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Ernesto "Che" Guevara is born in Rosario, Argentina, into a middle-class family and he is the first child among five children. -
1947: Guevara graduates as a doctor from the University of Buenos Aires. 1948: Embarks on a road trip across South America with his friend Alberto Granado. This journey would profoundly shape his views on poverty and social inequality. -
Guevara and Granado travel across South America on a motorcycle. This trip, which is chronicled in Guevara's later memoir The Motorcycle Diaries, exposes him to the severe poverty and exploitation of the working class across the continent.
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Guevara completes his medical studies and returns to Guatemala. Here, he becomes involved with leftist political movements, including the government of President Jacobo Árbenz, which is later overthrown by a U.S.-backed coup.
Guevara moves to Mexico after the overthrow of Árbenz. -
In Mexico City, Guevara meets Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl, who are planning to overthrow the Cuban government of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara joins their cause. -
November 25, 1956: Guevara, Castro, and 81 others set sail from Mexico on the Granma, intending to start a revolution in Cuba. December 2, 1956: The expedition lands in Cuba and is quickly attacked by Batista's forces. Guevara survives and becomes a key leader in the ensuing guerrilla campaign in the Sierra Maestra mountains. -
Guevara earns the title "Che" (a term used for an Argentine person) from his comrades and becomes one of the top commanders of the revolutionary forces. Guevara’s tactics and his ability to organize and rally troops in the mountains make him an iconic figure in the Cuban Revolution. -
January 1, 1959: Batista’s regime collapses. Fidel Castro’s rebel army, including Guevara, takes control of Cuba. January 8, 1959: Guevara enters Havana as one of the victorious leaders of the revolution. -
Guevara assumes various key roles in the new Cuban government:
President of the National Bank of Cuba.
Minister of Industries.
He plays a major role in reforming Cuba’s economy, though his policies are controversial and lead to some economic problems. -
Guevara is involved in promoting Cuban solidarity with other left-wing movements around the world. He travels to Moscow and meets Soviet leaders, although he becomes disillusioned with Soviet-style communism. -
Guevara delivers his famous speech at the United Nations General Assembly, calling for worldwide revolution against imperialism and the "imperialist monopoly capitalists." He also writes Guerrilla Warfare, advocating for armed struggle as a means to topple colonial and imperial regimes. -
Guevara leaves Cuba to spread revolution. He first goes to the Congo (Zaire), where his mission fails. He then moves to Bolivia, hoping to ignite a Marxist revolution in Latin America. -
October 8, 1967: Guevara is captured by the Bolivian army, with assistance from the CIA, after an unsuccessful guerrilla campaign in Bolivia. October 9, 1967: Che Guevara is executed by the Bolivian military in La Higuera, Bolivia.