1946 -- Wojtyla is ordained as priest after attending underground seminary

1948 -- Wojtyla receives doctorate in sacred theology from Jagiellonian University in Krakow

1950 -- Castro receives law degree from University of Havana

1955-59 -- Castro leads revolution to overthrow dictator Gen. Fulgencio Batista, becoming ruler

1950s -- Wojtyla teaches at Polish universities

1958 -- Wojtyla named auxiliary bishop of Krakow

1961 -- U.S. severs relations with Cuba

Early 1960s -- Cuba and Soviet Union become allies

April 1961 -- "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, backed by U.S. government, fails

1962 -- Cuba becomes officially atheistic

October 1962 -- Cuban Missile Crisis leads Soviet Union to agree to U.S. demands that it remove missiles and missile bases from Cuba

1962-65 -- Wojtyla participates in the Second Vatican Council, which takes steps to modernize church

1964 -- Wojtyla is appointed archbishop of Krakow

1967 -- Wojtyla is consecrated cardinal in the Sistine Chapel

1971 -- Wojtyla is first elected to Council of the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops

October 1978 -- Wojtyla is elected successor to succeed Pope John Paul I, and takes name John Paul II

1979 -- Among first of many trips as pope, John Paul returns to his native Poland

Early 1990s -- Soviet Union's collapse deepens Cuban poverty

1992 -- Cuba drops commitment to atheism from constitution

January 1998 -- Castro hosts John Paul in Cuba

1994 -- Vatican establishes papal representative in Israel

November 1996 -- John Paul hosts Castro at the Vatican