Czech milestone during the 20th century

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Czech milestone during the 20th century
COMENIUS

• 1918 Foundation of Czechoslovakia
• 1945 Prague uprising
• 1968 Oscar Movie Awards and Nobel
  Prize in literature in 1984
• 1989 The Velvet Revolution
• 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano

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Flag of Bohemia and CSR 1918-1920
1918 Foundation of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central
Europe that existed from October 1918 (upon
declaring its independence from the
Austro-Hungarian Empire) until 1992 (with a
government-in-exile during the World War II
period). On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia
peacefully split into the Czech Republic and
Slovakia.
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Flag of Bohemia and CSR after 1920

• Czechoslovakia was founded in October 1918 as
  one of the successor states of Austria-Hungary at
  the end of World War I. It consisted of the
  present day territories of the Czech Republic,
  Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. Its territory
  included some of the most industrialized regions
  of the former Austria-Hungary. It was a
  multiethnic state.

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COMENIUS
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COMENIUS
Tomá Garrigue Masaryk, the first president
and the founding father of the Czechoslovak
Republic.
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1945 Prague uprising

• The Prague uprising was an attempt by the Czech
  resistance to liberate the city of Prague from
  German occupation during World War II.
• Events began on 5th May in 1945, in the last
  moments of the war in Europe.
• The uprising went on until 8th May in 1945
  ending in a ceasefire the day before the arrival
  of the Soviet Red Army and one day after the
  Victory in Europe Day.

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Flag of
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 1939-45
Liberation

• The Soviet Red Army arrived in Prague on 9th
  May 1945. U.S. Army units had been closer to
  Prague than Soviets, and their reconnaissance
  units were already present in Prague suburbs when
  the uprising begun. However, the Americans did
  not help the Czech insurgents. Instead they
  overlooked the uprising, and all carnage that
  followed.

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1968 The Academy Award for the Best Foreign
Language Film

• The movie called Ostre sledované vlaky (Closely
  Watched Trains) directed by Jirí Menzel in 1966
  was awarded by Oscars.

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Closely Watched Trains
The film is a black comedy, now tender, now
savage, a masterpiece of irony and observation.
But as such it also explores the strategies of
survival for the everyday person during the Nazi
occupation of WW II, in time of a violent and
repressive dictatorship. This message was brought
home so obviously for the Communists that Closely
Watched Trains was not allowed to be shown in
Czechoslovakia for many years after the Soviet
invasion of 1968, and Menzel was not allowed to
make a new film for seven years.
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Kolya (in Czech "Kolja")

• Another Czech movie awarded by Oscars is e.g.
  Kolya directed by Jan Sverák and script by his
  father Zdenek Sverák (at the picture) in 1996.

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Nobel Prize in Literature in 1984

• Jaroslav Seifert was awarded the Nobel Prize
  in Literature in 1984. Due to bad health, he was
  not present at the award ceremony, and so his
  daughter received the Nobel Prize in his name.
  (Some sources say, that the government didn't let
  him go to accept the prize.) Even though it was
  a matter of great importance, there was only a
  brief remark on the award in the
  state- controlled media. He died in 1986 and was
  buried at the municipal cemetery in Kralupy nad
  Vltavou (where his maternal grandparents
  originated from). His burial was marked by a high
  presence of secret police, who tried to suppress
  any hint of dissent on the part of mourners.

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1989 The Velvet Revolution
The "Velvet Revolution" or "Gentle Revolution"
(from 16th November until 29th December 1989)
refers to a non-violent revolution in
Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the
Communist government. It is seen as one of the
most important of the Revolutions of 1989. On
Friday 17th November 1989, riot police suppressed
a peaceful student demonnstration in Prague. That
event sparked a series of popular demonstrations
from 19th November to late December. By 20th
November the number of peaceful protesters
assembled in Prague had swollen from 200,000 the
previous day to an estimated half-million. A
two-hour general strike, involving all citizens
of Czechoslovakia, was held on 27th November.
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With the collapse of other Communist governments,
and increasing street protests, the Communist
Party of Czechoslovakia announced on 28th
November that it would relinquish power and
dismantle the single-party state. Barbed wire and
other obstructions were removed from the border
with West Germany and Austria in early December.
On December 10, President Gustáv Husák appointed
the first largely non-Communist government in
Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned.
Alexander Dubcek was elected speaker of the
federal parliament on 28th December and Václav
Havel became the President of Czechoslovakia on
29th December in 1989. In June 1990
Czechoslovakia held its first democratic
elections since 1946.
Václav Havel the president
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1998 Olympic Winter Games
In 1998 was the first year that the modern NHL
took a break to allow its players to participate
in the Olympics, allowing the United States and
Canada to field teams with professionals of top
calibre, as the European teams were doing since
the IIHF first allowed professionals into the
Olympics. Thanks to the goaltending of Dominik
Haek who was considered the best goaltender
throughout Olympic play, the Czech Republic won
the shootout and went on to win the semi-final en
route to winning the gold medal.
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The Czech Republic National ice-hockey team
The Czech national men's ice hockey team is
one of the most successful national ice hockey
teams in the world, currently ranked fifth by the
IIHF. It is controlled by the Czech Ice Hockey
Association. The Czechs won the gold medal at
the 1998 Winter Olympics and won three straight
gold medals at the world championships from 1999
to 2001. In the next 3 years the team did not get
a medal at the world championships - not even
home at the 2004 Mens World Ice Hockey
Championships held in Prague and Ostrava in the
Czech Republic, thus keeping the world
championship home ice curse alive. But the
following year the Czechs won gold at the 2005
tournament, the only world championship where,
due to the 2004-2005 NHL lockout, all NHL players
were available to participate. At the 2006
Winter Olympics the Czechs won a bronze medal,
defeating Russia 3-0 in the bronze medal game,
and becoming one of only three nations (along
with Russia and Finland) to medal twice in ice
hockey at the Olympic games since the NHL allowed
its players to participate in this event. At the
2006 Mens World Ice Hockey Championships the
Czechs won silver, falling to Sweden in the
final. The Czech Republic has 72,075 players
(0.7 of its population).