Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro was the 22nd President of Cuba and one of history’s most famous and controversial communist leaders. The central figure of the Cuban Revolution, he served as the Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976. He became President in 1976 and served until his resignation in February of 2008.

Castro came from a wealthy family and earned a law degree from the University of Havana, but was radicalized in the 1950s and became an outspoken critic of the country's nominal president and de facto dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Castro was jailed after he organized and led a failed attack on the Moncada military barracks in 1953, but eventually helped to overthrow Batista’s regime in 1959. Castro has also for decades been known as one of the United States fiercest critics and perennial thorn-in-the-side. A U.S. embargo against Cuba (1960), the infamous, failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 only heightened the tumultuous relationship. Tensions continued when Castro became president and refused to move Cuba toward a more democratized society.

As age and health started to take their toll, Castro transferred his responsibilities as president to his younger brother Raul in 2008, effectively ending his reign -- at least in name -- as one of the world’s at-once most admired and reviled political figures.