January 1959: Fidel Castro takes power

March 1960: President Eisenhower approves a plan of economic sabotage and covert action against Cuba. International loans to Cuba are blocked.

August 1960: Cuba announces the nationalisation of 26 of the largest American companies there.

October 1960: The US bans exports to Cuba.

January 1961: President Kennedy severs all diplomatic relations with Cuba.

April 1961: The US launches the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba a socialist republic.

November 1961: Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba a communist state.

February 1962: The US bans all Cuban imports. This is extended months later to ban the import of goods manufactured with Cuban materials in other countries. American assistance to any country which helps Cuba is also banned.

October 1962: The Cuban missile crisis ends when the Soviet Union withdraws the weapons from Cuba.

February 1963: The US bans US-government purchased cargo from being carried on any foreign ships which has called at a Cuban port. In July that year all Cuban-owned assets in the US are frozen and a ban is imposed on all financial and commercial transactions with the country, unless approved by the government.

July 1964: The Organisation of American States introduces a collective embargo on Cuba.

July 1974 to July 1982: There is a gradual relaxation of restrictions on Cuba and a thawing in US-Cuban relations.

April 1982: President Reagan reintroduces severe restrictions on Americans visiting Cuba.

October 1992: President Bush imposes severe restrictions on foreign ships which visit Cuba before continuing to the US.

March 1996: The Helms-Burton Act is introduced. It allows foreign companies which invest in Cuba to be taken to court in the US, if they deal with property owned by Americans in Cuba before it was nationalised by Castro. It also prevents any American president from lifting the embargo on Cuba until a transitional government is in place in Havana.