The Cuban Revolution, from 1953 to 1959, overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and established the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere.

Fidel Castro first launched the Cuban revolution on a small yacht

Fidel Castro's regime has lasted almost seven decades. That story began on Dec. 2, 1956, with the landing of a small yacht—dubbed the Granma—with 82 soldiers and Castro himself, as his onshore allies attacked military and government installations in advance of their arrival.

Hear about the US role in the Cuban Revolution—and the blowback it caused

Against long odds, Fidel Castro launched a socialist revolution just 90 miles from the US and kept it alive for decades. This 10-part podcast traces Washington's pivot from early support to an obsessive campaign of sabotage and hundreds of alleged assassination plots.

See photos from the day Havana fell

When news broke that Batista had fled on New Year’s Eve 1958, photographer Burt Glinn rushed from Miami to Havana without an assignment. His iconic images—tanks in Old Havana and tearful reunions—captured a nation celebrating, uncertain, and on the brink of radical change.

Read the New York Times 2016 obituary of Fidel Castro, the defining figure of the Cuban Revolution.

See a timeline of the tumultuous relationship between Cuba and the US since 1959

Only 90 miles separate Cuba from the US, yet Cold War hostility froze relations for decades. This timeline traces six decades of tension, from revolution and missile crisis to renewed hardline US policies reintroduced in 2025

Since the revolution, approximately 1.4 million Cubans have fled to the US

Although Castro initially enjoyed broad support after toppling Batista in 1959, nearly 2 million Cubans chose exile in the years that followed. Most settled in the US, while others dispersed across Latin America and Europe, shaping migration patterns that persist to this day

The US tried to overthrow the communist government in Cuba—and failed

In 1961, the US backed an invasion of Cuba by anti-Castro exiles, aiming to spark an uprising against the communist government. The operation collapsed within days, embarrassing the US and pushing Cuba closer to the Soviet Union.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Fidel Castro

From exploding cigars and poisoned Cohibas to an infected scuba suit and plans to drug a TV studio with LSD, this account catalogs the CIA's strangest—and consistently unsuccessful—attempts to kill Fidel Castro over decades.

Pre-revolution Cuba was prosperous—and deeply unequal.

US–Cuba contentious relations began long before the Cold War

Long before the revolution and missile crisis, US involvement in Cuba stretched back over 150 years—rooted in slavery, sugar, and shifting imperial ambitions. This short video traces how cycles of intervention and neglect shaped the island’s modern history.

Revolutionary leader Che Guevara has a complicated historical legacy

Revolutionary icon or ruthless enforcer? This animated courtroom-style video weighs Che Guevara’s life and actions—tracing his rise alongside Castro, his role in revolutionary violence, and his global symbolism—before leaving viewers to render their own verdict.

The US embargo on Cuba was designed to cause hardship and eventual regime change

A secret 1960 memo by State Department official Lester Mallory argued that trade restrictions were “the only foreseeable means” to unseat Castro by provoking hunger and desperation. This page compiles declassified US documents detailing that strategy and its aftermath.

Explore the fraught relations between the United States and Cuba since 1959

From the Cuban Missile Crisis and decades of economic embargo to President Obama's normalization efforts and President Trump's reversion to "maximum pressure," US-Cuba relations have fluctuated between hostility and fleeting diplomacy since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

See a timeline of the events that shaped the Iranian Revolution

From a defamatory newspaper editorial that sparked protests in January 1978 to Khomeini's return from exile and the Shah's flight from Iran in 1979, this timeline traces the rapidly escalating chain of events—protests, crackdowns, and political collapses—that toppled one of the Middle East's most powerful monarchies.

Embargoes and economic mismanagement have pushed Cuba into its worst crisis in decades

For more than 60 years, Cuba has been pressured by two forces—the US economic embargo and its own government's repression and mismanagement. NPR's Throughline podcast explains how both contributed to today's blackouts, food shortages, and mass exodus.

Explore the material culture of socialist Cuba

Even the objects of everyday life were politicized under socialism. This catalog of Cuban artifacts, collected between 1959 and the fall of the Soviet Union, reveals how revolutionary values infiltrated the most ordinary of items—from cocktail coasters to cologne.

What was the impact of the Haitian Revolution of 1791?

This 53-minute podcast explores the context surrounding the Haitian Revolution, a 13-year rebellion led by the then-French colony's enslaved population. The Spanish colonized the Caribbean island after Christopher Columbus landed on it in 1492,...

The CIA once tried to poison Fidel Castro's milkshake during the Cold War.

See a timeline of the major moments in Soviet history

Beginning with Lenin’s return to Russia from Germany in 1917 and ending with Gorbachev’s resignation on December 25, 1991, this timeline outlines the significant domestic and foreign policy developments that led to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.

Establishing an independent Haiti: a timeline

This map and timeline shows the history of the Caribbean Island nation of Haiti and its fight for independence. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and crashed one of his ships, the Santa Maria, along reefs near the island nation...

The US intervened in Latin America to block communist influence during the Cold War

Fearing Soviet expansion, the US intervened across Latin America by backing coups, funding right-wing regimes, and supporting anti-communist militias—most notably in Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Take a multimedia journey through the thirteen days that nearly ended the world

In October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. This interactive archive from the JFK Library reconstructs those tense days through documents, photos, and secretly recorded conversations from the Kennedy White House.

A secret airlift sent 14,000 Cuban children to the US

As part of the covert Operation Pedro Pan, roughly 14,000 Cuban children were quietly flown to the US in the early 1960s—often with no warning, no luggage, and no certainty they would ever see their parents again.

The Russian Revolution toppled the tsar and brought the Bolsheviks to power

In 1917, mass unrest, war exhaustion, and economic collapse overthrew the Romanov monarchy, enabling the Bolsheviks to seize control. The revolution dismantled imperial Russia and set the foundation for the creation of the Soviet Union.

Some colonies were centuries-old before they broke from Britain

The revolution did not happen overnight, but was a culmination of centuries of settlement, policies, and war in North America. This timeline provides key, fascinating events from the 1600s through the Revolution in a smooth, easy-to-read interface.

The 1917 Russian Revolution: an interactive timeline

The 1917 Russian Revolution ended Tsarist rule and ultimately led to the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. Follow the events that led to the revolution, subsequent civil war, and the USSR in this interactive...

See a timeline of the space race

This interactive timeline chronicles the space race from its Cold War origins to the moon landing, highlighting key figures, pivotal moments, and rapid technological advancements. It combines archival photos, video, and links to related material.

Hear the story of a doctor who decided to flee Cuba with his family in 1963

In this StoryCorps conversation, Gustavo Mestas reflects on leaving the island with his family in 1963 and the difficult transition that followed—from treating patients in Cuba to picking tomatoes and cleaning motels while rebuilding a life in the US.

The failed Bay of Pigs invasion led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation

Moscow's decision to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba—just 90 miles from the US—pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war. To prevent future crises, both sides later set up a direct hotline and boosted arms-control diplomacy

Watergate's anti-Castro Latino burglars believed they were fighting communism

Among the Watergate burglars, Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, and Eugenio Martínez were Cuban American anti-Castro exiles who believed they were combating communist influence in the United States.

The American Revolution became a template for a colonized world

The robust and radical transformation during the American Revolution created a template for dozens of future independence movements. Its key ideas of republicanism, individualism, and equality inspired revolutions in France, Haiti, Ireland, and more, paving the way for the broadly democratic world we know today.

Who are the FARC?

The FARC (or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) are Colombia’s largest rebel group. They have been fighting the longest-running armed insurgency in the Western Hemisphere against security forces in Colombia – one of the world’s main...

Explore 100 years of communism across the globe, from the 1917 October Revolution to North Korea's modern nuclear defiance.

The famous image of Che Guevara was captured by accident

Alberto Korda wasn’t aiming for Che Guevara when he snapped one of the most reproduced photos in history. This longread traces how that fleeting moment became a global icon—later commodified across pop culture, fashion, and advertising.

See the Russian Revolution reimagined as if it unfolded on social media

This creative project retells the lead-up to the 1917 October Revolution as a Facebook-style newsfeed, blending archival photos with excerpts from letters and diaries by figures like Trotsky, Gertrude Stein, and Stravinsky to recreate events in a modern format.

A 103-episode podcast offers an unmatched deep dive into the Russian Revolution

After covering the entire history of Rome, historian Mike Duncan devoted Season 10 of his Revolutions podcast to Russia, producing 103 episodes that trace the origins, upheaval, and aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Start with Episode 10.1 — The International Working Men’s Association.

The Iranian Revolution relied largely on nonviolent tactics

Despite thousands of unarmed protesters killed by the Shah's forces, the revolution relied overwhelmingly on nonviolent tactics, including strikes, demonstrations, and civil disobedience, with up to 9 million Iranians peacefully taking to the streets, making it one of history's largest protest movements by population percentage.