The Moncada assault
1953 · Event
Castro leads some 130 rebels against Cuba's second-largest barracks — and the attack collapses in minutes, with the captured tortured and shot. At his trial he turns defeat into a manifesto with a four-hour speech ending 'condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me.' The movement takes its name from the disaster's date: the 26th of July.
On these timelines: The Cuban Revolution, Latin America, Master, Cold War
More from The Cuban Revolution
- Cuban Revolutionary War (1953)
- The Granma lands 82 men (1956)
- Che derails the train at Santa Clara (1958)
- The New York Times finds Castro alive (1957)
- Batista's coup (1952)
- Castro declares the revolution socialist (1961)
Around 1953
- Chinese Civil War (resumed) (1945)
- US Civil Rights Movement (1954)
- Decolonisation of Africa (1952)
- Suez Crisis (1956)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Korean War (1950)
- Indian independence and Partition (1947)
- Berlin Airlift (1948)
- Apartheid (1948)
- The Beatles (1960)