📅 26 July 1953
Young opponents of Fulgencio Batista gathered before dawn for coordinated attacks in Oriente. The action challenged a dictatorship created by the 1952 military coup.
📅 26 July 1953
A force led by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The failed assault later gave its date and symbolism to the July 26 Movement.
📅 26 July 1953
Raúl Castro commanded a detachment assigned to the Palace of Justice overlooking the Moncada complex.
📅 15 May 1955
Popular pressure contributed to an amnesty that freed Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and other imprisoned rebels.
📅 15 May 1955
The freed Moncada participants were welcomed by supporters and began rebuilding an opposition movement against Batista.
📅 25 November 1956
Eighty-two revolutionaries sailed from Tuxpan aboard the overcrowded yacht Granma to begin an armed struggle in Cuba.
📅 2 December 1956
The expedition landed late at Las Coloradas in difficult mangrove terrain, far from its planned meeting with the urban underground.
📅 18 December 1956
Fidel and Raúl Castro’s groups met again. Their small surviving nucleus became the foundation of the Rebel Army.
📅 1 January 1959
Rebel commanders accepted the surrender of the city, where Castro proclaimed the triumph of the revolution.
📅 15 May 1955
Supporters publicly greeted the Moncada prisoners, demonstrating that the failed assault had become a national political symbol.
📅 15 October 1959
The appointment placed the reorganization of Cuba’s military institutions under a central leader of the guerrilla struggle.
