events - Czechia, Slovakia

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 20^th 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 Czechoslovakia when that country was formed in 1918, died aged 87.

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 Czechoslovakia.

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 Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed.� It was led by Jan Masaryk and Eduard Benes.

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 Czechoslovakia.

13 August 1918, The Allies formally recognised Czech independence.

16 September 1916. A provisional �government of Czechoslovakia� was recognised by Britain and France.

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.

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.

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