Timeline Czechoslovakia; Czech Republic
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See Czechoslovakia for events prior to 1992
1993
Jan 1, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new
countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Slovak people never
voted on the 1993 split with the Czechs. 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.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.A-8)(AP,
1/1/98)
1993 Aug 26, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin signed a friendship treaty with the Czech Republic after
condemning the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
(RTH, 8/26/99)
1993 Aug, A shipment of 26,800
Czech machine guns, 5,000 pistols and a large amount of ammunition was
intercepted prior to shipment to Bosnia. The paperwork said it was
intended for Panama.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
1993 Vladimir Stehlik purchased
the Poldi Steel Company at a state auction. He got a bank to finance
the deal for which he overpaid and ran the business into the ground. In
1997 Mr. Stehlik was put into prison for fraud after defaulting on his
loans and payments to the Czech government. He attempted to continue
running operations from his cell.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1994 Feb 9, Jarmila Novotna (86),
Czech-US soprano (Madame Butterfly), died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1994 Nov 14, The Czech TV station
Nova began its first commercial broadcast in Eastern Europe with the
film “Sophie’s Choice.”
(WSJ, 4/30/97, p.A1)
1995 Czech Pres. Havel dedicated a
small memorial to the victims of the WW II camp at Lety.
(SFC, 12/10/99, p.AA8)
1996 Jun 2, In the Czech Republic
the center-right coalition of premier Vaclav Klaus lost its majority in
parliamentary elections.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A10)
1996 Jul 7, The average cost of a
Big Mac in the Czech Republic was $1.85.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Parade, p.17)
1996 Jul 13, The 50th anniversary
of the Czech Karlovy Vary Int’l. Film Festival.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D7)
1996 Aug 11, Rafael Jeronym
Kubelik (b.1914), conductor, died at age 82. He led the Czech
Philharmonic from 1941 to 1948 and the Chicago Symphony from 1050-1953.
He was then musical director at London’s Covent Garden opera house and
from 1961-1979 headed the Munich orchestra of Bavarian Radio. He was
the son of Czech violinist Jan Kubelik.
(SFC, 8/12/96,
p.C5)(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9046338)
1996 Oct 6, The Czech film
“Kolya,” directed by Jan Sverak, won the grand prize at the Tokyo
Int’l. film festival.
(SFEC, 10/7/96, D3)
1996 Nov 11, Stanislav Devaty,
chief of the Czech secret service, resigned after being accused of
spying on government officials. He denied the charges.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)
1997 Jan 4, Czech Pres. Vaclav
Havel married his girlfriend Dagmar Veskrnova, less than a year after
the death of his first wife Olga Havlova. Dagmar was an actress and had
starred as a topless vampire in the film "The Vampire from Nosferat."
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)(WSJ, 2/18/99, p.A1)
1997 Jan 19, The Czech film
“Kolya,” directed by Jan Sverak, won a Golden Globes award as the best
foreign language film of 1996 by the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association. Zdenek Sverak, Jan’s father, wrote the script and played
the leading role.
(SFC, 1/20/96, p.D2)
1997 Mar, The Czech national
currency, the koruna, was devalued 12%.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 8, NATO issued formal
invitations to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
(SFC, 7/9/97, p.A1)
1997 Jul 10, Torrential rains in
Poland and the Czech Republic killed at least 39 people and forced
thousands from their homes. The village of Troubky was devastated and 9
people died there.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A11)
1997 Jul 15, The Czech trade
deficit was labeled as the largest in the world relative to its economy.
(SFC, 7/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov 30, Czech Prime Minister
Vaclav Klaus handed in his government’s resignation in the wake of
revelations that his party maintained a slush fund in Switzerland and
had received campaign donations from a businessman buying a state-owned
steel mill.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A13)(SFC, 12/2/97, p.A10)
1997 An alleged deal to ship Czech
radar systems to Iraq was stopped following a tip from Turkey.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
1997 In the Czech Rep. Tomas
Harabis, an itinerant photographer, founded the faux kingdom of
Wallachia and crowned Bolek Polivka, an actor and clown, as king of
Wallachia. Polivka had already crowned himself the Wallachian king,
Boleslav I, the Gracious Forever, on his TV show. In 2002 Polivka went
to court over the kingdom’s trademark. In 2008 a court ruled the
Polivka has no right to profit from any association with the kingdom.
(SFC, 2/2/09, p.A2)
1998 Jan 2, Josef Tosovsky was
sworn in as the Czech prime minister. He pledged economic reforms,
privatization, and efforts to fight crime and corruption.
(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A10)
1998 Jan 20, Czech Pres. Vaclav
Havel won re-election by a slim margin in a 2nd round vote of
parliament.
(SFC, 1/21/98, p.C12)
1998 Jan 28, In the Czech Republic
prime minister Josef Tosovsky’s government won a vote of confidence in
the parliament 123-71.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb, In the Czech Republic a
young Gypsy woman was pushed into the Elbe River by 3 skinheads. Her
body was recovered 2 days later. It was the 3rd attack on Gypsies in 4
weeks. 3 suspects were detained.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.C3)
1998 May, The Czech town of Usti
Nad Labem approved the building of a wall to separate itself from the
Gypsy neighborhood of Novy Svet. Completion was planned by Sept. The
wall was scheduled for removal in late 1999 and subsidies were to be
used to buy out the homes of non-Roma residents so they could move
elsewhere.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A3)(SFC, 11/24/99, p.C6)
1998 Jun 21, The Social Democrats
placed first in Czech parliamentary elections.
(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A1)
1998 A Russian businessman was
arrested and charged with illegally selling 365 surplus Czech armored
rocket launchers to North Korea and China through Prague-based
businesses.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
1999 Mar 12, Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic formally joined NATO in a ceremony at Independence,
Mo., where Pres. Truman announced in 1949 the formation of the Atlantic
alliance for defense against the Soviet bloc.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.C14)
1999 Mar, The Czech firm Agroplast
was accused of trying to ship 6 Kazak MiG fighter planes to North
Korea. The planes were confiscated. Agroplast denied the allegations.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
1999 Nov 20, Some 30 Czech
skinheads broke into a restaurant in Ceske Budejovice and attacked a
party of Gypsies. This prompted a dozen Roma families to leave the area
and ask for asylum elsewhere.
(SFC, 12/1/99, p.C3)
2000 Sep 15, Truckers across
Europe blocked highways to protest high fuel costs. Protests hit Spain,
Germany, Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A10)
2000 Sep 22, Hundreds of
anti-nuclear protestors from Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic
called for a halt to activation of the Temelin plant located near the
Austrian border to allow for safety and environmental tests.
(SFC, 9/23/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 23, World Bank and IMF
leaders gathered in Prague for a summit amidst protests. They issued a
communique on currency markets and oil prices.
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.d15)
2000 Sep 26, The annual meetings
of the World Bank and IMF officials officially opened in Prague with
delegates from 182 nations. Protestors numbered far less than the
expected 20,000. An estimated 6,000 protestors battled police with
homemade gasoline bombs and cobblestones from the streets.
(SFC, 9/26/00, p.A11)(SFC, 9/27/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 27, In Prague IMF and
World Bank officials ended their meetings a day early due to
disruptions by protestors. Some 600 demonstrators were arrested from an
estimated total of 12,000.
(SFC, 9/28/00, p.C2)
2000 Oct, The Czech Temelin
nuclear power plant was turned on despite protests from Austria.
Malfunctions triggered 2 shutdowns in Dec.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.C14)
2000 Dec 20, Jiri Hodac was
appointed by the Czech parliament as the new chief of television.
Broadcast journalists went on strike the next day in anger over the
appointment due to Hodac’s political bias and sympathies to Vaclav
Kraus, the former premier.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A12)(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B9)
2001 Jan 3, In Prague some 100,000
people gathered in Wenceslas Square to support the striking TV
journalists.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 11, Jiri Hodac resigned
as the chief of television. Over 50,000 Czech protestors continued to
demonstrate in Wenceslas Square for guarantees of political
independence for public television.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A17)
2001 Jan 13, The lower chamber of
parliament dismissed the council that oversaw Czech Television and
amended a law on how the council is appointed.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.D4)
2001 Jan 18, The Czech Temelin
nuclear power plant was shut down due to vibrations in the main turbine
generator. It resumed operations on Feb 25.
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.C14)
2001 Apr 22, Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim
Samir al-Ani, an Iraqi diplomat, was expelled from the Czech Republic.
He was later reported to have met with Mohamed Atta and planned an
attack on Radio Free Europe.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A5)
2001 Apr, Customs agents in
Bulgaria confiscated a transport plane from the Czech Republic with 6
howitzers and a cache of AK-47 rifles. The plane was scheduled to go to
Georgia but had flight plans for Eritrea.
(WSJ, 12/11/01, p.A15)
2001 Oct, The FDA approved
tenofovir (Viread), made by Gilead Sciences, to fight HIV. It blocked a
key enzyme in HIV called reverse transcriptase. Gilead acquired it from
Czech chemist Antonin Holy and turned it into a once-a-day pill.
(SFC, 7/14/04, p.A14)
2001 Nov 4, It was reported that
both Poland and the Czech Republic would send military forces to assist
the US in Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 11/5/01, p.A17)
2001 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Polish vodka Wyborova, Czech bitters Jan Becher and Seagram’s Martell
cognac and Chivas scotch.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
2002 Mar 31, Men in the Czech
Republic chased female relatives and friends for the traditional Easter
leg thwacking.
(WSJ, 3/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 14, Czech exit polls
showed the Social Democrats, who favor quick entry into the European
Union, headed for victory in parliamentary elections where 6,000
candidates sought all 200 seats in the lower chamber. Voters backed the
ruling Social Democrats in parliamentary elections, and also gave the
Communist Party its best showing since the collapse of communism in
1989.
(AP, 6/14/02)(AP, 6/15/02)
2002 Jun 27, The mayor of the
Bavarian town of Roeckingen, who has been missing since early March,
was found dead in a forest in the western Czech Republic, police said
Thursday.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Aug 11, Jiri Kolar (87), a
Czech poet and artist known mainly for his pioneering work in the art
of collage, died in Prague. His poetry books included "Birth
Certificate" (1941)
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 13, Vltava River
floodwaters poured into a historic part of Prague, despite the frantic
efforts of rescue workers to save the ancient Czech capital from rising
river levels, which have forced tens of thousands to flee.
(Reuters, 8/13/02)(AP, 8/13/02)
2002 Oct 9, The European Union's
executive Commission declared Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia,
and Slovakia nearly ready for EU membership and recommended they be
invited to join in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria likely will be delayed
until 2007 because of weak economies, the Commission said, adding
Turkey was the weakest link among candidates.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2002 Oct 26, In the Czech Republic
the race for a third of the seats in the Czech Parliament's upper
chamber had a record low turnout of 24 percent.
(AP, 10/26/02)
2002 Nov 2, In the Czech Republic
the opposition center-right Civic Democratic Party won 9 Senate seats
in elections for 26 of 81 seats, costing the governing coalition its
majority in Parliament's upper house in a result that could influence
the choice of a successor to President Vaclav Havel.
(AP, 11/3/02)
2002 Nov 20, On the eve of a NATO
summit in the Czech Republic, President Bush, recalling Europe's grim
history of "excusing aggression," challenged skeptical allies to stand
firm against Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 22, At the NATO summit in
Prague, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush the United
States should not wage war alone against Iraq, and questioned whether
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were doing enough to fight terrorism.
(AP, 11/22/03)
2002 Dec 13, The EU reached
agreement to accept 10 new countries in 2004. These included Czech
Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Slovakia, and Slovenia.
(SFC, 12/14/02, p.A3)
2003 Jan 18, The Czech Republic's
ruling party nominated former PM Milos Zeman as its new candidate to
replace President Vaclav Havel.
(AP, 1/18/03)
2003 Jan 24, Czech lawmakers
failed for a 2nd time to pick a successor to pres. Havel.
(WSJ, 1/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Jan 24, In Prague, former
Communist Interior Minister Jaromir Obzina (73) died of cancer. In 2001
Obzina was charged with abuse of power for his role in an operation
aimed to crush political dissent between 1978 and 1984. The "Asanace"
(Sanitation) program focused on some 50 dissidents, signatories of the
Charter 77 human rights manifesto, resorting to threats and harsh
interrogations to intimidate them and force them to leave the country.
(AP, 1/29/03)
2003 Feb 2, Vaclav Havel stepped
down after 13 years as president of the Czech Republic.
(AP, 2/2/03)
2003 Feb 28, Czech
lawmakers elected opposition candidate Vaclav Klaus as president,
succeeding former president and long time rival Vaclav Havel.
(AP, 2/28/03)
2003 Mar 6, Zdenek Adamec
(19) set himself on fire in downtown Prague on to protest the Czech
political situation and what he called the domination of the wealthy in
the world.
(AP, 3/6/03)
2003 Mar 8, In the Czech
Republic a bus accident near Ceske Budejovice left 17 dead. 2 more
people soon died from injuries sustained in the crash.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2003 Mar 20, The Czech Interior
Ministry published a list of some 75,000 people identified as agents of
the former communist secret police, the STB.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Apr 8, A jobless man died in
a southern Czech village after setting himself on fire in the sixth
case of self-immolation in recent weeks.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Jun 13-2003 Jun 14, Czechs
voted in a two-day referendum on whether their country of 10 million
should join the European Union. They voted overwhelmingly to join the
European Union. 77.33% of voters approved the measure, while 22.67
voted no. Turnout was 55.21 percent.
(AP, 6/13/03)(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jul 26, Jiri Horak (79), the
first leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party (190-1992) after the
fall of communism, died in Florida.
(AP, 7/26/03)
2003 Oct 28, Czech Independence
Day. Cathrin Schauer published her book “Children Walk the Streets,” a
chronicle of child prostitution along the Czech-German border.
(WPR, 3/04, p.45)
2003 Vladimir Spidla became prime
minister of the Czech Republic.
(Econ, 4/9/05, p.43)
2004 Jan 1, Jiri Loewy (73), a
Czech journalist who campaigned against communism from exile, died in
Germany.
(AP, 1/3/04)
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)
2004 Mar 12, Karel Kachyna (79),
Czech filmmaker, died in Prague. His films included "Chariot to Vienna"
and "The Ear."
(SFC, 2/13/04, p.B8)
2004 Apr 1, A gas explosion ripped
through a refinery in Iraq while it was being inspected by Czech
engineers, killing one and injuring two others.
(AP, 4/5/04)
2004 Apr 27, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov and EU officials signed an accord extending the
EU-Russia partnership accord to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta,
which join May 1.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 May 1, Revelers across
ex-communist eastern Europe celebrated their historic entry to the
European Union. 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia)
joined. Malta joined with 70 exemptions to EU rules. Poland had 43
exemptions. Latvia had 32. The Turkish occupied area of Cyprus was
suspended from entry.
(AP, 5/1/04)(Econ, 2/28/04, p.50)(Econ, 4/16/05,
p.16)
2004 Jun 26, Czech PM Vladimir
Spidla resigned after his Social Democrats did badly in EU elections.
(Econ, 7/3/04, p.6)
2004 Jul 26, Czech President
Vaclav Klaus named Social Democrat leader Stanislav Gross (B.1969) as
the country's next prime minister, making him Europe's youngest leader
and paving the way for a new center-left government.
(www.e-paranoids.com/s/st/stanislav_gross.html)
2004 Aug 22, Ota Sik (b.1920)
Czech economist and painter, died in St. Gallen, Switz.
(SFC, 8/25/04, p.B7)
2004 Sep 9, A military Lynx
helicopter crashed near the city of Brno in the Czech Republic, killing
six British soldiers.
(AP, 9/9/04)
2004 The film “Cesky Sen” (The
Czech Dream) documented a bogus hypermarket created by film students
Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak.
(Econ, 8/7/04, p.43)
2005 Jan 1, The Czech Republic was
forecast for 4.1% GDP growth with a population at 10.2 million and GDP
per head at $11,960.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.87)
2005 Jan 14, Prague Mayor Pavel
Bem got a close-up look at how the city's notorious taxi drivers
operate this week when he went undercover for a ride and was
overcharged by some 500 percent.
(Reuters, 1/14/05)
2005 Apr 2, The Czech information
minister resigned, becoming the 4th Czech government member to do so
this week in fallout over a scandal surrounding PM Stanislav Gross'
luxury apartment.
(AP, 4/2/05)
2005 Apr 9, Czech PM Stanislav
Gross said he would resign and make way for a new coalition government
because of a scandal surrounding the financing of his luxury apartment.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2005 Apr 25, Jiri Paroubek (52)
was officially named as the new Czech prime minister. Paroubek, local
development minister in Gross's government and deputy chairman of the
Social Democrats (CSSD), became the country's third prime minister in
nine months.
(AFP, 4/25/05)
2005 May 15, The Czech Republic
denied Canada its third straight title and won the world ice hockey
championship 3-0 in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2005 Jul 30, The CzechTek rave,
attended by some 5000 fans, was broken up by some 1000 riot police.
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.44)(http://czechtek.muzika.cz/)
2005 Nov 1, The first Czech online
daily without a paper edition, Aktualne.cz, was launched overnight.
(AFP, 11/1/05)
2005 Dec 31, In Slovakia 7
tourists from the Czech Republic died in avalanches in the Tatra
mountains. A day earlier a German was killed by an avalanche in the
Swiss Alps.
(AFP, 12/31/05)
2006 Jan 19, India said that it
had agreed to pay the Czech Republic 20 million dollars to resolve a
trade dispute dating back to the Cold War. The move was announced at
the end of a three-day visit by Czech President Jiri Paroubek.
(AFP, 1/19/06)
2006 Apr 3, Czech officials
declared a state of emergency in seven flood-hit regions while rivers
continued to rise in neighboring European countries, forcing
evacuations in some areas. Flooding was also reported in Germany,
Poland, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 14, Cuba ordered the
expulsion of a Czech diplomat, accusing him of spying for the United
States. Stanislav Kazecky, who was in charge of political, cultural and
media affairs for the Czech embassy, was given 72 hours to leave.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 May 6, Gen. Frantisek Perina
(b.1911), a Czech WWII fighter ace who fought against Nazi Germany in
the French and British air forces died in Prague.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 Jun 2, Czechs cast ballots in
a tight parliamentary race that revealed deep divisions over whether
the nation needs bold reforms or the status quo. A forecast predicted
the right wing Civic Democratic party of Mirek Topolanek would win
legislative elections with 38% of the vote.
(AP, 6/2-3/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Czech republic
faced weeks of uncertainty or even fresh elections after a deadlock
between center-right and leftist parties in weekend general elections.
(AP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 5, Czech opposition
leader Mirk Topolanek, whose party narrowly won the weekend's
parliamentary elections, said he would seek a governing coalition. His
Civic Democrats allied with the Christian Democrats and Greens took 100
seats of the lower house.
(AP, 6/5/06)(Econ, 6/10/06, p.50)
2006 Jul 26, Jessica Gilbert (19),
a British chess prodigy, fell from an eighth-floor hotel room window in
the Czech Republic where she was competing in an international chess
tournament. Her death took place days before the trial of her father,
whom she had accused of rape, was to begin. In December Ian Gilbert
(48), a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was acquitted of 5
counts of raping Jessica, while she was still a child, and 6 sexual
offences against other people.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Aug 24, Leading astronomers
meeting in Prague declared that Pluto is no longer a planet under
historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine
planets to eight.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Sep 17, In northern Austria a
Czech bus veered off a road and into a ditch, killing 4 people and
injuring 38.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 19, Cambodia's King
Norodom Sihamoni started the official part of a week-long visit to the
Czech Republic, a country where he spent 13 years from 1962-1975 and
considers as his "second home."
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Oct 3, The Czech Republic
edged closer to early elections after PM Mirek Topolanek's rightist
minority government was toppled in a parliamentary confidence vote.
(Reuters, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 27, The Czech Republic's
center-right Civic Democratic Party won 14 seats and gained a simple
majority in runoff elections for parliament's upper chamber.
(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Dec 12, Czech president
Vaclav Klaus pledged to forge closer ties with Prague's biggest African
trade partner as he became the first leader from the eastern European
nation to visit South Africa.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 In the Czech Rep. police
raided 416 methamphetamine labs during the year as opposed to 19 raids
in 2000. Meth abuse in the Czech Rep. was the worst in Europe.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A19)
2007 Jan 20, Czech PM Mirek
Topolanek said the US wants to build a radar base in the Czech Republic
as part of its global missile defense system. Poland was also mentioned
as a potential site. Russia in response warned of an arms race.
(AP, 1/20/07)(WSJ, 1/22/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 19, Gen. Nikolai
Solovtsov, a top Russian general, warned that Poland and the Czech
Republic risk being targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to host
a proposed US missile defense system.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 May 9, Pakistan and the Czech
Republic agreed to boost diplomatic links and promote relations in
trade, health and science.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 Jun 5, US President George W.
Bush sought to soothe Moscow's fury at Washington's plans to extend its
anti-missile shield in Europe, saying in Prague on the eve of the G8
summit that Russia was "not our enemy."
(AFP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jul 28, Libya said the Czech
Republic, Qatar and Bulgaria contributed to an international fund to
support hundreds of children who contracted HIV at a Libyan hospital in
the 1990s. Libya also denounced a decision by Bulgaria's president to
pardon six medics from life jail terms in an AIDS case as a "betrayal"
and an "illegal procedure."
(Reuters, 7/28/07)(AFP, 7/28/07)
2007 Aug 22, Russia nominated
Josef Tosovsky, a former Czech prime minister and head of that
country's central bank, to head the International Monetary Fund, a move
that put the Kremlin and the European Union at odds. The Czech Republic
repudiated the move and endorsed the EU’s choice.
(AP, 8/22/07)(WSJ, 8/23/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 10, In the Czech Rep.
neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague clashed
with groups trying to stop them, and at least 80 people were arrested
in outbreaks of violence around the capital.
(AP, 11/10/07)
2007 Dec 9, A charter aircraft
flying from the Czech Republic crashed near Kiev airport in Ukraine
killing at least 5 people.
(AFP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 20, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech
Republic halted land and sea border controls at midnight in a wave of
new members of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone. They all joined
the EU on May 1, 2004.
(AFP, 12/20/07)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Milan Kundera (b.1929),
Czechoslovakia born writer, authored “The Curtain: An Essay in Seven
Parts,” an extended essay on the art of the novel.
(WSJ, 2/10/07, p.P8)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.83)
2007 The population in the Czech
Rep. stood at about 10.2 million.
(SFC, 11/23/07, p.A19)
2008 Feb 15, Czech President
Vaclav Klaus won a second five-year term. Lawmakers chose him over a
University of Michigan economics professor.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 25, Czech PM Mirek
Topolanek said he will complete a deal on missile defense this week in
Washington, and attributed Russian opposition to the project to
lingering frustration over the collapse of the Soviet Union. During his
visit Topolanek signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow
Czechs to apply for a US visa waiver online.
(AP, 2/25/08)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.61)
2008 Mar 1, A violent storm
plagued parts of Europe and deaths rose to 10 after two people in
Poland were killed by falling objects because of hurricane-strength
winds. Germany reported 2 deaths, the Czech Rep. 2 deaths and 4 more in
Austria.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Apr 3, President Bush won
NATO's endorsement for his plan to build a missile defense system in
Europe over Russian objections. The proposal also advanced with Czech
officials announcing an agreement to install a missile tracking site
for the system in their country. NATO decided not to put Georgia and
Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian
opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important
Black Sea nations will become members one day.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Jul 8, The United States and
the Czech Republic signed a treaty in Prague allowing Washington to
build part of a missile defense shield in the central European state
despite opposition from its former Cold War master Russia.
(Reuters, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 11, The Czech Republic’s
Industry and Trade Ministry announced that Russia has reduced its oil
shipments to the country without providing an explanation. The cutback
was announced three days after the nation signed a military agreement
with Washington that the Kremlin strongly opposes. Russia later said
the supplies dropped because 2 Russian firms had decided to refine more
crude at home.
(AP, 7/11/08)(WSJ, 7/15/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 19, Czech police said a
21-year-old British man, wanted for child sex and pornography offences
in Britain, has been detained in a Prague suburb where he had been in
hiding for two years.
(AFP, 7/19/08)
2008 Aug 8, In the Czech Republic
an international express train crashed into a collapsed bridge, killing
at least six people and injuring dozens.
(Reuters, 8/8/08)
2008 Sep 1, Thomas Bata (93), the
Czech-born industrialist who headed the global shoe empire bearing his
family's name from the 1940s to the 1980s, died in Toronto. The
company's headquarters were moved to Toronto under Bata's leadership
when the family's Czech factories were nationalized by the communists.
The company returned to the Czech Republic in 1989 after the end of
communist rule.
(Reuters, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 25, The Czech
counterintelligence service said Russian spies operating in the Czech
Republic have tried to increase public opposition to a planned US
missile defense facility. Most Czechs oppose the base, according to
recent polls. The Czech Republic's government has approved the missile
defense treaty, but it still requires the approval of the Czech
parliament, where it faces strong opposition.
(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Dec 19, The lower chamber of
Czech parliament failed to extend a mandate for the deployment of the
country's troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other foreign missions for
next year, meaning the soldiers will leave soon.
(AP, 12/21908)
2009 Jan 1, The Czech Republic
took over the six-month rotating presidency from EU heavyweight France.
It will face the daunting task of implementing a $258 billion European
economic stimulus package approved by EU leaders under the French
presidency.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2009 Jan 4, Russia asked the EU to
provide monitoring of Ukraine's gas transit system and charged Ukraine
was stealing gas bound for Europe, as Kiev leveled its own charges.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the state-controlled company wanted
$450 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from its last offer of $418. The
reductions in gas supplies spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.
(AP, 1/4/09)(Reuters, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 14, Jan Kaplicky
(b.1937), a British-based Czech architect, died in Prague just hours
after his wife Eliska gave birth to their daughter Johanka. He designed
the award-winning media center at Lord's cricket ground in London.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Belgium the
“Entropa” art installation at the EU headquarters, by Czech artist
David Cerny, covered up the part that showed Bulgaria as a squat toilet
after protests from the aggrieved nation.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Feb 27, Leading international
financial institutions said Eastern Europe's struggling banks will
receive euro24.5 billion ($31.1 billion) worth of emergency help to
shore up their battered finances. Regional leaders were scheduled to
meet this weekend. The Hungarian, Polish and Czech currencies
strengthened on the news of the aid package.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 24, The Czech government
collapsed after losing a parliamentary no-confidence vote over its
handling of the economic crisis.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 25, Czech PM Mirek
Topolanek, the current rotating president of the EU, slammed US plans
to spend its way out of recession as "a road to hell."
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Apr 5, In the Czech Rep.
President Barack Obama set out his vision for ridding the world of
nuclear arms, declaring the US ready to lead steps by all states with
atomic weapons to reduce their arsenals. Obama said the US will proceed
with development of a missile defense system in Europe as long as there
is an Iranian threat of nuclear weapons. Obama also urged the EU to
accept Turkey as a full member of the 27-nation bloc, in remarks
rejected outright by France and met coolly by Germany.
(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Apr 9, Czech Pres. Vaclav
Klaus appointed nonpartisan Jan Fischer (58) as prime minister. He will
replace Mirek Topolanek on May 9.
(WSJ, 4/10/09, p.A8)
2009 Apr 24, David Duke (59), the
former Grand Wizard of the Louisiana-founded Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, arrived in Prague at the invitation of a local far-right group,
Narodni Odpor (National Resistance). He was soon arrested and
questioned for several hours on suspicion of promoting movements
seeking the suppression of human rights. Duke was freed during the
night and forced to leave the country the next day.
(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 May 20, EU and Chinese
leaders met in Prague to tackle the economic crisis and turn the page
on tensions over the Dalai Lama. Lingering differences cast a shadow
over the talks.
(AFP, 5/20/09)
2009 Jun 26, Holocaust survivors,
Jewish groups and experts gathered in Prague to assess efforts to
return property and possessions stolen by the Nazis to their rightful
owners or heirs.
(AP, 6/26/09)
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Subject = Czech Rep.
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