. This was discovered in October of the same year by US aerial reconnaissance, and they perceived this as a possible act of war. Threatening response, eventually the USSR agreed to take the missiles out of Cuba, but kept Castro out of this deal. He felt betrayed. -
A.I.D.S. Identified
AIDS, a disease that went unidentified for an extremely long period of time, was officially named a disease on March 1st, 1981. It was commonly appearing in normally healthy, gay young men, and further cases began to appear worldwide. Eventually, it spread to heterosexual couples. For the next many years, more and more famous cases of HIV/AIDS arose, and more and more treatments were developed, and attempts made to study and cure the disease. (2018) -
North American Free Trade Agreement
This agreement eliminated a large amount of tariffs on items imported from Mexico, Canada, and the Untied States in said countries. This allowed for free-trade between the three nations in the belief it would bolster economic growth. The agreement originally only included Canada and the United States, but was later extended to Mexico. It ultimately failed to have much effect on any countries involved. (Bondarenko 2018) -
Twin Towers Attack
On the date of September 11th, a group of religious extremists, members of terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial planes, and then crashed three of them into different important sites. Two were sent into the different World Trade Center towers, and one into the Pentagon. One may have been aimed at the White House, but occupants foiled the plot after they fought against their attackers and crashed the plane into a field. -
Death of the Revolution
Castro's death was announced the same day he passed. Very little detail was given out, including: Cause of death, last words, and more. He had expressed the wish, pre-mortem, for his visage to not be constructed anywhere after his death. He wished to avoid a Cult of Personality, such as what Stalin established. Cult of Personalities are often very counterproductive, and he was aware of this. So, he avoided this, and Cuba mourned.