Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country in the Caribbean, comprising the island of Cuba, Isla de la Juventud, and 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola, and north of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area.

The Museum of the Revolution is located in the Old Havana section of Havana, Cuba, in what was the presidential palace of all Cuban presidents from Mario García Menocal to Fulgencio Batista. The building became the Museum of the Revolution during the years following the Cuban Revolution. The palace building was attacked by the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo in 1957.

Havana is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. It is the most populous city, the largest by area, and the second largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region. The population in 2021 was 2,142,939 inhabitants, and its area is 728.26 km² (281.18 sq mi) for the capital city side and 8,475.57 km² for the metropolitan zone. Its official population was 1,749,964 inhabitants in 2024.

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was a Cuban military officer and dictator who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power in the 1930s until his overthrow in the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He served as president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and again from 1952 to his 1959 resignation.