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| 1961 |
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| Declared as the Year of Education, 1961 saw almost 250,000 Cuban students and teachers working in rural areas to teach literacy. | 1 |
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| Jan. 3 |
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| The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Castro demanded that the U.S. cut its embassy personnel. | 2 |
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| March 22 |
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| In New York, the Democratic Front and the Revolutionary Movement of the People, two major Cuban opposition groups, announced agreement on setting up a revolutionary council with ex-premier José Miro Cardona as president. He urged all Cubans to revolt against Castro. | 3 |
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| April |
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| Rumors became rife of anti-Castro forces led by the Cuban revolutionary council. At the UN on April 15, Cuban foreign minister Raúl Roa accused the U.S. and the Latin American nations of preparing an invasion. | 4 |
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| April 17–20 |
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| A CUBAN REBEL FORCE of about 1,600 men, funded and trained by the CIA, INVADED SOUTHERN CUBA and established a beachhead near the Bay of Pigs, but it was driven off with heavy losses. The force had been directed by CIA officials, but at the last moment the U.S. government withdrew air support, effectively guaranteeing a massive defeat. In the aftermath of the invasion, popular support for Castro in Cuba reached new heights, and Castro began to refer to the revolution as a socialist one. Members of the former PSP also assumed more prominent roles in his government. | 5 |
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| Dec. 2 |
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| PREMIER CASTRO DECLARED HIMSELF A MARXIST-LENINIST and announced the formation of a vanguard party to bring communism to Cuba. | 6 |
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