1514. Havana, named after a local chief, becomes San Cristobal de la Havana village on the Mayabeque River in the South of the country. Five years later, it is moved north to the bank of the Almendares River and then finally to the port where it is located today.
1519 First mass celebrated under a cedar tree at what is now the city center. Apparently, a descendant of that tree grows on the Plaza de Armas.
1533. Pirates and slaves burn down the city. The Castillo de la Fuerza  is built for protection and is now the second oldest in the Western world.
1555. Pirate Jacques de Sores attacks Havana
1586. Castillo del Morro is completed. The fort is built to protect the city from invaders and guards can see a long way to sea in all directions from de lookouts.
1607. Havana officially becomes the capital of Cuba.
1674. A wall is started around the city to protect it from invasion.
1728. University of San Gerónimo opens in Havana
1763. England takes Cuba, then trade it with Spain for Florida, which Spain occupied at that time.
1774. Population reaches 73000 people.
1776. Teatro Principal opens.
1790. The first newspaper, the Papel Periódico  is open.
1812. Havana is given permission to trade with any city in the world. Prior to this it was allowed to trade with only seven Spanish cities.
1833. Cuban Academy of Literature is founded.
1837.  Railway is built.
1844. Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés (Plácido), a mulatto poet, is executed for his participation in a slave revolt.
1848. Havana gets gas lighting.
1851. Narciso López, an advocate for the union of US and Cuba, is executed in Havana. The telegraph is brought onto the island.
1853. Poet José Martí Pérez is born in Havana.
1862. Public transportation is introduced.
1869. Poet José Martí is sentenced to six years in prison for opposing the government.
1873. The last slave ship arrives in Cuba.
1876. Cementerio Cristóbal Colón is established. It now holds about a million graves.
1890. Electricity and telephones arrive in the city.
1893. A proclamation declaring equal status for blacks is signed.
1895. War of Independence results in Cuba being under the control of the US.
1898. US battleship Maine  explodes in Havana Harbor.
1902. Cuba becomes a republic and the national flag flies over Havana for the first time.
1904. Alejo Carpentier, a novelist is born in Havana.
1908. The first black political party, Partido Independiete de Color, is founded in Havana by Evaristo Estenoz.
1910. José Lezama Lima, a writer and editor of numerous literary magazines, is born.
1912. René Portorcarrero, a painter, is born in El Cerro, Havana.
1920. Alicia Alonso, a ballerina, is born in Havana.
1928. Julio Antonio Mella leads uprisings against General Gerardo Machado.
1929. Capitolio is built.
1933. Fulgencio Batista becomes president of Cuba.
1950. National Ballet of Cuba is founded by Alicia Alonso.
1952. After losing power, Batista leads a military coup against President Carlos Prío.
1953. Fidel Castro leads a military attack on Moncada Garrison in Santiago de Cuba. Castro is captured and sent to prison.
1955. Castro is released from prison.
1956. The yatch Granma lands at Las Coloradas in the east carrying revolutionaries from Mexico.
1959. Triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
1961. US attacks Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Many Americans prisoners are taken.
1962. The Second Declaration of Havana is delivered. Cuba adopts the communists ideology.
1982. Old Havana is declared a World Heritage Site.
1991. Russian aid discontinued.
1998. Hurricane George destroys about 100 homes in Old Havana. Pope John Paul II visits.