Revolutionary Directorate attacks the Presidential Palace

Fidel and Raúl Castro’s groups met again. Their small surviving nucleus became the foundation of the Rebel Army.

The guerrillas captured a small army post on the coast, their first military victory after the Granma disaster.

Rebel forces ambushed an army patrol, showing that the Sierra Maestra guerrilla nucleus had survived.

The New York Times correspondent met Castro in the Sierra Maestra, contradicting government claims that the rebel leader was dead.

Publication gave the guerrilla movement international visibility and weakened Batista’s information campaign.

José Antonio Echeverría seized the station and announced that Batista had fallen, but the broadcast was cut off before completion.

Police killed the student leader near the University of Havana after the palace and radio actions.

Women in the Revolutionary Directorate transported messages, sheltered activists and sustained clandestine work around the Havana action.

The radio action aimed to broadcast the fall of Batista and call the population into the streets while the palace assault proceeded.

The assault exposed the willingness of urban revolutionaries to challenge the dictatorship at its centre, despite severe losses.