Feburary, 1959- Fidel Castro becomes the prime minister of the communist party of Cuba and overthrows the former dictatorship led by Fulgencio Batista.
March, 1960- Under the Eisenhower administration, plans to overthrow Castro begin. President Eisenhower approves thirteen million dollars worth of funds to be put towards throwing Castro out of power. As a result, covert operations were put in place to gain as much inside information as possible to battle Cuba.
October, 1960- Under the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. places an embargo on exports to Cuba except for food and medicine. This resulted after Cuba sells American owned oil refineries without compensation. Due to this, Cuban turned to the Soviet Union for supplying the country with oil, boosting relations between the two countries.
January, 1961- John F Kennedy is elected president. Though Eisenhower is out of office, Kennedy picks up the fight by severing diplomatic relations with Cuba and preparing for an invasion.
April, 1961- President Kennedy approves the Bay Of Pigs invasion in spite of doubts that an invasion on Cuban land would not be successful.
April 17, 1961- the Cuban-exile invasion force, known as Brigade 2506, landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs and immediately came under heavy fire. Cuban planes sank two escort ships and destroyed air support. As a result, the invasion was a failure and Cuba remained a communist regime.