By Tim Lambert
400 BC A Celtic people called the Boii live in what is now the Czech Republic
The Early Czechs
c 500 AD A Slavic people enter the Czech Republic
10th Century The Czechs are converted to Christianity
929 AD King Wenceslas is murdered
950 Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic) becomes part of the Holy Roman Empire
13th Century Germans settle in Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic). Towns and trade flourish.
14th Century Bohemia is rich and powerful
1348 Prague University is founded
1412 The Reformer Jan Hus is expelled from Prague University
1415 Jan Hus is burned to death
1618 The Thirty Years War begins
1648 The Thirty Years War ends. Bohemia is left devastated.
1741-42 French soldiers occupy Prague
1848 Revolution breaks out in Prague. Meanwhile, the Czechs industrialized.
The Modern Czechs
1918 Czechoslovakia becomes an independent nation
1933 Czechoslovakia suffers badly during the depression
1935 The Czech economy starts to recover
1935 The Czech economy starts to recover
1938 The Czechs are forced to give the Sudetenland to Germany
1939 Germany occupies the rest of the Czech lands
1942 The German Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated
1945 The Russians arrive in Czechoslovakia
1948 The Communists stage a coup in Czechoslovakia
1953 A wave of strikes and demonstrations takes place
1968 Dubcek tries to introduce a more liberal regime. However, the Russians intervene by force
1977 Charter 77 is formed
1989 Communism collapses in Czechoslovakia
1990 Elections are held
1993 The Velvet Divorce takes place. The Czechs and the Slovaks form separate countries.
1999 The Czechs join NATO
2004 The Czechs join the EU
