Che derails the train at Santa Clara
1958 · Event
Guevara's 300-strong column takes the last city on the road to Havana, bulldozing the rails to derail an armoured train packed with troops and munitions — whose demoralised defenders surrender in a hail of Molotovs. When the news reaches Havana on New Year's Eve, Batista pours himself a farewell and heads for the airport with the treasury.
On these timelines: The Cuban Revolution, Latin America, Master, Cold War
More from The Cuban Revolution
- Cuban Revolutionary War (1953)
- The Moncada assault (1953)
- The Granma lands 82 men (1956)
- The New York Times finds Castro alive (1957)
- Batista's coup (1952)
- Castro declares the revolution socialist (1961)
Around 1958
- Prague Spring (1968)
- The Troubles (1968)
- US Civil Rights Movement (1954)
- Vietnam War (American phase) (1965)
- Six-Day War (1967)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Korean War (1950)
- Decolonisation of Africa (1952)
- Berlin Airlift (1948)
- Apartheid (1948)