Polish History Timeline (Part 2)

Events 201 - 367 of 367

• 1940-06-22 SS rounds up 31 German, Polish and Dutch Jews in Roermond, Netherlands

• 1941-02-20 1st transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk Poland
• 1941-02-20 Nazi Germany orders Polish Jews barred from using public transportation
• 1941-05-19 New Nazi battleship Bismarck leaves Gdynia, Poland
• 1941-06-25 Germans invade Dubno Poland, giving permission to Ukrainians to do whatever they want to 12,000 Jews living there
• 1941-06-27 Bialystok Poland falls to Germany
• 1941-06-28 German troops occupy Galicia, Poland
• 1941-07-10 Jedwabne Pogrom: massacre of Jewish people living in and near the village of Jedwabne, Poland
• 1941-09-06 Jews of Vilna Poland confined to their ghetto
• 1941-09-16 Jews of Vilna, Poland, confined to the Ghetto
• 1941-10-15 Jews caught outside Nazi Ghetto walls in occupied Poland could be put to death
• 1941-12-04 Nazi ordinance places Jews of Poland outside protection of courts
• 1941-12-08 Chełmno extermination camp opens, 50 kilometres from Łódź, Poland
• 1942-02-14 The Polish resistance movement, the Home Army, is formed and will eventually become the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe
• 1942-03-17 Bełżec Concentration Camp opens with the transport of 30,000 Lublin Polish Jews
• 1942-03-25 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov district reach the Bełżec Concentration camp
• 1942-07-13 5,000 Jews of Rovno Polish Ukraine, executed by Nazis
• 1942-07-13 SS shoots 1,500 Jews in Josefov Poland
• 1942-07-28 Zionists partisans ZOB forms in Poland
• 1942-08-10 200 Jews escape Mir Ghetto in Poland
• 1942-08-11 - Sept 30] SS begins exterminating 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz Poland
• 1942-09-12 Free-Poland & Belgium asks pope to condemn nazi-war crimes
• 1942-09-30 SS exterminates 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz Poland in 6 week period

• 1943-04-13 Nazis discover mass grave of Polish officers near Katyn
• 1943-04-27 Soviet Union breaks contact with Polish government exiled in London

• 1943-07-11 Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
• 1943-10-14 600 Jewish prisoners mount an uprising at the Nazi concentration camp in Sobibor, Poland, 300 successfully escape
• 1944-01-29 World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland

• 1944-05-18 Polish 2nd Army corps captures convent of Monte Cassino, Italy
• 1944-07-17 Soviet troops cross Bug River and march into Poland
• 1944-07-18 Polish troops under General Anders occupy Ancona Italy
• 1944-07-22 Soviets set up Polish Committee of National Liberation
• 1944-07-23 Soviet Army marches into Lublin, Poland
• 1944-08-01 Polish resistance fighters of the Home Army launch the Warsaw Uprising, the largest military effort undertaken by a resistance movement in occupied Europe
• 1944-08-05 German forces begin the mass killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish civilians in the Wola district of Warsaw during the uprising
• 1944-08-06 Deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz Poland to Auschwitz begins
• 1944-08-08 Canada/Polish troops occupy Cramesnil/Secqueville/Cintheaux/St-Aignan
• 1944-08-14 Canada and Polish begin Operation Tractable: attempting to encircle strategic French town of Falaise
• 1944-08-19 Polish 1st Division occupies Hill 262 (Mont Ormel), Normandy
• 1944-08-19 US 90th/Polish 1st Division occupy Chambois, Normandy
• 1944-09-20 Polish forces liberate Terneuzen in the Netherlands
• 1944-09-21 Operation Market Garden: Polish paratroopers land at Driel after a delay due to bad weather and a shortage of planes
• 1944-09-25 Operation Market Garden ends in Allied failure as the last British and Polish paratroopers are evacuated from Oosterbeek, near the town of Arnhem
• 1944-10-02 Polish resistance fighters capitulate in the Warsaw Uprising, with some 250,000 people killed
• 1944-10-29 1st Polish Armoured Division liberates Breda, Netherlands
• 1945-01-18 Soviet Armed Forces enter Kraków, Poland to push Germans out, only to eventually occupy entire country
• 1945-01-27 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps in Poland - now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day [1]
• 1945-05-03 1st Polish Armoured Division of the Polish Armed Forces in the West occupies Wilhelmshafen in Germany
• 1945-06-28 Polish Provisional government of National Unity set up by Soviets
• 1946-07-04 Anti Jewish riots in Kielce Poland, 42 die
• 1946-07-14 Kielce pogrom: Mob of civilians, police and soldiers investigating false kidnapping allegation attack Jewish Holocaust survivors in Kielce, Poland; 42 killed, 40+ injured [1]
• 1947-02-05 Bolewet Beirut becomes President of Poland
• 1947-05-08 Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki, who had volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gain information about the Holocaust, is arrested by Polish communist police
• 1948-05-25 Polish war hero Witold Pilecki is executed by communist police after a show trial in Warsaw
• 1948-09-03 W Gomulka deposed as general secretary of Polish Worker's party
• 1949-10-22 200 killed in train derailment near Nowy Dwor Poland
• 1950-04-18 Polish Catholic church & government sign accord over relations
• 1950-06-06 German DR & Poland sign treaty about Oder-Neisse border
• 1950-07-06 German DR recognizes Oder-Neisse borders with Poland
• 1951-05-15 Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum
• 1952-07-22 Poland adopts Communist-imposed Constitution
• 1953-09-26 Polish government fires/imprisons Cardinal Wyszynski
• 1955-05-14 Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania
• 1955-11-15 Poland & Yugoslavia sign trade agreement
• 1956-03-20 Edward Ochab succeeds Bolesław Bierut as 1st secretary of the Polish Communist Party
• 1956-04-06 Polish communist Gomulka freed from prison
• 1956-06-28 Riots break out in Poznan, Poland, 38 die

• 1956-12-11 Anti-Russian demonstrations in Stettin & Wroclaw, Poland
• 1957-01-20 Władysław Gomułka wins Poland's parliamentary election
• 1957-05-01 US gives Poland credit of $95 million

• 1960-02-19 Protest strike in Poznan, Poland
• 1966-01-09 Polish government denies exit visa to Cardinal Wyszynski, barring him from travel abroad

• 1968-04-11 Polish Marshal Spychalski succeeds Ochab as president
• 1970-12-07 West Germany & Poland normalize relations
• 1970-12-12 Polish government proclaims price rise
• 1970-12-17 Workers returning to shipyard in Gdynia, Poland are met by soldiers who shoot at the crowd, killing at least 18, wounding hundreds
• 1970-12-18 Polish uprising fails
• 1970-12-20 Edward Gierek succeeds Wladyslaw Gomulka as Poland's communist party leader
• 1972-09-14 West Germany & Poland establish diplomatic relations
• 1974-07-18 World's tallest structure, 646 metre Polish radio mast, completed
• 1975-08-03 Poland and West Germany reach accord about returning ethnic Germans
• 1975-08-23 Philip Kapleau conducts 1st jukai ceremony in Poland
• 1977-05-09 Hotel Poland in Amsterdam destroyed by fire, 33 killed
• 1978-06-27 Soyuz 30 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Polish) to Salyut 6 space station
• 1978-10-16 Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla elected Pope John Paul II
• 1979-06-02 John Paul II becomes 1st pope to visit a Communist country (Poland)
• 1979-12-13 Strikes against price increases in Gdańsk, Poland
• 1980-07-16 Polish railway workers block railway to Russia
• 1980-08-14 17,000 workers go on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, marking the beginning of the Solidarity movement
• 1980-08-24 Jozef Pinkovski replaces Poland premier Babiuch
• 1980-08-31 Poland's Solidarity trade union federations forms and is officially recognised by the Polish government
• 1980-08-31 The Gdańsk Agreement is signed, allowing Polish citizens to bring democratic changes within the communist political structure
• 1980-09-05 Edward Gierek resigns under pressure from post as Poland's communist party leader

• 1980-10-24 Polish government legalizes independent labor union Solidarity
• 1980-10-31 Polish government recognizes Solidarity trade union
• 1980-11-10 Poland acknowledges Solidarity union

• 1981-07-18 Polish communist party expels former party leader Edward Gierek, blaming him for the rise of the Solidarity movement
• 1981-07-31 Poland's Deputy Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Jagielski is fired
• 1981-10-18 Poland General Jaruzelski elected party leader
• 1981-12-13 Poland's authoritarian communist government declares martial law and arrests Solidarity activists in a failed attempt to crush the opposition
• 1981-12-19 Romuald Spasowski, Polish ambassador to the United States defects to show support for the Solidarity movement amid a crackdown
• 1982-01-01 Pope John Paul II prays for an end to martial law in Poland
• 1982-09-06 Polish dissidents seize Polish Embassy in Bern, Switzerland
• 1982-10-08 Poland bans Solidarity & all labor unions
• 1982-10-10 US imposes sanctions against Poland for banning Solidarity trade union
• 1982-11-14 Polish Solidarity chairman Lech Wałęsa freed
• 1983-06-16 Pope John Paul II visits Poland
• 1983-06-23 Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa meets Pope John Paul II during papal visit to Poland
• 1983-07-21 Polish government ends 19 months of martial law
• 1983-07-22 Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski lifts martial law after 19 months
• 1985-02-13 Polish police arrests 7 Solidarity leaders

• 1987-05-09 183 die aboard a Polish jetliner that crashes in Warsaw
• 1988-09-26 Polish communist party picks propaganda chief Rakowski as new PM
• 1989-02-06 Poland’s Communist government begins “Round Table” talks with the Solidarity trade union and it’s leader Lech Wałęsa in an attempt to ease growing social unrest
• 1989-04-05 Poland grants legal status to trade union Solidarność (Solidarity)
• 1989-04-17 Polish labor union granted legal status
• 1989-06-04 Eastern Europe's first partial free elections in 40 years held in Poland, Solidarity Party comes to power
• 1989-08-19 Tadeusz Mazowiecki, elected 1st non-communist president of Poland
• 1989-09-21 Poland's Sejm (National Assembly) approves prime minister Mazowiecki
• 1990-11-25 Lech Wałęsa wins Poland's first popular election
• 1990-11-26 Premier Mazowiecki of Poland resigns
• 1990-12-09 Lech Wałęsa wins the first direct presidential election in Poland
• 1990-12-22 Labor activist Lech Wałęsa sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president
• 1991-01-04 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
• 1991-03-20 US forgives $2 billion in loans to Poland
• 1993-01-14 Polish ferry boat capsizes in storm, 50 die
• 1993-01-24 Polish ferry boat John Heweliusz sinks, 52 killed
• 1993-05-28 Polish government of Suchocka falls
• 1993-09-17 Last Russian troops leave Poland.
• 1993-09-19 Parliamentary election in Poland
• 1994-05-02 A bus crashes into a tree at Gdańsk, Poland, killing 32 people
• 1995-03-01 Jozef Oleksy succeeds Waldemar Pawlak on as premier of Poland
• 1995-10-13 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to Polish physicist Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, for their work to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons
• 1997-07-08 NATO invites Poland, Hungary & Czech Republic to join
• 1999-03-12 Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
• 2002-12-13 The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004
• 2004-05-01 Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
• 2005-11-25 Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski opens Warsaw Pact archives to historians showing maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, including the nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities by Soviet-controlled forces.
• 2007-12-21 The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9 European Union member states; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia on land and sea borders.
• 2010-04-10 Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board including President Lech Kaczyński

• 2012-03-03 Two trains crash in Szczekociny, Poland, with 16 people dead and up to 50 injured
• 2014-09-15 Ewa Kopacz becomes Prime Minister of Poland
• 2015-06-21 Hackers ground 1400 passengers by attacking IT system at Warsaw Chopin airport in Poland
• 2017-07-24 Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoes 2 laws to put Polish courts under political control
• 2017-11-11 Nationalist march in Warsaw, Poland, draws 60,000, to coincide with country's independence day
• 2017-12-20 European Commission triggers first step of its article 7 procedure issuing Poland with formal warning of risk to voting rights
• 2018-02-06 Polish president Andrzej Duda signs controversial Holocaust law, outlaws accusing Poles of complicity under Nazis
• 2018-08-20 Polish immigrant and former volunteer Nazi guard Jakiw Palij (95) is deported from the US in New York to Germany
• 2018-10-13 Oldest known human remains from Poland at 115,000 years from revealed to be Neanderthal child from Ciemna Cave eaten by a large bird
• 2018-12-15 Diplomats from 200 countries agree to a set of rules to implement the UN Paris Climate Agreement in Katowice, Poland
• 2019-01-14 Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdańsk, Poland, stabbed on stage at charity event. Dies two days later.
• 2019-06-26 Highest ever June temperatures recorded in Germany (38.6C), Poland (38.2C) and the Czech Republic (38.9C) during week-long heatwave in Europe
• 2019-09-01 German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asks for Polish forgiveness for WWII at 80 year commemoration in Pilsudski Square, Warsaw
• 2019-10-10 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, after a year's delay due to Swedish Academy scandal

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• Agnieszka Radwańska
• Albert Sabin
• Casimir Pulaski
• Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
• David Ben-Gurion
• Frédéric Chopin