Poland & We Poland & We | Page 14

EVENTS FROM LAST 300 YEARS

➽ 960 - Formation of the first early feudal Polish state by Prince Mieszko I.

➽ 966 - Mieszko I with his retinue to Christianity in the Catholic rite. For several decades, the new religion spread throughout Poland.

➽ 992 - The death of Mieszko I, his son Boleslaw I the Brave led the union of the Polish lands.

➽ 1241 - The Mongols invaded Poland (after destroyed Kiev and Russia) and caused considerable damage to the country.

➽ 1333 - Casimir III the Great took the kingship, and with his reign began the golden epoch of Polish Middle Ages.

➽ 1791 - May 3 - King Stanislaw Poniatowski signed the new Constitution, the first such attack in Europe and second in the world after the US Constitution.

➽ 1794 - Kosciusko uprising: due to fierce battles with Russian and Prussian Warsaw and Krakow were annexed to Russia and Austria. This historical fact is known as the third repartition of Poland. As a result, Poland was wiped off the map.

➽ 1807 - First invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in Poland.

➽ 1863 - Uprising against Russia broke out .

➽ 1914 - Begins the First World War. Most battles took place on the eastern front (which later became the southern part of Poland).

➽ 1918 - November 11 - Poland was declared an independent country.

➽ 1939 - The World War II begins. German troops invaded Poland.

➽ 1944 - Warsaw Uprising against the German occupiers flashes on August 1st. The city resisted for two months until two and a half months later, the resistance forces were violently suppressed. In an act of revenge whole city was then destroyed.

➽ 1945 - The World War II is over. Poland was liberated!

➽ 1998 - Poland accepted into NATO.

➽ 2004 - 1 May 2004 - Poland, along with nine other candidate countries join the European Union.

➽ 2005 - April 2 - Poland, like the rest of the world has brought huge losses when the Vatican, in Rome, died Polish Pope John Paul II.

➽ 2010 - 10 April there was a plane crash over Smolensk. In the crash died Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, Polish politicians and almost all of the military high command of Poland. It is a dark day for the country and its people.