16.1.1969 – Jan Palach burned himself on the Wenceslaw square to demonstrate that he doesn´t agree with the system

Jan Palach was a twenty-one years old student of Charles University in Prague. After the Soviet invasion in 1968 he burned himself on the Wenceslaw Square. He intended to show his disagree with the system. His funeral turned into a major protest against the occupation. He inspired another student, Jan Zajíc, to do the same thing a month later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A26Z4MB1yJ8

17.11.1989 – The Velvet revolutionThe Velvet revolution or Gentle revolution was a non-violent revolution against one-party

governement. Students and older dissidents protested against The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. On November 17, 1989 on International Students day police suppressed a student demostration in Prague. This act sparked a serie of demonstrations and the number of protesters has grown from 200 000 to 500 000. Leadership of Communist Party resigned on November 24. Then on December 10 president Gustav Husák appointed the first non-communist government since 1948 and then resigned. Václav Havel become the president of Czechoslovakia and in June 1990 was first democratic elections since 1946.

Attribute of the Velvet revolution was jingling of keys to signify support. It symbolized the unlocking of doors for democracy and goodbye for Communists.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-B7KsNQiew

1.1.1993 - Dissolution of CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was created in 1918 and it lasted until 1 January 1993. After the II. World War

there was the federal state of Czechoslovakia. Main ideology was communism which did not have much support from the people. They wanted a change so there were a lot of demonstrations and this era led to velvet revolution. After the velvet revolution the prime ministers decided to divide Czechoslovakia in two separated states – Czech Republic and Slovakia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsENXk-LuKQ

12.3.1999 – Czech Republic becomes member of NATOOn the 12th March 1999 Czech Republic together with Hungary and Poland entered NATO

and became one of the first countries from east block that have been accepted to NATO. It was all arranged in the American city Independente, where the foreign ministers of mentioned states conveyed the instruments of ratification to their American counterpart Madeline Albright. Czech Republic became full-fledged member and it was able to meet their obligations to NATO from the beginning. Czech Republic was and it is now against external rockets and bases on our territory. Today it is 17 years of our membership in NATO and we are part of collective defense that connects western democratic states.

Video: http://www.c-span.org/video/?122737-1/nato-summit-50th-anniversary-event

1.5.2004 – Czech republic becomes a member of the EUMay 1, 2004 was the day when Czech republic become a member of European Union. Czech

republic requested for membership in EU on January 17, 1996. 8 years later president Václav Klaus sighned pact about membership in EU. 77,3% of czech voters voted for joining European Union. Now Czech republic has 21 parlamentarians in European parlament.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqXbHaNqMX8

1984- Jaroslav Seifert received Nobel Prize in Literature

Jaroslav Seifert was a famous Czechoslovak writer and mainly a poet. He´s one of the two Czech people who have received the Nobel Prize. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984 and that included him among many famous authors such as Hemingway, Churchill or Steinbeck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbxz4SEx3XA

1998 - Czech hockey team won the Olympics games in Nagano Hockey turney on 18. Olympics games was played between 7th and 22nd February in

Japanese Nagano. For the first time IIHF and NHL decided to stop the worlds biggest league competition, so the league players can participate the Olympics turney.

Czech republic was in the group C with Russia, Finland and Kazakhstan. Czech lost only once, with Russia and went to play offs from second place. In quartel-final Czechs met USA and won 4:1. Then in semi-final Czech beated Canada in seperate raids. In final was waiting a strong rival – Russia, that beated us in the group and that hadn´t lost a single match until then. There weren´t any goals for a long time until Petr Svoboda scored in middle of the third period. It was the only goal of the match and Czechs won the gold medal on the Olympics games for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkfKdnkvdmw