When President Obama touched down in Cuba on Sunday, he became the first American president to visit the island nation since Calvin Coolidge traveled there 88 years ago.
Joined by his family and more than three dozen members of Congress, Obama's historic visit this week is intended to solidify diplomatic ties with Cuba and prevent the U.S. from slipping back into its half-century old policy of isolation.
Scroll through this interactive timeline, produced by the Center on Foreign Relations, for more about America's long, often tormented relationship with the island nation located just 90 miles south of Florida.
Although the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba still stands (only Congress can remove it), the Obama Administration has attempted over the past 15 months to normalize relations by easing restrictions on travel and commerce.
In December 2014, the two nations restored full diplomatic ties for the first time since the Cuban Revolution in 1959, when President Fidel Castro established a revolutionary Socialist state. In May 2015, the U.S. State Department removed Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism (Iran, Syria and Sudan are the only ones still on it). In July, both nations reopened embassies in each others capitals. And just last month, the U.S. and Cuba agreed to restore commercial flights between the two countries for the first time in more than 50 years.