Transcript for This day in history: March 20, 2016

Good evening tonight from Havana Cuba work history has just been made. President Obama touching down Air Force One landing here in Havana and image unimaginable not long ago. The first president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. And while here we will have the exclusive interview with President Obama. The president's visit does not come without controversy without risk he will meet privately with president Raul Castro. At people speak directly to the Cuban people a first in a televised speech. The first family is here the First Lady and their daughters and the Cuban people are welcoming them with open arms. As many here now ask and as many Americans wonder back home how far will the president go with what he says here about a Communist government. About human rights about the freedoms of ordinary Cubans. Presidential bubble. Landing here in Cuba late today making history just ninety miles from the US he's the first president to visit Cuba in 88 years. It comes a little more than a year after the president announced the US would begin normalizing relations with Cuba. A flaw decades after the Cold War ended when we sat down with the president the first time we asked him if this state was coming. Will you visit Cuban your final two years as president you know I don't have any current plans. To visit Cuba. Carolina. Well what's what's see how things of law. After that first interview we brought you to Cuba driving to find a former US embassy here stripped of its title and shut down after Fidel Castro took power. At the time Cubans aware of the growing tensions lining up before the embassy could close to apply for American visas the wait list months long. But outside the old embassy this past year. We've witnessed the first signs of that the law you can see the heavy security behind me the officers. On the corner here we were here as members of the US delegation arrived a short time ago. Because there is great hope. That this will soon become the US embassy again. Tonight the embassy is now open again and on his first night here. It will be among president Obama's first stops eleven billion people live here in Cuba on average making just twenty dollars a month. Some estimates just 5% have Internet access in their homes and a tonight the people here are waiting for the American president here in the heart of historic old Havana you talk to the young families here and you hear the same thing over and over again. It's time. I ask of that she's 24 what she thinks of the president's visit. KP it's us sic had been a busy president human come. And windows unlocked and she tells us we don't know exactly what will happen here but I hope there were something good families can be reunited. And it was this young father ending his family. He tells us it's good that Cuba and the US can now get along. He reveals his family he would look to visit in Louisiana the president will make a distort speech televised the Cuban people. An inside dismiss it via a tiny store I asked us will they be watching us. I don't see what the president offers tough words about change that was come here CS but I Bossone. Decency and let and let us who president thank you can't just. Went up UPS of course she tells us shall be listening and we are prepared for any other president has to say. On the streets here seems frozen in time the American callers from the 1950s. When Fidel Castro took power in 1959 he shut down imports of American cars. 60000. Vintage cars still driven here. The cars the symbol the economy in slow motion for decades who patrolled by Communist government. And there are still the arrests of dissidents and speak out about their own government presidential bubble aware of criticism from some back home that the embargo should not be lifted. We'll ask what are while here. But already more Americans are now visiting Cuba for cultural exchanges are simply coming through tourism is not get a loud. Flights from America will soon resume there is a bidding war among airlines already. And tonight Starwood Hotels & Resorts just announcing. People when they can operate three hotels here Rahman who want I want to know about. Boarded at the century bill Q but was a tourist Mecca for Americans to nightclubs to gambling. But now its president Obama's gamble. We'll restoring relations and pushing for a more open economy. Actually gave Cubans a new voice as many Americans back home wait to visit as tourists again to see the culture frozen in time of those American cars. We asked with no American parts allowed in for decades who fixes them and how. Mechanics who improvise. 888. 53 Plymouth. CNN Internet car now oversees ingenuity and he wondered how much of the car its original want the sport isn't it it would today. Sewn over you know answers with a smile just the body and the transmission. Rebuilding it all on their own. As an American president now arrives many ask what we'll change here and how far will he go. Private with president Castro and in public before the Cuban people.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.