A Timeline of Czech Republic

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