Czech Republic History Timeline
BC
- (15BC) Romans began to extend their empire
400s AD – 900s AD
- (476AD) Roman Empire collapsed
- (550) Slovenes settled in eastern Alps
- (700's) Rule of Charlemagne, King of the Franks
- (750-800) Slovenes christianized
- (830) Great Moravian Empire established
- (907) Moravian Empire collapsed with Hungarian invasion
- (962) Holy Roman Empire established
1000s – 1500s
- (1085) Vratislav II granted the royal crown, became the first Czech king; started the Premyslid dynasty
- (1306) Death of King Wenceslas III ended Premyslid dynasty
- (1414) John Huss (Jan Hus) conducted Czech sermons in ordinary language; spoke against Catholic Church corruption
- (1415) John Huss burnt at the stake
- (1420-1434) Hussite Wars
- (1458) Hussites elected Czech Protestant, George of Podebrady, as the country's new king
- (1526-1790) Hapsburg Dynasty
1700s – 1800s
- (1717-1780) Maria Theresa, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor, ruled the Hapsburg lands
- (1740-1780) Charles Albert, duke of Bavaria, proclaimed king by the Czech nobility
- (1764-1790) King Joseph II reigned; period of Slovene Enlightenment; Czech and Austrian territories subdivided into administrative districts; German established as official language
- (1700's-1815) Napoleonic Wars
- (1809-1813) Illyrian provinces established by Napoleon included Slovene lands
- (1815) Napoleon defeated
- (1848) First Slavic congress convened by Czechs; discussion of political consolidation of Slavs, included Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
1900s
- (1918) Last Habsburg Emperor overthrown; after World War I the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell, Czech lands and Slovakia proclaimed establishment of independent Czechoslovakia
- (1938) Germany, Britain, France and Italy signed the Munich Pact, gave Hitler the right to invade and claimed Czechoslovakia's border areas
- (1939) Hitler's army invaded Czechoslovakia; World War II started
- (1942) Slovene Covenant established
- (1945) Prague uprising, territories of the Czech Republic liberated; World War II ended
- (1945-1989) Communist Era
- (1968) Five Warsaw Pact member countries invaded Czechoslovakia, Soviet troops continued to occupy the country until 1989
- (1980's) Russian Perestroika introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, marked the last years of communist Czechoslovakia
- (1989) Velvet Revolution brought an end to communism
- (1993) Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two independent countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia; Vaclav Havel elected president of Czech Republic; Vaclav Klaus carried on a prime minister, privatization of the public sector top priority
- (1995) U.S. funded Radio Free Europe; radio liberty relocated from Munich to Prague
- (1996) Vaclav Klaus reappointed prime minister
- (1997) NATO issued formal invitations to Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary; collapse of coalition over economic reform programs, Klaus government resigned; caretaker administration led by Josef Tosovsky
- (1998) Havel re-elected president; Milos Zeman,
leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party, became prime minister;
relations with Iran and Iraq strained when Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty started broadcasts to both countries from Prague
- (1999) Czech Republic full member of NATO
2000s
- (2000) CDP renewed agreement to support Zeman's
minority CSDP government; Austria threatened to block Czech EU
membership over startup of first reactor at Temelin nuclear power plant
- (2001) Czech government and Austria's Chancellor Schuessel moved to settle dispute over Temelin nuclear power plant
- (2002) Prague suffered worst flooding in 200 years; EU summit in Copenhagen formally invited Czech Republic to join
- (2003) Former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus elected president; Czechs voted in favor of going ahead with EU membership in 2004
- (2004) Czech Republic one of 10 new nations to join
the EU; Vladimir Spidla resigned as prime minister; Stanislav Gross
appointed premier
- (2005) Stanislav Gross resigned as premier, followed by allegations about his financial affairs
- (2006) General elections resulted in a hung
parliament; President Klaus appointed Mirek Topolanek prime minister for
a second time; talks began on forming grand coalition
- (2007) U.S. President George Bush visited Czech
Republic; hundreds protested against U.S. plans for a radar base near
Prague; Czech Republic joined the EU's Schengen Treaty free movement
zone
- (2008) Vaclav Klaus re-elected president; Czech
Republic signed agreement allowing U.S. base components of its planned
missile defense system on Czech territory; Russia threatened retaliation
- (2008) Long-lost opera, Argippo, written for the
Czech capital by Antonio Vivaldi, was performed for the first time in
278 years in Prague
- (2008) U.S. agreed to base part of its missile defense system in Czech Republic
- (2009) Czech Republic took over EU presidency; Mirek
Topolanek, center-right government leader, lost parliamentary vote of
confidence; Topolanek resigned
- (2009) Six Czech hikers died in avalanche in Austrian Alps
- (2009) US President Barack Obama, canceled plans for the missile defense bases in Czech Republic and Poland
- (2010) ODS leader Petr Necas formed a coalition government with the right-wing TOP 09 party and the centrist public affairs party
