Czech milestone during the 20 th century 1918 Foundation of Czechoslovakia 1945 Prague uprising 1968 Oscar Movie Awards and Nobel Prize in literature in The Velvet Revolution 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano

Flag of Bohemia and CSR 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.

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.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president and the founding father of the Czechoslovak Republic.

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 5 th May in 1945, in the last moments of the war in Europe. The uprising went on until 8 th 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.

Flag of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Soviet Red Army arrived in Prague on 9 th May 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.

The movie called „Ostře sledované vlaky“ (Closely Watched Trains) directed by Jiří Menzel in 1966 was awarded by Oscars.

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.

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

Jaroslav Seifert was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 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.

The "Velvet Revolution" or "Gentle Revolution" (from 16 th November until 29 th 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 On Friday 17 th November 1989, riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonnstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from 19 th November to late December. By 20 th 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 27 th November.

With the collapse of other Communist governments, and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on 28 th 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 Dubček was elected speaker of the federal parliament on 28 th December and Václav Havel became the President of Czechoslovakia on 29 th December in In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.

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 Hašek 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.

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 In the next 3 years the team did not get a medal at the world championships - not even home at the 2004 Men´s 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 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 Men´s 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).