U.S.-Cuba: A Century of Troubled Relations in Five Dates
U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Havana on Sunday will cap the launch of a new era in relations between the United States and Cuba.
Their troubled relationship has been marked by more than a century of U.S. dominance and Cold War hostility.
April 25, 1898
The United States covets Cuba throughout much of the 19th century but fails to buy or annex the island, located less than 125 miles (200 kilometers) off the coast of Florida, from its Spanish colonial rulers.
In April 1898 Washington declares war on Spain after a U.S. warship sinks in Havana harbor. U.S. troops are sent to the island to shore up the Cuban struggle for independence.
The Treaty of Paris formalizes the island's independence later that year, but Cuba now comes under a U.S. military government.
Although the United States allows Cuba to gain formal independence in 1902, Washington retains control by grafting the "Platt Amendment" onto its constitution, allowing it the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, even militarily if needed.
January 1, 1959
Washington is initially indifferent when Fidel Castro and his band of "bearded ones" seize power after three years of guerrilla warfare against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. But their revolution sets in motion a breakdown in relations.
Castro's regime angers the Americans by launching a campaign to nationalize U.S. assets. President Dwight Eisenhower in turn severs diplomatic ties on January 3, 1961.
The disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-sponsored anti-Castro troops in April further alienates Washington and Havana. It is then that Castro officially declares the "socialist character" of his revolution.
October 14, 1962
The pivotal Cuban Missile Crisis, which takes place between October 14 and 28, 1962, comes a hair's breadth from launching a global nuclear conflict.
Eight months earlier, in February, Washington had enacted a financial and economic embargo against the island in response to the Soviet Union's courting of Castro, who begins supporting various Latin American guerilla groups.
March 1977
The two sides experience a period of detente after U.S. President Jimmy Carter's election in 1976.
In March 1977 Carter lifts some travel restrictions -- later restored by Ronald Reagan in 1982 -- and agrees with Castro to open interest sections in each other's countries that would mainly function as consulates.
In 2002 Carter becomes the first former U.S. president in decades to visit the island. He urges the Castro regime to democratize and improve human rights.
December 17, 2014
December 17 -- or "17D" in Cuba -- is remembered as the day Obama and President Raul Castro surprised the world in simultaneous speeches announcing their countries would begin normalizing relations.
The two sides restore diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Havana a month later to raise the U.S. flag outside the newly re-opened embassy.
On Sunday, Obama is set to become the first U.S. president to set foot on Cuban soil since Calvin Coolidge, who visited the island for a Pan-American summit in 1928.
