Osvaldo Dorticós becomes president

The law limited large estates, redistributed land and created a framework for cooperatives and state farms. It struck at concentrated and foreign landownership.

The National Institute of Agrarian Reform became a major instrument of economic and political transformation in the countryside.

The law challenged the dominance of overseas corporations and connected national sovereignty with redistribution in the countryside.

The programme aimed to turn tenants and precarious cultivators into landholders while also organizing cooperatives on large estates.

A confrontation over the revolution’s direction ended with Urrutia’s resignation after Castro publicly denounced his anti-communist position.

Large numbers of rural workers and beneficiaries of agrarian reform joined the anniversary celebration of the Moncada attack.

The appointment placed the reorganization of Cuba’s military institutions under a central leader of the guerrilla struggle.

Matos and other officers resigned in protest at the growing influence of communists within the revolutionary government.

Camilo Cienfuegos carried out Castro’s order to arrest Matos in Camagüey on accusations of treason and conspiracy.

A plane piloted from Florida scattered political leaflets; anti-aircraft fire and falling fragments killed and injured people below.