Timeline Czechoslovakia
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c29000BC Bones with Neanderthal
traits from this time were later found in a cave in Mladec, Czech
Republic. Some scientists believed they represented interbreeding
between Neanderthals and Home Sapiens.
(SSFC, 6/19/05, p.F2)
24000BC An early representation of a human was carved
from mammoth ivory about 26,000 years ago. It was discovered in Brno,
Czechoslovakia. The tiny "Venus of Dolni Vestonici," more than
25,000 years old, is the earliest known sculpture of a human figure.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 440)(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.43)
24000BC A multiple burial was unearthed at Dolni
Vestonice, Czechoslovakia. Three skeletons whose skulls were adorned
with circles of arctic fox and wolf teeth and ivory beads.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p.466)
903 Good King Wenceslaus, saint,
duke of Bohemia (d.929), was born about this time.
(http://saints.grettir.org/wenceslaus.html)
929 Sep 28, Wenceslaus I, duke of
Bohemia, was murdered.
(http://saints.grettir.org/wenceslaus.html)
997 St. Adalbert was martyred. He
brought Christianity to Bohemia.
(SFC, 4/26/97, p.A12)
1141 Jan 31, Pope Innocent II
authorized Bishop Henry of Moravia to preach Catholicism in Prussia.
(LHC, 1/31/03)
c1200-1300 Cesky Krumlov, 100 miles south of Prague,
was founded on the Vltava River on the main trading route between
Bavaria and Italy.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.C5)
1230-1253 King Wenceslas I reigned over Bohemia. His
sister, St. Agnes, was canonized in 1989. Both are buried in the
Convent of St. Agnes in Prague.
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-12)
1346 Nov 26, Charles of Luxembourg
was crowned German king. He succeeded his father John of Luxemburg as
King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.128)
1347 Charles IV (1316-1378) of the
House of Luxembourg was crowned King of Bohemia.
(WSJ, 10/19/05, p.D17)
1348 Apr 7, Prague Univ., the 1st
in central Europe, was started by Charles IV.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1355 Charles IV, King of Bohemia,
was crowned King of the Holy Roman Empire.
(WSJ, 10/19/05, p.D17)
1361 Wenceslaus IV (d.1419), son
of Charles IV, as born.
(WSJ, 10/19/05, p.D17)
1368 Feb 14-1368 Feb 15, Sigismund
(d.1437), son of Charles IV, was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He served
as Holy Roman Emperor from 1433-1437.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1373 Jan Huss (d.1415), Czech
populist reformer. He challenged Church doctrine.
(WSJ, 4/4/01, p.A18)
1378 Nov 29, Charles IV (b.1316),
King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_emperor_Charles_IV)
1378 Wenceslaus IV (1361-1419),
son of Charles IV, became King of Bohemia following the death of his
father. He served as Holy Roman Emperor until 1400, when he was deposed
in favor of Rupert III.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1415 Jul 6, Jan Huss, Bohemian
(Czech) religious reformer, was burned as a heretic at the stake at
Constance, Germany. He had spoken out against Church corruption.
(NH, 9/96, p.23)(HN, 7/6/98)
1416 May 30, Jerome of Prague was
burned as a heretic by the Church.
(HN, 5/30/98)
1419 Jul 30, Anti-Catholic
Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, stormed the town hall
in Prague and threw 3 Catholic consuls and 7 citizens out the
window. This episode has been called "The Defenestration in Prague."
The out-the-window gentlemen all landed safely in a manure pile.
(NH, 9/96, p.23)(MC, 7/30/02)
1419 Aug 16, Wenceslas (b.1361),
son of Charles IV and King of Germany, died. He served as King
Wenceslas IV of Bohemia (1363) and King of the Romans (1378-1400).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1419 Aug 16, Sigismund, Holy Roman
Emperor, became king of Bohemia following the death of Wenceslaus IV,
but was ejected by the Hussites due to the execution of Jan Huss.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1420 Jul 14, Jan Zizka
(1360?-1424) led the Taborites in Battle at Vitkov Zizka's hill
(Prague). The Taborites beat forces under Sigismund, the pro-Catholic
King of Hungary and Bohemia. This was part of the Hussite Wars
(1419-1436).
(http://user.intop.net/~jhollis/janzizka.htm)
1420 Jul, The Hussites agreed on
the Four Articles of Prague, which were promulgated in the Latin,
Czech, and German languages. In summery they stated: 1) Freedom to
preach the Word of God. 2) Celebration of the Lord's Supper in both
kinds (bread and wine to priests and laity alike). 3) No profane power
for the clergy. And 4) The same law for laity and priests.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussite)
1420-1433 Time of the Hussite wars in Bohemia.
(WUD, 1994, p.1671)
1424 Oct 11, Jan Zizka (b.c1370),
Czech army leader (Hussite), died of plague.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Zizka)
1434 May 30, The Battle of Lipany
virtually ended the Hussite Wars. Prokopius leader of Taborites, died
in battle.
(http://tinyurl.com/ckgv5)
1437 Dec 9, Sigismund, Holy Roman
Emperor, died. Major Czech factions had accepted Sigismund as king of
Bohemia prior to his death.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1454 Aug 22, Jews were expelled
from Brunn Moravia by order of King Ladislaus Posthumus (1440-1457),
king of Hungary as Ladislaus V, king of Bohemia as Ladislaus I.
(MC, 8/22/02)(Internet)
c1500-1600 The Golden Canal was dug by hand in
southern Bohemia. It linked many of the 6,000 fish ponds used to raise
carp.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T6)
1515 Jul 22, Emperor Maximillian
and Vladislav of Bohemia forged an alliance between the Habsburg
[Austria] and Jagiello [Polish-Lithuanian] dynasties in Vienna.
(HN, 7/22/98)
1528 Jacob Hutter (d.1536),
Anabaptist evangelist from South Tyrol, founded a "community of love,"
whose members shared everything. They settled in Moravia due to the
religious tolerance there.
(TL-MB, 1988,
p.13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Hutter)
1539 Feb 19, Jews of Tyrnau,
Hungary, (then Trnava, Czech), were expelled.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1576 Rudolf II was crowned King of
the Holy Roman Empire and moved the Imperial Court from Vienna to
Prague.
(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)
1582 Oct 5-1582 Oct 14, Nothing
happened. In Bohemia the anti-Gregorian astronomer Michael Mestlin
proclaimed that the pope was stealing 10 days from everyone’s life. In
1998 David Ewing Duncan published “Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle
to Determine a True and Accurate Year.”
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.5)
1583 Rudolf II moved the Imperial
Court of the Holy Roman Empire from Vienna to Prague.
(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)
1590 In Prague Adriaen de Vries
began his sculpture "Psyche Born Aloft by Putti." It was completed in
1592.
(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
c1590-1600 In late 16th century Prague Rabbi Judah
Bezalel Loew, the Maharal, used clay and the mysticism of the Kabbalah
to fashion the Golem, a human-like creature to help avenge Jewish
persecution.
(WSJ, 4/17/02, p.D7)
1591 Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted a
portrait of Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, the Roman god of seasons.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P9)
1594 Apr 15, Flemish painter
Pieter Stevens was appointed royal painter of Rudolf II in Prague.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1600 Feb 4, Tycho Brahe and
Johannes Kepler met for 1st time near Prague.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1600 Rudolf II, King of the Holy
Roman Empire, ruled from Prague and lured the astronomer, Tycho Brahe,
from Denmark, as well as his student Johannes Kepler.
(WSJ, 9/24/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)
1600 Cardinal Filippo Spinelli,
Pope Clement VIII’s ambassador in Prague, wrote to the Pope that
Emperor Rudolf II was bewitched by the devil.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P9)
1601 Oct 13, Tycho Brahe,
astronomer, died in Prague.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1603 In Prague Adriaen de Vries
made a bust of Emperor Rudolf.
(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1609 Jul 9, Emperor Rudolf II
granted Bohemia freedom of worship.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1611 May 23, Matthias von Habsburg
was chosen king of Bohemia.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1611 Matthias, brother of Rudolf
II, occupied Prague and captured Rudolf II.
(WSJ, 1/8/99, p.C13)
1612 Jan 20, Rudolf II von
Habsburg (59), emperor of Germany (1576-1612), died in Prague and
Matthias became Holy Roman Emperor. In 1912 an enigmatic manuscript,
once owned by Rudolf II, was acquired by Wilfrid Voynich and came to be
known as the Voynich manuscript. In 2006 Peter Marshall authored “The
Magic Circle of Rudolf II.”
(WSJ, 1/8/99,
p.C13)(www.historylearningsite.co)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.71)(WSJ, 9/9/06,
p.P9)
1617-1619 Ferdinand II ruled as king of Bohemia.
(WUD, 1994, p.524)
1618 May 23, The Thirty Years War
(1618-1648) ravaged Germany. It began when three opponents of the
Reformation were thrown through a window. The “official” Defenestration
of Prague was the “official” trigger for the Thirty Year’s War. Local
Protestants became enraged when Catholic King Ferdinand II reneged on
promises of religious freedom and stormed Hradcany Castle and threw 3
Catholic councilors out of the window and into the moat.
(V.D.-H.K.p.90)(NH, 9/96, p.18,22)(HN, 5/23/98)
1620 Nov 8, The King of Bohemia
was defeated at the Battle of White Mountain, Prague. With Hapsburg
support in Bohemia the Catholics defeated the Protestants at the Battle
of the White Mountain. Weeks of plunder and pillage followed in Prague
and after a few months the victors tortured and executed 27 nobles and
other citizens and hung 12 heads on iron hooks from the Bridge Tower.
(NH, 9/96, p.24)(HN, 11/6/98)(MC, 11/8/01)
1620 Ferdinand II became emperor
of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of Rudolf II and moved the
Imperial Court back to Vienna. He sold dozens of paintings collected by
Rudolf II that he found “lewd.”
(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)(WUD, 1994, p.524)
1623 In Prague Adriaen de Vries
created his sculpture, "Laocoon and His Sons." It was the first
reinterpretation of the Greek masterpiece unearthed in Rome in 1506.
(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1626 In Prague Adriaen de Vries
began his last sculpture, "Hercules." It was completed in 1627.
(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1630 Aug 13, Emperor Frederick II
of Bohemia fired Albrecht von Wallenmanders, his best military
commander.
(HN, 8/13/98)
1630 Sep 11, John de White,
Calvinist banker to Prague, committed suicide.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1630 The southern wall of the
Wallenstein Garden in central Prague was built as part of Gen. Albrecht
von Wallenstein’s palace complex.
(WSJ, 8/7/07, p.D10)
1631 Oct 10, A Saxon army occupied
Prague.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1632 May 25, Albrecht von
Wallenstein recaptured Prague on Saksen.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1648 At the end of the Thirty
years’ War the Swedes got to Prague and picked up the remains of works
collected by Rudolf II and Albrecht von Wallenstein, leader of the
Hapsburg armies.
(WSJ, 7/10/97, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/7/99, p.A24)
1700s The Czech Castle Vranov was
constructed on the Dyje River.
(SFEC, 5/2/99, p.T6)
1730 "Argippo," the only opera
Vivaldi (1678-1741) actually wrote for Prague, was staged just one time
in Prague. The score was found in 2006 and another staging was set for
2008.
(AFP, 5/1/08)
1733 May 12, Maria Theresa was
crowned queen of Bohemia in Prague.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1740 Oct 20, Maria Theresa became
ruler of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia upon the death of her father,
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.
(AP, 10/20/06)
1744 Nov 25, Austrian forces
pillaged and killed Jews of Prague.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1745 Mar 31, Jews were expelled
from Prague.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1757 May 6, Battle at Prague:
Frederik II of Prussia beat emperor's army.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1774 Dec 18, Empress Maria Theresa
expelled Jews from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1787 Oct 29, Mozart's opera Don
Giovanni opened in Prague. Don Giovanni was first performed at the
Prague’s Estates Theater with Mozart at the piano and conducting the
orchestra. It was a sensational success.
(V.D.-H.K.p.236)(SFC, 4/14/96, T-12)(HN, 10/29/00)
1791 Sep 6, Mozart’s last opera
"La Clemenza di Tito," premiered in Prague. It was composed for the
coronation festivities of the King of Bohemia.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A44)(MC, 9/6/01)
1808 Feb 2, Josef Kajetan Tyl
(d.1856), Czech dramatist and songwriter, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Kajet%C3%A1n_Tyl)
1813 Jul 15, Napoleon Bonaparte's
representatives met with the Allies in Prague to discuss peace terms.
(HN, 7/15/98)
1824 Mar 2, Bedrich Friedrich
Smetana (1884), Czech, Bohemian composer (Bartered Bride, Moldau), was
born.
(WUD, 1994, p.1345)(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A7)(SC, 3/2/02)
1836 May 18, Wilhelm Steinitz was
born. The Czech-born world chess champion later became a naturalized
American.
(HN, 5/18/99)
1841 Sep 8, Antonin Dvorak
(d.1904), Czech composer and violinist, was born in Nelahozeves. His
work included the “New World Symphony.”
(WUD, 1994 p.444)(HN, 9/8/00)(MC, 9/8/01)
1848 Jun 17, Austrian General
Prince Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague. The
Habsburgs had ordered the prince to bombard Prague.
(HN, 6/17/98)(WSJ, 9/21/99, p.A24)
1850 Mar 7, Tomas Masaryk, Pres.
of Czech (1918-35), was born to a Slovak father and Czech-German mother
in the small town of Hodonin in South Moravia, very close to what is
now the border with Slovakia.
(http://archiv.radio.cz/english/czechs/5-1-00.html)
1854-1928 Leos Janacek, Czech composer. His work
included the opera “Makropulos” (1926), the Dostoevsky based “From the
House of the Dead” and “Katya Kabanova.”
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-7)(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)(WUD, 1994,
p.763)(SFC, 1/27/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 6/03/97, p.A20)
1857 Ludwig Moser began making
Moser glass in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia.
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.G6)
1866 May 30, Bederich Smetana's
Opera "The Bartered Bride" premiered in Prague.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1866 Aug 23, Treaty of Prague
ended the Austro-Prussian war.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1868 May 16, Bedrich Smetana's
opera "Dalibor," premiered in Prague.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1874 Jan 4, Josef Suk, Czech
violinist and composer (Asrael), was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1875 Mar 14, Czech composer
Smetana's "Vysehrad," premiered.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1876 Adolphus Busch, a German
immigrant beer-maker, licensed the name of Budweiser in America. The
name came from the town of Budweis in Bohemia. The town was later
renamed Ceske Budejovice but a local brewery used the Budweiser name
for its beer.
(SFC, 4/9/98, p.A12)
1879 May 16, Czech composer
Antonin Dvorak's "Slavonic Dances" premiered.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1882 The six tone poems “Ma Vlast”
(My Homeland) by Czech composer Smetana were first performed in their
entirety.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.D6)
1883 Apr 24, Jaroslav Hasek, Czech
writer (Brave soldier Schweik), was born.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1883 Jul 3, Franz Kafka (d.1924),
Czech novelist, author of “The Metamorphosis,” was born in Prague. “The
Castle” and “The Trial,” were both published after his death. He died
of tuberculosis.
(V.D.-H.K.p.367-368)(WSJ, 10/10/96, p.A1)(WSJ,
3/14/97, p.A11)(HN, 7/3/98)
1883-1961 Frantisek Drtikol, Czech photographer and
painter. He photographed nudes in the 1920s and then took up painting
and mystical religious studies.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.E4)
1884 May 12, Bedrich Friedrich
Smetana (60), Czech composer (MaVlast, Bartered Bride), died.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1884 May 28, Edvard Benes,
premier, president of Czechoslovakia (1921-22, 35-48), was born.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1886 Sep 14, Jan Garrique Masaryk
(d.1948), Czech statesman, was born.
(www.britannica.com)
1890 Jan 9, Karel Capek, Czech
writer and playwright, was born. He is best remembered for his play
R.U.R. which contained the first use of the word "robot."
(HN, 1/9/99)
1891-1918 Springer & Co. of Elbogen, Bohemia, now
Loket, made decorative porcelain, table sets, laboratory porcelain and
figurines marked by a crown above a shield that was decorated with an
arm in armor holding a sword. The company went out of business in 1945.
(SFC, 2/25/98, Z1 p.6)
1892 Apr 28, The 1st performance
of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's overture "Carneval."
(MC, 4/28/02)
1894 Jun 8, Erwin Schulhoff
(d.1942), composer, was born in Prague. He composed a body of
jazz-inspired music that included “Rag Music” and “String Quartet No.
1.” http://www.fuguemasters.com/schulhoff.html
(WSJ, 3/14/97, p.A11)
1896 Jan 8, Jaromir Weinberger,
composer (Bird's Opera, Schwanda der Duddelsacpfeifer), was born in
Prague, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1900 Jan 13, To combat Czech
nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary decreed that
German would be the language of the imperial army.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1900 Aug 12, Wilhelm Steinitz,
Chess champion (1866-1894), died in Prague.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1901-1963 Gustav Machaty, Czech filmmaker, was known
for his combination of romance and eroticism.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.E8)
1903 Mar 28, Rudolf Serkin,
pianist (Marlboro School of Music), was born in Eger, Bohemia.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1903 Nov 15, Eugen d'Albert's
opera "Tiefland," premiered in Prague.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1904 May 1, Antonin Dvorak
(b.1841), Czech composer (Slavonic Dances, New World Symphony), died at
age 62. He spent 1892-1895 in the US as an honored guest. In 2002
Michael B. Beckerman authored “New Worlds of Dvorak: Searching in
America for the Composer’s Inner Life.”
(MC, 5/1/02)(SSFC, 1/19/03, p.M5)
1905 Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav
Klement, Czech bicycle makers, began making cars. They later merged
with Skoda Pilsen.
(www.skoda-auto.com/global/history/company)
1906 A Jewish Museum was founded
in Prague.
(USAT, 9/24/04, p.3D)
1907 Sep 23, Jarmila Novotna,
soprano (Met Opera) and president of Czechoslovakia (1957-68), was born.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1907-1915 The Lucerna Palace in Prague was built by
Vaclav Havel, grandfather of the Czech president of 1997.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)
1908 Apr 5, George Schick,
conductor (Chicago Symphony), was born in Prague, Czech.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1908 Apr 11, Karel Ancerl, Czech
conductor (Prague, Toronto), was born.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1908 Sep 19, Gustav Mahler's 7th
Symphony, premiered in Prague.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1912 Feb 11, Rudolf Firkusny,
pianist (Julliard), was born in Napajedla, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1913 May 1, Walter Susskind,
conductor, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1915 Oct 29, Thomas Masaryk
claimed independence for Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1916 Egon Schiele painted a view
of Krumau, Bohemia. In 2003 it sold for £12.6 million.
(Econ, 8/23/03, p.55)
1917 Dec 20, Russian secret police
in Czechoslovakia was formed under Felix Dzerzhinsky. He helped lead
the Bolshevik revolution and set up the communist secret police, the
Cheka, which later became the KGB.
(MC, 12/20/01)(WSJ, 10/15/02, p.D6)
1918 Sep 3, The United States
recognized the nation of Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 9/3/98)
1918 Oct 14, The Czechoslovak
National Council in Paris organized a provisional government of
Czechoslovakia with T.G. Masaryk as president.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.728)
1918 Oct 18, Czechs seized Prague,
renounced Hapsburg's rule and declared independence from the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Masaryk proclaimed the foundation of
Czechoslovakia from Pittsburgh, Pa.
(HN, 10/18/98)(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1918 Oct 28, The Czechoslovak
National Congress in Prague proclaimed the independence of
Czechoslovakia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia:_1918_-_1938)
1918 Oct 30, The Slovak National
Council acceded to the Nov 28 Prague proclamation for the creation of
Czechoslovakian state. Slovaks joined the Czechs to form
Czechoslovakia. During World War II, Slovakia existed as puppet state
of Nazi-run Germany.
(www.slovakia.org/history6.htm)(AP, 9/21/02)
1919 Mar 4, Czech Legions shot and
killed some 50 German demonstrators, including women and children, in
Sudetenland.
(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1919 The borders of Czechoslovakia
were set up by the Versailles Treaty and incorporated 3 million
Germans. Most of the Germans lived along the Czech-German border known
as the Sudetenland.
(SFC, 1/22/96, p.A8)
1919 The Ditmar Urbach pottery
factory was founded in Czechoslovakia with the merger of Urbach
Brothers and Rudolph Ditmar’s Heirs.
(SFC, 2/14/07, p.G3)
1920 Mar 2, Karel Capek’s
"Loupeznik" premiered in Prague.
(www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1920/theater-film)
1920 Mar 28, Thomas Masaryk was
elected president of Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1920 Jun 4, The Treaty of
Trianon, signed at Versailles, was forced upon Hungary by the
victorious Allies after WWII and resulted in Hungary giving up nearly
three-fourths of its territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croat and Slovenes. Hungary lost more than half its
population, including some 3 million Hungarians. Hungary ceded the
hills of Transylvania to Romania.
(HNQ, 7/5/98)(WSJ, 1/2/97,
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Trianon)
1920 Aug 10, Allies recognized
Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1921 Jan 25, Karel Capek's "
R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots (1920)," premiered in Prague. The
play introduced the term robot (robota for forced labor).
(www.czech-language.cz/translations/rur-introen.html)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/capek.htm)
1921 Oct 23, Leos Janacek
(1854-1928) completed his opera "Katya Kabanov," and it premiered in
Brno. It was inspired by Alexander Ostrovsky’s mid 19th century play
“The Storm.”
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A7)(WSJ, 1/16/98, p.A12)(MC,
10/23/01)
1921 Nov 27, Alexander Dubcek
(d.1992), headed Czech Communist Party (1968-69), was born.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1922 Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
authored his novel “The Castle.”
(WSJ, 8/7/07, p.D10)
1922 The game of kickball, a
mixture between baseball and soccer, was invented in Czechoslovakia.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.35)
1924 Jun 3, Franz Kafka (b.1883),
Czech writer, died. He was born in Prague and authored "The Castle" and
"The Trial," both published after his death. Kafka had requested that
his papers be burned after his death, but his friend, Max Brod, kept
them and carried them to Tel Aviv when he fled Prague in 1939. A
critical German edition of The Castle was published in 1982 and an
English translation of that edition came out in 1998. In 1927 Max Brod
edited Kafka’s unfinished manuscript called "The Man Who Disappeared"
and published it as "Amerika." In 2005 Roberto Calasso authored “K,” a
contemporary evaluation of Kafka’s work.
(WSJ, 10/10/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/5/98, BR p.11)(SSFC,
12/8/02, p.M4)(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.B1)(SFC, 8/18/08, p.A12)
1926 Karel Reisz (d.2002), film
director, was born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. He fled Nazi occupation
in 1938. His film career began in Britain and moved on to Hollywood
where his work included “The French Lieutenant’s Woman.”
(SFC, 11/28/02, p.A30)
1926 Leos Janacek composed his
opera “The Makropulos Case.”
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-7)(WSJ, 2/26/00, p.A20)
1928 Jul 2, Pavel Kohout, Czech
author (Poor Murderer), was born.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1928 Aug 12, Leos Janacek
(b.1854), Czech composer, conductor (Sly Little Fox), died. His work
included "The Diary of One Who Vanished" based on 22 poems by Josef
Kalda of a young farm boy seduced by a Gypsy girl.
(WSJ, 1/3/96, p.A-7)(WSJ, 6/12/01, p.A20)(MC,
8/12/02)
1929 Apr 1, Milan Kundera, Czech
writer (The Farewell Party), was born. His novel, “The Unbearable
Lightness of Being,” was translated from the Czech in 1984 and was made
into a film in 1988.
(HN, 4/1/01)
1929 Aug 8, Josef Suk, violinist
(Artist of Merit-1977), was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1929 The Czech film “Erotikon”
starred Ita Rina and was directed by Gustav Machaty. It was about a
young virgin seduced by a traveling salesman.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.E8)
1931 The Czech film “From Saturday
to Sunday” was directed by Gustav Machaty.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.E8)
1932 Feb 18, Milos Forman,
Czech-US director (Cuckoos Nest, Amadeus), was born.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1932 The Czech film “Ecstasy” with
Hedy Lamarr swimming nude was directed by Gustav Machaty. Her nude run
through the woods created a scandal. It featured the first on camera
orgasm.
(WSJ, 2/21/97, p.B15B)(SFEC, 10/11/97, DB p.35)(SFC,
2/13/98, p.C5)(SFC, 4/24/99, p.E8)(SFEC, 5/9/99, DB p.15)
1934 Hitler asked Ferdinand
Porsche Sr., owner of a consulting and design firm, to build a
"people’s car," from which resulted the Volkswagen. Porsche too the
design from the Tatra T97 of Czechoslovakia’s Hans and Erich Ledwinka.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.B12)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.20)
1935 May 29, Josef Suk (61) Czech
violinist composer, died at 61.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1936 Oct 5, Václav Havel,
Czech dissident dramatist, was born. He became the first freely elected
president of Czechoslovakia in 55 years (1989-92).
(HN,
10/5/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel)
1937 Jul 3, Tom Stoppard, British
author and dramatist, was born in Czechoslovakia as Tomas Strassler.
His plays include "Rosencrantz and Gilderstern are Dead" and "The Real
Thing." His family soon fled the Nazis to Singapore. In 2002 Ira Nadel
authored the biography “Tom Stoppard: A Life.”
(HN, 7/3/99)(MC, 7/3/02)(SSFC, 9/1/02, p.M5)
1937 Sep 14, TG Masaryk (b.1886),
the first president of Czechoslovakia, died in Bohemia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.G._Masaryk)(http://tinyurl.com/856hg)
1938 Feb 20, Hitler demanded
self-determination for Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia. As
Hitler's quest for Lebensraum ("living space") expanded into
Czechoslovakia, thousands of Czechoslovakian soldiers and airmen
escaped to participate in the liberation of their country.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1938 Mar 12, Germany invaded
Austria after the Austrian Nazi Pary invited German troops to march in
and the union came to be know as the Anschluss. Hitler took over
Austria and a chunk of Czechoslovakia. The Nazis took over Austria and
expelled all Jews and other political opponents from the universities.
(WUD, 1994, p.1682)(TL, 1988, p.111)(TMC, 1994,
p.1938) (StuAus, April '95, p.18)
1938 Apr 23, Sudeten Germans in
Czechoslovakia demanded self government.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1938 Sep 12, In a speech in
Nuremberg, Adolf Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudeten
Germans in Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1938 Sep 21, Winston Churchill
condemned Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1938 Sep 25, President Franklin
Roosevelt urged negotiations between Hitler and Czech President Benes
over the Sudetenland.
(HN, 9/25/98)
1938 Sep 26, Hitler issued his
ultimatum to Czech government, demanding Sudentenland.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1938 Sep 29, British, French,
German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed
at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of
Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority.
British PM Neville Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from
Hitler at Munich and without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi
forces could occupy Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as
the decisive event of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our
time." French PM Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting.
In 1980 Telford Taylor published "Munich: The Price of Peace." It is a
detailed political & diplomatic history of the 1930's in Europe,
culminating in the Munich conference in 1938. Taylor later helped write
the rules for Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle
for the Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises.”
(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ,
6/8/98, p.A21)(AP, 9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1938 Oct 1, Germany annexed
Sudetenland (1/3 of Czech Republic).
(MC, 10/1/01)
1938 Oct 10, Germany completed its
annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
(AP, 10/10/97)
1938 Oct 20, Czechoslovakia,
complying with Nazi policy, outlawed the Communist Party and began
persecuting Jews.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1938 Nov 21, Nazi forces occupied
western Czechoslovakia and declared its people German citizens. This
annexation of Sudetenland was the first major belligerent action by
Hitler. The allies chose to sit still for it in return for a promise of
"peace in our time," which Hitler later broke.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1938 The documentary film “Crises”
was made by Herbert Kline. It was about the German conquest of
Czechoslovakia.
(SFC, 2/12/99, p.A24)
1938 In Czechoslovakia Anny K.
Maass (d.1998 at 89) became the first female attorney. She was stripped
of her profession when the Nazis invaded a year later.
(SFC, 8/12/98, p.C4)
1939 Mar 9, Czech President Emil
Hacha ousted pro-German Joseph Tiso as the Premier of Slovakia in order
to preserve Czech unity.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1939 Mar 14, The republic of
Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation of
Czech areas and the separation of Slovakia.
(AP, 3/14/08)
1939 Mar 15, Germany occupied
Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia.
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.2)(WSJ, 12/12/96,
p.A13)(HN, 3/15/98)
1939 Mar 15, The Republic of
Carpatho-Ukraine, led by Avhustyn Voloshyn (d.1945), declared
independence amid the Nazi dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.
Independence ending that same evening by an invasion from Hungary. In
1946 the area became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,
as the Zakarpattia Oblast ('Transcarpathian Oblast'). After the
break-up of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Ukraine as
Zakarpattia Oblast.
(Econ, 3/14/09,
p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpatho-Ukraine)
1939 Mar 16, Germany occupied the
rest Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 3/16/99)
1939 Apr, In Czechoslovakia Alois
Elias, an army general, became prime minister more than a month after
the occupation of his country by Nazi Germany began. He maintained ties
with the exiled Czechoslovak government in London and supported
underground resistance at home throughout his term. He was sentenced to
death in October 1941 for high treason and espionage and was executed
on June 19, 1942.
(AP, 5/7/06)
1939 Oct 28, Anti-German
demonstrations and strikes took place in Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1939 Nov 12, Lucia Popp, soprano
(Die Zauberflote), was born in Uhorsk Ves, Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1939 Nov 24, In Czechoslovakia,
the Gestapo executed 120 students who were accused of anti-Nazi
plotting.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1939 Nicholas Winton saved 669
Czechoslovak children by organizing train transport from Prague to
London at the outbreak of World War II. In 2007 the Czech Rep. awarded
Sir Nicholas Winton (98) the Cross of Merit of the 1st class for saving
the children.
(AP, 10/9/07)
1940-1945 The Benes decrees were issued by Pres.
Edvard Benes, head of the Czechoslovak government in exile. Part of the
decrees later dealt with the status of Germans and Hungarians in
postwar Czechoslovakia. From 1945-1948 they were used to legalize
brutal measures against the country’s German and Hungarian populations.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene%C5%A1_decrees)(Econ, 3/29/08, p.67)
1941 Oct, In Czechoslovakia PM
Alois Elias was sentenced to death for high treason and espionage. He
was executed on June 19, 1942.
(AP, 5/7/06)
1941-1942 About 80,000 Czech Jews were rounded up and
sent to Terezin, a holding camp, prior to being sent to Auschwitz. The
survival rate was 10%.
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A2)
1941-1945 In Theresienstadt the German SS ran Jewish
ghetto as a holding station for Jews on their way to death camps.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A11)
1942 May 27, Nazi overlord and SS
general Reinhard Heydrich was killed in Prague by Czech commandos, who
had parachuted into Czechoslovakia and ambushed his car. Hitler
promptly ordered the deaths of 10,000 residents of Lidice, near Prague.
Heydrich died of his wounds a week later. The commandos had been
sheltered in Lidice and as a result the entire population was either
executed or driven out. This has become a hallmark of Nazi brutality.
Heydrich was the man charged with “The Final Solution of the Jewish
Problem.” Heydrich was responsible for the development of an espionage
system outside Germany. As an SS general he was the first administrator
of the concentration camps and the program to eliminate Jews from
Europe.
(HNQ, 10/20/99)(MC, 5/27/02)
1942 May 30, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich
Himmler arrived in Prague.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1942 Jun 10, German Gestapo
massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in retaliation
for the killing of SS Gen Reinhard Heydrich. All together, 340 people
died in the Nazi reprisal (192 men, 60 women and 88 children). The
death toll resulting from the effort to avenge the death of Heydrich is
estimated at 1,300. This count includes relatives of the partisans,
their supporters, Czech elites suspected of disloyalty and random
victims like those from Lidice.
(AP, 6/10/97)(HN,
6/10/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice)
1942 Jun 18, John Kubris (28),
Czech resistance fighter, killed Nazi SS leader Reinhard Heydrich, died.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1942 Jun 18, Adolf Opalka, Czech
resistance fighter, was shot down.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1942 Jun 19, In Czechoslovakia PM
Alois Elias, sentenced to death in October 1941 for high treason and
espionage, was executed. In 2006 his ashes were buried with state
honors.
(AP, 5/7/06)
1942 Sep, In Theresienstadt some
50,000 Jews were held in crowded conditions by the German SS and half
the inmates died that year from disease.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A11)
1942 The opera Brundibar by Hans
Krasa was 1st performed at a Prague orphanage. It had been intended for
a 1938 government competition. It was later performed at the Terezin
concentration camp. Krasa died at Auschwitz Oct 17, 1944.
(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.D8)
1942 A camp was set up for Gypsies
at Lety. Some 1,300 inmates passed through and at least 300 died from
the harsh living conditions. Communist authorities set up a pig farm on
the site in the 1970s. Makus Pape later authored a book on Lety.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1943 Dec 12, The exiled Czech
government signed a treaty with the USSR for postwar cooperation.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1944 Oct 6, Soviets marched into
Hungary and Czechoslovakia. [see Oct 18]
(MC, 10/6/01)
1944 Oct 18, Soviet troops invaded
Czechoslovakia during World War II.
(AP, 10/18/97)
1944 Rudolf Vrba (1925-2006), a
Jew from Czechoslovakia, and Alfred Wetzler, a Hungarian Jewish leader,
escaped from the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. They made their way to a
Czech safe house and dictated a report that became known as the
Auschwitz Protocols, a seminal Holocaust document containing eyewitness
accounts of the atrocities. In 1963 Vrba published a memoir entitled,
"I Cannot Forget," which was eventually released in six languages.
(AP, 4/14/06)
1945 May 5, There was an uprising
against SS-occupation troops in Prague.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1945 May 9, Czechoslovakia was
liberated from Nazi occupation (Nat’l Day).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1945 May 10, Russian troops
occupied Prague.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1945 Jun 29, Ruthenia, formerly in
Czechoslovakia, became part of Ukrainian SSR.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1945 Aug 26, Franz Werfel (54),
Czech-German-US poet, writer (Mirror Man), died.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1945 Dec 31, Czechoslovakia began
forcing the German population of the Sudetenland back to Germany.
(WSJ, 11/25/96, p.A15)
1945 Slovakia reunited with the
Czechs.
(AP, 9/21/02)
1945 Eduard Benes returned from
exile in London to Prague, and set up a government. Under the "Benes
decrees" millions of Germans, Austrian and Hungarians were dispossessed
and expelled.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.45)
1946 Jul 13, The first Karlovy
Vary Int’l. Film Festival (Mezinárodní
Filmový Festival Karlovy Vary) was held in Czechoslovakia. Its
first two years were non-competitive showcases. The competition was
started in 1948 and with the exceptions of 1953 and 1955 the festival
was held annually until 1958. From 1960 on to 1992 it was alternating
with the Moscow Film Festival, being celebrated annually again since
1994.
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Karlovy_Vary_International_Film_Festival/)
1946 The 1940 opera “Betrothal” by
Prokofiev had its premiere in Prague. The plot was based on the 1775
comedy “The Duenna” by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.D1)
1948 Feb 20, Czechoslovakia's
non-communist minister resigned.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1948 Feb 25, Communists seized
power in Czechoslovakia in a coup d’etat.
(AP, 2/25/98)(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A6)
1948 Mar 10, Jan Masaryk (b.1886),
son of the first president of Czechoslovakia and anti-Communist foreign
minister, was found dead in the courtyard of Czernin Palace in Prague.
He had dropped 45 feet from a window and the case remained unsolved.
(http://www.radio.cz/en/article/24973)
1948 Jun 7, The Communists
completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia with the resignation of
President Eduard Benes.
(AP, 6/7/97)
1948 Jaroslav Skala (1916-2007), a
psychiatrist, established the first Czech center for treatment of
people addicted to alcohol as part of a clinic in Prague. He headed the
institution until his retirement in 1982.
(AP, 11/26/07)
1948 Marie Provaznikova, Czech
athlete, became the first to defect from a Communist country during the
Olympics in London.
(WSJ, 4/12/08,
p.R2)(www.sokolnewyork.org/history002.htm)
1949 Jan 1, Czechoslovakia
announced a 5-year plan to attain economic independence from the West.
(EWH, 1968, p.1186)
1949 Jun, Czechoslovakia founded
its own Catholic action committee to take the direction of Church
affairs away from Archbishop Beran and the Church hierarchy.
(EWH, 1968, p.1186)
1949 Jun 20, The Vatican, as a
counter measure, excommunicated all active supporters of Communism in
Czechoslovakia.
(EWH, 1968, p.1187)
1949 Oct 14, In Czechoslovakia the
government assumed full control over Church affairs and required all
clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the state. Most of the lower
clergy complied.
(EWH, 1968, p.1187)
1949 Czech secret police shot and
killed two people. Their prosecution in 1965 was covered up by Lubomir
Strougal. Strougal faced coverup charges in 2001.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
1949 Czech Gen. Heliodor Pika was
executed after being found guilty of spying for British intelligence
during and after WW II. In 2001 a court convicted former prosecutor
Karel Vas for inserting forged documents into Pika’s file. Vas (85) was
sentenced to 7 years in prison.
(SFC, 6/16/01, p.A7)
1950 Jun 27, Milada Horakova
(b.1901), a Czechoslovak politician, was executed by Communists on
trumped-up charges of conspiracy and treason. As a one of few women
ever executed in Czechoslovakia she is regarded as a symbol of
anti-Communist resistance for her firm and courageous stance during her
trial. In 2007 Ludmila Brozova-Polednova (86), former communist
prosecutor, was found guilty of a charge of abetting judicial murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milada_Hor%C3%A1kov%C3%A1)(AP, 11/1/07)
1950 In Czechoslovakia the
communist government confiscated church property and arrested more than
13,000 priests and religious and put them in concentration camps.
(www.highbeam.com/library/docFree.asp?DOCID=1G1:82803349)
1950 Milan Kundera (b.1929), later
renowned as a Czech writer, informed on Miroslav Dvoracek, who had been
recruited in Germany by the Czech emigre intelligence network to work
as a spy against the Communist regime. Dvoracek was later sentenced to
22 years in prison and eventually served 14, working in uranium mines.
Kundera had joined the Communist Party as a student, but was later
expelled after criticizing its totalitarian nature. This information
was only made public in 2008.
(AP, 10/13/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.98)
1951 Feb 26, Bread rationing began
in Czechoslovakia.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1951 Karel Teige (b.1900),
Avant-Garde Czech graphic designer, architectural theorist, playwright,
actor, painter and printmaker, died.
(WSJ, 6/20/01, p.A16)
1952 Rudolf Slansky, a
Czechoslovak Communist leader, was sentenced to death after a show
trial with 13 other officials, including government ministers. The
trial was deemed anti-Semitic because Slansky and most of the officials
were Jewish.
(AP, 4/17/06)
1953 Dec 24, 2 speeding express
trains crashed head-on killing 103 in Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1953 Klement Gottwald (b.1896),
leader of the Czech Communist Party, died. His embalmed body was placed
in a mausoleum in Prague until 1962, when it was buried.
(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A5)
1955 May 14, Representatives from
eight Communist bloc countries: Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland & Romania, signed the
Warsaw Pact in Poland. Andras Hegedues signed for Hungary.
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)(MC, 5/14/02)
1955 Czech composer Martinu wrote
his orchestral triptych "The Frescoes of Piero della Francesco."
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.B2)
1956 Aug, Yasser Arafat attended
an int’l. student congress in Prague and secured membership for
Palestine.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.A11)
1956 Oct 18, Martina Navratilova,
Czechoslovakian-born tennis player, was born.
(HN, 10/18/98)
1956 Otto Wichterle (d.1998 at
84), Czech scientist, invented soft contact lenses.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)
1957 Nov 18, Antonin Novotny
(1904-1975) was appointed president of Czechoslovakia and served to
1968.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Novotn%C3%BD)
1958 The Czechoslovakian film “The
Fabulous World of Jules Verne” was produced.
(SFEM, 2/6/99, p.4)
1960 Mar 7, Ivan Lendl, tennis pro
(US Open 1985-87), was born in Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1960 Nov 14, In Czechoslovakia 2
passenger trains collided at high-speed killing 110 people.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1961 Otto Wichterle, Czech
chemist, introduced the world’s 1st soft plastic contact lenses.
(Econ, 3/12/05, TQ p.12)
1962 Oct 19, A Stalin monument was
removed in Prague.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1963 Vaclav Havel had his first
play staged: “The Garden Party.”
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.B1)
1963-1968 Jozef Lenart (d.2004) served as prime
minister of Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 2/12/04)
1965 May 1, In Czechoslovakia
Allen Ginsberg was crowned King of May at the Prague May Day
celebration.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A10)
1965 Bohumil Hrabal (1915-1997)
wrote “Closely Watched Trains.” In the 1980s he wrote “I Served the
King of England.”
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A16)
1965 Milos Forman filmed “Loves of
a Blond” and Ivan Passer did “Intimate Lightning.”
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A13)
1965 Lubomir Strougal served as
interior minister and protected members of the secret police from
possible prosecution for murders in 1949.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)
1965 Czechoslovakia adopted the
economic ideas of Ota Sik (1920-2004) to improve on stagnant industrial
growth. His “new economic model” called for limited reforms of the
Soviet system including less central planning.
(SFC, 8/25/04, p.B7)
1966 The Czech film “Marketa
Lazarova” was directed by Frantisek Vlacil.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1967 Aug 8, Jaromir Weinberger
(71), Czech-US composer (Czech Rhapsody), died.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1967 Milan Kundera’s 1st novel,
“The Joke,” was published in Czechoslovakia under the title “Zert.”
(SSFC, 11/3/02, p.M3)
1967 The film “Closely Watched
Trains” was directed by Jiri Menzel. It was based on the novel by
Bohumil Hrabal (1915-1997).
(SFC, 2/4/97, p.A16)
1968 Jan 5, Alexander Dubcek
(1921-1992) was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party in
Czechoslovakia.
(http://www.radio.cz/en/article/112505)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDdubcek.htm)
1968 Mar 30, General Ludvik
Svoboda (1895-1979) was elected president of Czechoslovakia. He stayed
in office to 1975.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludv%C3%ADk_Svoboda)
1968 Apr 8, In Czechoslovakia a
new government was formed under Oldrich Cernik.
(http://archiv.radio.cz/history/history14.html)
1968 Aug 20, Some 650,000 Soviet
Union and other Warsaw Pact troops began invading Czechoslovakia to
crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's
regime.
(AP, 8/20/97)(SFC, 8/25/04, p.B7)
1968 Aug 21, The Soviet Union and
other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague
Spring" liberalization drive led by Alexander Dubcek.
(AP, 8/21/08)
1968 Aug 22, A Soviet-led invasion
crushed the Prague Spring reforms. In 1997 3 Communist Party leaders,
Milos Jakes, Karel Hoffmann and Joseph Lenart, were accused of
conspiring with the Soviets. In 1976 Prof. H. Gordon Skilling authored
“Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution.”
(SFC, 5/3/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/19/01, p.A19)
1968 Sep 11, The Soviet troops
started leaving Prague for the countryside. At the beginning of
October, the Czechoslovak leadership went to Moscow to negotiate
"normalization". As an outcome, the political leaders remained in
office and submitted to the Soviet demands.
(www.wien.gv.at/english/history/commemoration2008/prague-spring.html)
1968 Sep 13, Albania officially
withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. Albania had condemned the August
Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
(http://countrystudies.us/albania/153.htm)
1968 Sep, The Plastic People of
the Universe band was founded by Milan Hlavsa (d.2001 at 49).
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A19)
1968 The documentary film
“Czechoslovakia 1968” was a 20-minute production by the US Information
Agency.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.C17)
1969 Apr 17, Czechoslovak
Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek (1921-1992), considered the
architect of Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring, was deposed.
(AP,
4/17/97)(http://referat.kulichki.net/files/page.php?id=35421)
1970 The Plastic People of the
Universe band lost their Czechoslovak government license due to
nonconformity and went underground with support from Vaclav Havel.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A19)
1970-1988 Lubomir Strougal served as prime minister
of Czechoslovakia.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A9)(www.charta77.org/strougal.htm)
1972 Jan 26, A DC-9 exploded over
Serbska Kamenice, Czechoslovakia, and attendant Vesna Vulovic dropped
33,300 feet and survived following a 27-day coma and a 16-month
recovery. The cause of the explosion has never been established, but
was attributed by the Yugoslav and Czechoslovakian authorities to a
bomb placed on the plane by a Croatian Terrorist group, known as the
Ustasa.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovic)
1972 Nov 12, Rudolf Friml (92),
Czech-US composer (Bohemian suite), died.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1973 Mar 7, Dr. Lubos Kohoutek,
Czech astronomer, used a double exposure and discovered the comet
Kohoutek then 370 million miles from earth.
(NG, Aug., 1974,
p.223)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Kohoutek)
1973 The Czech government revoked
the performance license of The Plastic People of the Universe band.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, DB p.35)
1974 The Czech Plastic People of
the Universe band secretly recorded its first album: “Egon
Bondy’s Happy Hearts Club Banned.”
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 3/7/99, DB p.35)
1974 Soviet and Czech technicians
began carrying out what they called “chemical mining” for uranium below
the town of Straz pod Ralskem. By 1996 some 4.2 million tons of
sulphuric acid and other toxic chemicals were pumped in to leach out
the uranium. In 2008 a cleanup firm estimated that the site should be
stabilized by 2035.
(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.11)
1975 Sep 5, Czech tennis ace
Martina Navratilova asked for political asylum in NYC.
(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/1998/usopen/news/1998/08/28/stats/thisday.html)
1975 Sep 6, Czechoslovak tennis
star Martina Navratilova, in New York for the US Open, requested
political asylum. [see Sep 5]
(AP, 9/6/00)
1976 The Czech Plastic People of
the Universe band was arrested by the Communist government. At a public
trial 2 band members were sentenced and imprisoned for 1 1/2 years.
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 3/7/99, DB p.35)
1977 The 1976 trial of the Plastic
People of the Universe band prompted Vaclav Havel and Czech dissidents
to draft “Charter 77, a human rights manifesto. In 1981 H. Gordon
Skilling (d.2001 at 89) authored “Charter 77 and Human Rights in
Czechoslovakia.”
(WSJ, 7/22/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 3/7/99, DB p.35)
1978 Mar 2, Czech pilot Vladimir
Remek became the first non-Russian, non-American in space.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1978-1984 The Czech "Asanace" (Sanitation) program
focused on some 50 dissidents, signatories of the Charter 77 human
rights manifesto. It resorted to threats and harsh interrogations to
intimidate them and force them to leave the country. In 2001 Czech
Interior Minister Jaromir Obzina (d.2003) was charged with abuse
of power for his role in the operation.
(AP,
1/29/03)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1816619.stm)
1980 Feb 15, Zdenka Vavrova, Czech
astronomer discovered asteroid #3592.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zde%C5%88ka_V%C3%A1vrov%C3%A1)
1984 Jaroslav Seifert, Czech
writer, won the Nobel Prize for literature.
(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A19)
1985 Mar 7, George Schick (76),
Czech conductor (Chicago Symphony), died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1988 Nov 13, Former Czechoslovakia
leader Alexander Dubcek received an honorary degree in Italy, the first
time he was allowed outside his country in 18 years.
(AP, 11/13/98)
1988 In Czechoslovakia Jiri
Ruml (1925-2004) helped re-launch Lidove Noviny, becoming its
editor-in-chief. The Lidove Noviny daily had been an established paper
until the communists took power in 1948 in then-Czechoslovakia and
banned the anti-communist publication.
(AP, 2/22/04)
1989 Oct 3, In a move to stem the
flow of refugees to the West, East Germany suspended unrestricted
travel to Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 10/3/99)
1989 Nov 1, East Germany reopened
its border with Czechoslovakia, prompting tens of thousands of refugees
to flee to the West.
(AP, 11/1/99)
1989 Nov 17, In Prague,
Czechoslovakia, a protest began as a legal rally to commemorate the
death of Jan Opletal, but turned instead into a demonstration demanding
democratic reforms. Riot police stopped the students halfway in their
march, in Narodni Trida. After a stand-off in which the students
offered flowers to the riot police and showed no resistance, the police
began beating the young demonstrators with night sticks. The six-week
period between November 17 and December 29, 1989, also known as the
"Velvet Revolution" brought about the bloodless overthrow of the
Czechoslovak communist regime.
(http://archiv.radio.cz/history/history15.html)
1989 Nov 20, More than 200,000
people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding
democratic reforms and the ouster of Communist Party leader Milos
Jakes.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1989 Nov 23, At least 300,000
people jammed Prague's Wenceslas Square to demand democratic reforms in
Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1989 Nov 24, Czechoslovakia's
hard-line Communist party leadership resigned after more than a week of
protests against its policies.
(AP, 11/24/99)
1989 Nov 25, More than 500,000
demonstrators gathered in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where they scoffed at
a Communist Party shakeup and cheered Alexander Dubcek, the reformer
ousted in 1968.
(AP, 11/25/99)
1989 Nov 29, The Czechs ended the
Communist party's 40-year monopoly on power. The revolution in
Czechoslovakia was called the “Velvet Revolution” because of the little
violence.
(HFA, '96, p.18)(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.34)(AP,
11/29/99)
1989 Dec 8, Communist leaders in
Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the government
and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.
(AP, 12/8/99)
1989 Dec 10, Czechoslovakia's
president, Gustav Husak, resigned after swearing in a coalition cabinet
in which Communists were relegated to a minority role.
(AP, 12/10/99)
1989 Dec 28, Alexander Dubcek,
former Czechoslovak Communist leader deposed in 1968 in a Soviet-led
Warsaw Pact invasion, was named chairman of the country's parliament.
(AP, 12/28/99)
1989 Dec 29, Playwright Vaclav
Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia, the country's first
non-Communist leader in more than four decades.
(AP, 12/29/99)
c1989 After the revolution the
names of 77,297 Czech Jews was put on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue
in Prague.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1989 Shirley Temple was appointed
US ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
(SFC, 1/26/06, p.E3)
1990 Feb 21, Addressing the U.S.
Congress, Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel said his nation welcomed
U.S. help after decades of Soviet domination, but also said Europe
should eventually "decide for itself" how long American and Soviet
troops should remain.
(AP, 2/21/00)
1990 Feb 26, USSR agreed to
withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1990 Apr 8, A global conference of
the Prague-based International Romani Union, a coalition of
organizations working to ease the plight of Gypsies, designated this
day as International Day of Roma.
(AP, 4/8/06)
1990 Apr 21, Pope John Paul II was
greeted by hundreds of thousands of people as he visited Czechoslovakia
to help celebrate the nation's peaceful overthrow of communist rule.
(AP, 4/21/00)
1990 Oct 11, About 60,000 people
rallied in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in support of a government proposal
to seize all Communist Party property without compensation.
(AP, 10/11/00)
1990 Nov 17, President Bush, on
the first visit to Czechoslovakia by a US president, told a cheering
crowd of 100,000 in Prague that “America will stand with you” through
hard times ahead.
(AP, 11/17/00)
1990 The Soviets pulled out of the
Hradcany air force base north of Prague, Czechoslovakia, and left
behind some 6,500 tons of jet fuel soaked into nearly 15 acres of
foul-smelling land.
(WSJ, 4/5/96, p.B-3A)(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.11)
1990 Radomil Hill, distiller,
began brewing absinthe and selling it to bars in Prague and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A1)
1991 May 9, Rudolf Serkin,
Bohemia-born US pianist, died in Vermont.
(http://tinyurl.com/bd3j6)
1991 Dec 16, "Europe Agreements"
are signed with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1991/index_en.htm)
1991 In Visegrad, Hungary, a
declaration of co-operation was signed by Poland, Hungary, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. The 4 became known as the Visegrad countries.
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.10S)
1992 Jul 3, The president of
Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, was voted out of office as lawmakers from
Slovakia blocked his re-election in parliament.
(AP, 7/3/97)
1992 Jul 20, Vaclav Havel, the
playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, formally
stepped down as president of Czechoslovakia after failing to halt the
country's pending breakup into two entities. He was later elected
president of the Czech Republic.
(AP, 7/20/02)
1992 Jul 17, Slovak parliament
asked for self rule.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1992 Nov 7, Alexander Dubcek
(b.1921), former Czechoslovak leader (1968-1969), died in a car crash.
His 1968 failed attempt to loosen the Communist grip became known as
the Prague Spring.
(AP,
11/7/97)(www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/dubcek)
1992 Dec 31, The Nation of
Czechoslovakia officially ended with division into two Nations:
Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1992. When the country split, all
citizens were deemed to be either Czech or Slovak, based on their
parentage. The vast majority of the Romany living in the Czech Republic
are of Slovak descent, and they had to apply for Czech citizenship.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)
1992 The Czech film “Elementary
School” by Jan and Zdenek Sverak was nominated for an Oscar for best
foreign-language film.
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.34)
1992 The Prague Center on National
Democratic Decision-Making and Conflict Management was founded
with financing by the Levi Strauss Foundation of San Francisco.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A3)
2004 Feb 11, Jozef Lenart (80), a
former Czechoslovak prime minister cleared of treason charges for his
alleged role in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed the country's
democratic movement, died. He served as prime minister of
Czechoslovakia from 1963-1968 and headed the Slovak Communist Party
until 1988. A Slovak national he acquired Czech citizenship after
Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
(AP, 2/12/04)
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Subject = Czechoslovakia
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