Brief History of Poland

966: Conversion of Mieszko and the Poles from Paganism to Christianity, beginning of statehood
970s: Duke Mieszko I built Poland’s first cathedral in Gniezno (near Poznan)
1038: The capital is moved from Gniezno to Cracow
1241: Tartar invasion; destruction of the capital – Cracow
1364: The University of Cracow is established, it was the second university after Prague one
1386: Marriage of Polish Queen Jadwiga with Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagiello; conversion of Polish and Lithuanians to the union of two nations, beginning of Jagiellonian dynasty and era of Poland's greatness
1410: Victory of Polish-Lithuanian army over the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald
1541: Copernicus formulated a scientifically-based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the earth from the center of the universe
1596: The capital is moved from Cracow to Warsaw
1655-60: The Swedish invasion, known as the Deluge
1683: Jan III Sobieski emerged victoriuos over the Turks in the Battle of Vienna
1772: First Partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, 30% of territory was lost
1791: Promulgation on May 3rd of a republican constitution reforming the country's government; the historic document guarantees religious and political rights, it was the world’s second written constitution, fist one was in the USA
1793: Second Partition by Russia and Prussia, over a half of the remaining territory was lost, the Constitution annulled
1795: Poland erased from the map; Third Partition by Russia, Prussia, and Austria; failure of Kosciuszko uprising to save the country
1807: Napoleon Bonaparte established the Duchy of Warsaw
1815: The congress of Vienna decided the fate of Poland (Duchy of Warsaw)
1830: "November Uprising" against Russians crushed; Chopin and the poet Adam Mickiewicz, among others, went into exile; executions and deportations of Poles to Siberia began
1863: Defeat of the "January Uprising" against the Russians; Joseph Conrad leaves the country; implementation of severe policies of Russification and Germanization; great peasant migrations to America began. By 1914, 3.5 million people have left Poland
1903: Maria Skłodowska–Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, she was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. Eight years later, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1914: Start of World War I, the invaders: Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia fought on Polish soil, forcing Poles to struggle against each other
1918: End of World War I, Poland regained her independence
1939: 1 September Nazi Germany attacked Poland and World War II began; 17 September the Soviet Union invaded Poland, according to the Ribbentrop-Molotow Pact dividing Eastern Europe between it and Nazi Germany
1943: Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw
1945: At Yalta, in February, the Communists won Allied approval to head the future Polish state
1956: Wladyslaw Gomulka released from prison and named First Secretary of the ruling Communist Party (PZPR); Workers riot in Poznan, revolt crushed with tanks by the Soviet Union (76 dead and over 900 wounded). Coming to power of Wladyslaw Gomulka - promising to end Stalinist policies
1970: Gomulka is replaced by Edward Gierek following massive riots on the seacoast
1976: "Workers Defense Committee" (KOR) created
1978: Polish Cardinal of Cracow - Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope
1979: Pope John Paul II made first visit to Poland
1980: Solidarity – the first noncommunist trade union formed by Lech Walesa in Gdansk
1981: Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski appointed Prime Minister, Congress of Solidarity established Trade Union; On 13th December Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, with Moscow's support, launched a crackdown by declaring martial law, suspending Solidarity, and imprisoning most of its leaders
1982: Government forces dissolution of Solidarity. Many Solidarity members put in jail
1988: A wave of Solidarity strikes
1989: Solidarity met with Polish Government at the Round Table Negotiations. General Assembly elected Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski President of the Republic of Poland. Tadeusz Mazowiecki became first non-communist Premier of the Polish postwar government; Poland became the first Eastern European state to break free of communism
1990: Lech Walesa elected as first President of free Poland
1999: Poland became a member of NATO
2004: 1st May Poland joined EU, many young and well educated people started to emigrate