Stock Photo - The US and Cuba announced an agreement between the two countries that will be a first step toward normalizing relations. PICTURED: Apr. 22, 1959 - Washington D.C., U.S. - A Cuban revolutionary leader who led his country from January 1959 until his retirement in February 2008, FIDEL CASTRO transformed Cuba into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Although the US has tried hard to get rid of him, President Castro outlasted no fewer than nine American presidents since he took power in 1959. He has remained Cuba's dictatorial ruler for so long that nearly three-quarters of its people have known no other leader. PICTURED: FIDEL CASTRO during a press conference. (Credit Image: © Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com)