Chronography of Czechia and Slovakia
Page last modified 19 August
2023
Demography of Czechia (Czechoslovakia)
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21
October 2017,
Elections in the Czech Republic produced gains for the Populist Right.
26
September 2000,
Anti-globalisation
protests in Prague.� Some 15,000 protestors turned violent during
the IMF and World Bank Summits.
Separation of Slovakia
from the Czech Republic 1992-3
26 January 1993. Vaclav Havel
became the first president of the new Czech Republic. He was a centre-right
candidate, opposed by Communists and the extreme-right Republican Party.
1 January 1993.� Czechoslovakia split into the Czech
and Slovak Republics, in a �velvet divorce�.
25 November 1992, The
Czechoslovak National Assembly voted for the country to split into the Czech
Republic and Slovakia, on 1 January 1993.
20 July 1992, Vaclav Havel resigned as President of Czechoslovakia.
This was after a proclamation of sovereignty by Slovakia, which was to split
the country in two.
17 July 1992,
Following the June elections, Slovakian MPs voted for independence.
6 June 1992, In
Czechoslovak elections, Parties favouring independence did well in Slovakia whereas Parties
favouring continued federation prevailed in Chechia.
Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia 1989-91
18 November 1991, Gustav Husak, former
President of Czechoslovakia and Communist Party leader, who crushed the Prague
Spring in 1968, died in Prague aged 78.
15 February 1991, The Visegrad Agreement was signed; the
leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland agreed to move towards
free-market systems.
10 June 1990, In
Czechoslovakia, Vaclav
Havel�s Civic Forum Party and its Slovak allies won 170 out of the
300 seats. Tough economic reforms lay ahead.
29 December 1989, (1) The Czechs elect playwright Vaclav Havel as President.
(2) Alexander Dubcek, the reformist leader sacked in
1968 was elected leader of Czechoslovakia�s federal assembly.
10 December 1989,
Czechoslovakia convened a �Government of National Understanding; Gustav Husak
was removed from the office of President.
28 November 1989, The monopoly on power by the Communist
Party in Czechoslovakia ended.
5 December 1989,
Czechoslovakia opened its border with the West.
27 November 1989, Czech
workers staged a 2-hour general strike, organised by the Civic Forum political
opposition.
24 November 1989,
Czechoslovak General Secretary Gustav Husak resigned.
20 November 1989, Major
anti-government demonstrations in Czechoslovakia.
17 November 1989, In
Czechoslovakia, students protesting peacefully in Prague were severely beaten
by riot police. This sparked a revolution which toppled the Communist
government on 29 December 1989. Protestors grew from 200,000 on 19 November 1989
to an estimated 500,000 on 20 November 1989.
14 November 1989. Czechoslovakia lifted travel restrictions.
27 September 1969, Purge
of reformers in Czechoslovak Government.
17 May 1989, The
Communist Government of Czechoslovakia freed playwright Vaclav Havel after he served just three months of a nine month
sentence.
21 February 1989. Czech
writer Vaclav
Havel was jailed for anti-government demonstrations.
19 January 1989, Police
in Prague used tear gas and water cannon to break up a large demonstration
commemorating te 20th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach,
a student who burnt himself to death in protest at the Soviet invasion of
Czechoslovakia in 1968. The 1989 protests were led by Vaclav Havel, a dissident writer
who led the Charter 77 human rights movement.
17 December 1987, Gustav Husak resigned as General Secretary of
the Czechoslovak Communist Party; succeeded by Milos Jakes.
23
December 1979.
In
Czechoslovakia, playwright Vaclav
Havel was convicted of subversion.
13 March 1977, Czech secret
police tortured to death the leader of the Charter
77 Movement, Jan Potocka.
26 January 1977, The US State Department accused
Czechoslovakia of violating the Helsinki Accord (1 August 1975) by persecuting
dissidents.
7 January 1977, Civil
Rights campaigners in Czechoslovakia published their Charter 77, following the signing by the Czechoslovak Government of
the International Convention on Human Rights in 1976. In practice, many civil
rights such as freedom of expression had been suppressed following the
�normalisation� that followed the Soviet
invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Charter�s signatories included Jiri Hajek,
who was Czechoslovak Foreign Minister in 1968, and the writer Vaclav Havel.
The signatories were greatly harassed by the Communist administration, but the
Charter contributed to the downfall of Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, when Havel
became President.
28 January 1975, Antonin Novotkny, Czechoslovak politician,
died aged 70.
Dubcek era �
failed attempt at liberalisation
26 June 1970, Dubcek
was expelled from the Czech Communist Party.
15 December 1969. Dubcek
was made Czechoslovak Ambassador to Turkey. He was expelled from the Czech
Communist party on 26 June 1970.
17 April 1969, Alexander
Dubcek was replaced as First Secretary of the Czech Communist Party.
19 January 1969, A
21-year-old student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire in Wenceslas
Square, Prague, in protest at the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
16 October 1968, The Czechoslovak Government signed, under duress,
an agreement that Warsaw Pact troops would remain in the country indefinitely.
13 September 1968, Press censorship was reimposed in
Czechoslovakia.
27 August 1968. Russian
patrols watched the streets of Prague after a failed anti � Communist uprising.
Tanks had first entered Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968. The Soviets overthrow
President
Dubcek, and 175,000 troops, mostly Russian, occupied the major
cities of Czechoslovakia. Prague was put under curfew. 20 people were reported
dead and at least 200 injured, many of them students, after the anti-Soviet
protests.
22 August 1968, Soviet
tanks entered Prague.
21 August 1968, President Dubcek was arrested
and taken to Moscow. He returned to Czechoslovakia on 27 August 1968, having
agreed to Soviet demands.
20 August 1968. (+8,505) Russia sent
tanks into Czechoslovakia. Dubcek had said on 18 July 1968 he would not go back on his progressive
policies, see 5 April 1968.
29 July 1968, President Dubcek met with Soviet
leader Leonid
Brezhnev in the village of Cierna nad Tisou (on
the Czech-USSR border). Brezhnev agreed that Czechoslovakia could
follow �its own road to Socialism� and Dubcek promised �Socialist solidarity�.
The meeting closed on 1 August 1968.
18 July 1968, Dubcek said he would not go back on his progressive policies, see 20 August 1968.
16 July 1968, Other Warsaw Pact leaders, from
East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, declared the Czechoslovak reforms
unacceptable.
14 July 1968, Soviet troops failed to leave
Czechoslovakia after Warsaw Pact exercises.
9 July 1968, Czechoslovakia rejected a demand
by Russia for a meeting of Communist Party leaders.
27 June 1968, The Czechoslovak National
Assembly passed laws abolishing censorship and rehabilitating political
prisoners.
19 April 1968, Josef Smirnovsky, chairman of
the Czechoslovak National Assembly, promised freedom of press, assembly and
religion.
8 April 1968, New Czechoslovak government took
office, under Oldrich Cernik.
5 April 1968, In
Czechoslovakia, Dubcek
began a programme of reform which was to lead to a measure of political
democracy and restoration of personal freedoms, see 5 January 1968 and 20
August 1968.
23 March 1968, President
Dubcek was summoned to an emergency Warsaw Pact meeting to try and
stop his liberal policies in Czechoslovakia.
13 March 1968. Dubcek
abolished press censorship in Czechoslovakia.
24
January 1968, The Czech Writers Union appointed Edward Goldstucker, a Liberal,
as its chairman. Censorship was suspended and more open reporting began in the
press, radio and TV.
5 January 1968. Alexander Dubcek became the Czech leader, replacing Novotkny.� Czech discontent at oppressive government
from Prague and economic exploitation by the USSR led to criticism of the
Communist leader of Czechoslovakia, Novotny (see 25 February 1948), at a Workers
Union Congress in June 1967, and to student demonstrations in October
1967.� See 5 April 1968.
21 September 1963, Vilian Siroky, Czechoslovak Prime Minister,
was dismissed. Jozef
Lenart became Prime Minister. Lenart was a pragmatic reformer who succeeded
in boosting the Czechoslovak economy. However he became less in favour of
political reform and was dismissed when the 1968 Prague Spring began.
Communist
control of Czeckoslovakia established 1946-54
29 November 1954, General Elections in Czechoslovakia.
All candidates were Communist-controlled.
28 May 1953, In Soviet
Czechoslovakia, a law was passed introducing short term conscription of
labour. Citizens were required to work �voluntarily� for 12 days a year, at
weekends or during holidays. �Volunteers� who declined could be imprisoned.
27 November 1951, In
Czechoslovakia, the Communists conducted a purge of Government.
3
September 1948, Eduard Benes, Czech President until the
Communist take-over, died.� See 6 June 1948.
27 June 1948, The
Czech Social Democratic Party was absorbed into the Communist Party.
6 June 1948,� In Prague, President Benes resigned.� He had been attempted to maintain a neutral
government in Czechoslovakia but the Communist, Klement Gottwald succeeded in
introducing a Russian-oriented political system.� Benes died three months later (3 September 1948),
a broken man.
10 March 1948, Ian Masaryk,
Czech politician, died in Prague under suspicious circumstances after the
Communists gained control.
25
February 1948. Communists seized power in
Czechoslovakia.� In Czech
elections in May 1946 the Communists, under Gottwald, had secured 114 of the
300 seats and became leader of a coalition government.� However
by 1948 the Communists were losing popularity in
Czechoslovakia, because Gottwald had
declined Marshall Aid and because he was appointing his own supporters to
senior positions in the police force.�
A new Czech election was due in May 1948; before this could take place Gottwald
organised what was effectively a Communist Revolution, backed by the workers
militia and the police; there were no Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia at this
time.� Gottwald died in March 1953 and
was succeeded as Communist dictator by Novotny, who ruled until early 1968.� This was a humiliation for the USA, who was exposed as
unable to support a pro-Western democracy in Czeckoslovalkia, or by extension
elsewhere in eastern Europe. See 5 January 1968.
18 April 1947, Tiso
was executed, see 22 May 1945.
26 May 1946. The
Communists gained power in Czechoslovakia. They gained a 38% share of the vote
in the first general election since the War.
Soviet forces establish hegemony over Czechoslovakia, 1945
1 December 1945, Soviet
and US troops, which had jointly occupied Czechoslovakia since the War, now
pulled out. However the USSR kept divisions close to its border with
Czeckoslovakia.
29 June 1945,
Czechoslovakia ceded 4,781 square miles of Ruthenia to the USSR.
11 June 1945, The
Russians began expelling Germans from the Sudetenland westwards.
30 May 1945, Several
thousand ethnic Germans were expelled from the Czech city of Brno. Many did not
make it as far as the Austrian border but died en route; the Brno Death March.
22 May 1945, Tiso,
President of �Slovakia�, was arrested whilst in hiding in Austria.� He was tried for wartime collaboration in a
Czechoslovak court and sentenced to death in April 1947.� Some Czechoslovaks pressed for a reprieve but
the national government wanted the death sentence and he was executed, see 26
October 1939 and 18 April 1947.
For main
European events of World War One see France-Germany
German gains in Czechoslovakia
29 August 1939, Jozef Tiso
declared martial law in Slovakia. Articles were posted ordering Slovaks to
accept German currency and furnish food to the German soldiers "here to
protect our young state against the threatening Polish danger.
16 March 1939,
Slovakia became a German protectorate.
14 March 1939, Josef Tiso proclaimed the independent people�s republic of Slovakia, see 26
October 1939.
20 November 1938, Czechoslovakia acceded to
German demands for a highway across Moravia to Vienna and a canal linking the
Oder and Danube Rivers. This made Czechoslovakia virtually a satellite State of
Germany.
20 October 1938, Czechoslovakia, in line
with Nazi policy, outlawed Communism and began persecuting the Jews.
8 October 1938. Ruthenia granted autonomy.
6 October 1938. Slovakia granted autonomy.
In Britain 30 Tory MPs protested at Chamberlain�s appeasement, uneasy that one
country had been allowed to win by force against another.
23 September 1938, Chamberlain concluded a 2-day
visit to Hitler,
who demanded immediate cession of the Sudetenland and plebiscites in areas of
Czechoslovakia with large German minorities. Chamberlain was inclined to
concede but the British Cabinet did not.
22 Septrember 1938, Czech PM Hodza resigned as Germany,
Poland and Hungary issued claims for Czech territory. A new Government was
formed by General
Jan Sirovy.
Masaryk,
Benes, Presidencies
14 September 1937, Thomas Masaryk, the first president of
5 October 1936. Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright, human rights campaigner,
and President, was born.
14 December 1935, Thomas Masaryk, first President of Czechoslovakia, resigned aged 85.
He was succeeded by Edward Benes.
10 September 1936, German Propaganda Minister
Joseph
Goebbels accused Czechoslovakia of hosting Soviet aircraft on their territory.
The Czechs denied this, but German denunciation of Czechoslovakia continued.
5 November 1935, In Czechoslovakia, Milan Hodza,
Agrarian Party, formed a government.
16 February 1933, Fearing German aggression,
Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia formed the Little Entente, with a Permanent Council.
29 October 1932, Jan Malypetr became Prime
Minister of Czechoslovakia.
27 October 1929, Elections in
Czechoslovakia were won by the Republican Party of Agricultural and Smallholder
Peoples.
27 May 1927, Tomas Masaryk was re-elected President of
Czechoslovakia.
28 May 1884, Eduard Benes, Czech politician and founder of modern
Czechoslovakia, was born in Kozlany, Bohemia.
7 March 1850, Thomas Masaryk, the first
President of Czechoslovakia in 1918, was born in Hodonin, Moravia.
Assertion
of Czechoslovakian independence and nationhood 1916-26
3 February 1926. Czech became the official language of
27 November 1921, Alexander
Dubcek, Czechoslovak politician, was born in Uhrovek.
23 April 1921,
Czechoslovakia and Romania formed an alliance.
20 August 1920,
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia agreed a mutual defence pact, �The Little
Entente� at Belgrade.
22 January 1919,
Czechoslovakia occupied Teschen (Tesin), a region also claimed by Poland.
14 November 1918. Tomas Masaryk
was elected first President of Czechoslovakia.
30 October 1918. The
28 October 1918, Czechoslovakia declared its
independence.
14 October 1918, The Czechoslovak
National Council, meeting in Paris, organised a provisional Government headed
by Thomas
Masaryk as President.
30 September 1918. Slovak Nationalist parties in Hungary voted
to join with Czechoslovakia.� However
the Slovaks soon found the Czech government more centralist than they expected, or desired, and pressure grew
for Slovak separation from
13 August 1918, The
Allies formally recognised Czech independence.
16 September 1916. A
provisional �government of
For main
European events of World War One see
France-Germany
26 May 1876, Frantisek Palacky, Czech politician, died in
Prague (born in Moravia 14 June 1798)
15 March 1867. Austria and Hungary
buried their differences and agreed to joint rule, sharing defence, foreign,
and financial matters but with separate parliaments. However the Czechs,
annoyed by the minor role they were given in this arrangement, walked out of
the Parliament on 22 August 1868.
17 June 1848, The revolt in Prague was suppressed by Austrian
troops.
12 June 1848, Revolution by students and workers in Prague.
18 December 1818, Philipp Rieger, Bohemian politician, was born
in Jicin (died 3 Marcxh 1903)
14 June 1798, Frantisek Palacky, Czech politician, was born
in Moravia (died 26 May 1876 in Prague)
14 March 1647, The Treaty of Ulm. Elector Maximillian I of Bavaria
made an agreement with France to end his alliance with Ferdinand III, Holy
Roman Emperor.
6 March 1645, Battle of
Jankow, Bohemia.
9 June 1642, Battle of Schweidnitz, Moravia.
30 May 1635, The Peace
of Prague was signed, ending Saxony�s role in the Thirty
Years War.
1632, Catholicism was now
completely dominant in Bohemia, and
the presecution of Protestants had ceased.
27 April 1622, Battle of
Mingolsheim (Thirty Years War). Mansfeld defeated Tilly, and delayed his union
with a Spanish force from The Netherlands.
27 April 1621, King Frederick of Bohemia, dispossessed of his
lands, now a;llied with the Dutch in an effort to reclaim them. Both Frederick
and his adversary Ferdinand rejected offers of mediation by
Spain and England.
29 January 1621, King Frederick of Bohemia was formally exiled
and his lands confiscated.
8 November 1620, Protestant Bohemian forces were defeated by
the Catholics (Hapsburgs and Bavaria) under Maximillian� at the Battle of the White Mountain (Thirty Years War). The Protestant Kingdom of
Bohemia had revolted against its rulers, the Hapsburgs, and Bohemia had invited
Frederick,
Elector of the Palatinate of the Rhine, to become its new monarch. Frederick�s
advisors counselled against this move, as rebel Protestant Bohemia was likely
to lose against the Hapsburgs, but Frederick took up the monarchy of Bohemia
nevertheless. Frederick
was forced to flee to Bavaria, and stripped of his title as Elector of the
Rhineland Palatinate by the Holy Roman Emperor. Spain�s Catholic Army occupied
his lands. Frederick
died in 1632 during a clandestine visit to the Palatinate, leaving his widow Elizabeth
to bring up their 20 children, produced in some 20 years of marriage.
23 July 1620, Maximillian of
Bavaria, with the 25,000 strong army of the Catholic League led by General John
Tserclaes, Count Tilly, crossed the Austrian frontier to support the
Holy Roman Emperor against the Protestant Bohemians.
3 July 1620, The
Treaty of Ulm was signed. Proetstants undertook not to intervene in the
Bohemian War. In return the Catholics agreed to respect the Elector palatine�s
States.
4 November 1619, Frederick V
was crowned King of Bohemia.
5 August 1619, In the Thirty Years War, Bohemian forces defeated the Austrians
at the Battle of Vestonice.
10 June 1619, In the Thirty Years War, Protestant forces were defeated
at the Battle of Zablati.
20 March 1619, Matthias, Holy Roman Empoeror and King of
Bohemia, died.
1609, King Rudolph of Bohemia
guaranteed religious freedom to his subjects. Protestants could now worship in
safety. However this was disapproved of by his brother Matthias, who deposed Rudolph
in 1611.
23 May 1618, The defenestration of Prague.� Rebel nobles hurled the Holy Roman
Emperor�s� advisers from the windows of
Hradcany Castle (they survived due to landing in a refuse heap), triggering the Thirty
Years War (Reformation). Rebel Protestant Bohemian nobles were in protest against their Catholic King, who
had been elected as Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. The conflict this started spread to involve
other European powers, who were eager to cash in on the weakened state of a
severely-split Germany.
19 July 1617, Ferdinand was crowned King of Bohemia.
17 June 1617, Because Matthias was childless, his Catholic
counsellors elected his cousin, Archduke Ferdinand of Styria, as his
successor. The Protestants, led by Count Matthias of Thurn, refused to recognise Ferdinand.
1612, Matthias was elected as Holy
Roman Emperor.
23 May 1611, Matthias was crowned King of Bohemia.
1609, King Rudolph of Bohemia
guaranteed religious freedom to his subjects. Protestants could now worship in
safety. However this was disapproved of by his brother Matthias, who deposed Rudolph
in 1611.
9 July 1609, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was forced, by Czech
leader Karel,
Elder of Zelotin, to grant freedom of worship in Bohemia.
23 October 1526, Following the death of King Louis II of Hungary and
Bohemia, Ferdinand
I, Archduke of Austria and brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V,
was elected King of Bohemia.
11 May 1509, Louis II was crowned King of Bohemia.
22 March 1471, George Podobrady, Hussite King of Bohemia,
died. He was succeeded by Ladislas II, son of King Casimir IV of Poland. The
Czech nobility held real power, and a seven-year war with Hungary ensued.
2 March 1458, The Bohemian Diet elected George Podobrady, leader of the
moderate Hussite Ultraquists, as King of Bohemia.
30 May 1434, Battle of Lipany, in modrn-day Hungary. Andrew
Prokop, a Bohemian religious dissident, led an army of radical anti-Papist
Taborites against a combines force of Catholics and Ultraquists (moderate
Hussites). Prokop was killed and the Taborites defeated.
30 November 1433, In Prague the Compacts of Prague were
drafted, to end the Hussite Wars. Most Hussites were now happy to submit to the
authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, in return for some freedom of worship. The
Hussite Wars had helped forge a sense of Czech national identity.
7 June 1424, Ziska defeated the Ultraquists at the Battle of
Malesov.
6 January 1424, Ziska defeated the Ultraquists at the Battle of
Skalic.
4 August 1423, Ziska (Taborite) defeated the Ultraquists
at the Battle of Strachov.
27 April 1423, Ziska (Taborite) defeated the Ultraquists
at the Battle of Horid)
10 January 1422, Ziska defeated Sigismund at the Battle of
Nemeclysbrod.
6 January 1422, Sigismund again attempted to claim the throne
of Bohemia and was again defeated by Ziska at the Battle of Nevobid.
1 November 1420, Bohemian followers of the heretical
religious reformer John Hus defeated a Papal army led by Sigismund,
Holy Roman Emperor, near Prague. This was the first of four attempts by the
Pope to suppress the Hussites.
30 July 1419, Battle of Prague. Ziska, Hussite (Protestant),
took his army to Prague where he defeated Sigismund (Catholic), who was compelled to
withdraw.
30 June 1419, Sigismund, asserting his claim to the throne
of Bohemia, besieged Prague. Prague appealed to the Hussites for assistance.
17 January 1411, Jobst, Margrave of Moravia, died.
26 February 1361, Wenceslas, King of Bohemia, was born.
26 August 1346. John the Blind, King of Bohemia, was killed at Crecy whilst
assisting the French.
Born on 10 August 1296, son of Count Henry III of Luxembourg (later Emperor Henry
III), he married (1310) the heiress of the Kingdom of Bohemia,
thereby becoming its King in 1311. He acquired Silesia from Poland. In 1334 he
married Beatrix
of the House of Bourbon, thereby allying with France. He had been blind from
1340.
30 August 1310, Bohemia
rebelled against the rule of Henry of Carinthia.
4 August 1305, King Wenceslas
III was murdered, ending the Premyslid Dynasty.
21 June 1305, Wenceslas II
of Bohemia died and was succeeded by his son Wenceslas III.
6 October 1289, King Wenceslaus
III, Bohemian King, was born
1253, King Wenceslaus I died, after a 23-year reign.
He had encouraged German immigration, which had antagnoised the indigenous
nobility. He was succeeded by his 23-year-old son, the Duke of Babenberg, who ruled
until 1278 as Ottokar
II. Under his rule Bohemia
became wealthy from its silver mines.
1230, King Ottokar I died after a 33-year reign. He
was succeeded by his son who ruled until 1253 as Wenceslaus I.
10
August 1296, John the Blind,
King of Bohemia, was born, see 26
August 1346.
26
September 1212. Frederick II
confirmed Bohemia;�s status as in independent foef within the Empire.
1140, Bohemia�s
King
Sobeslav I died after a 15-year reign. He was succeeded by King Ladislas
II, who reigned until 1173.
1095, Bohemia�s
King
Vratislav II died after a 33-year reign. His successor Bretislav II
ruled until 1110.
28 September 990. King
Wenceslas of Bohemia, the Good King Wenceslas of the Christmas carol,
died in Stara Boleslav.
28 September 929, Prince
Wenceslas of Bohemia was murdered by his brother Boleslav I, who then proclaimed his
independence from Henry I of Germany.
15 September 921, The Duchess of Bohemia, later St
Ludmila, was assassinated by command of her daughter in law. She and her
husband had built the first Christian church in Bohemia, and she had taught her
grandson, later known as Good King
Wenceslas.