Lech Wałęsa was born on 29 September 1943 in Popowo. A Polish trade unionist and politician, Wałęsa worked as an electrician at the Gdańsk shipyard and became a leader of the strike of August 1980 that led to the creation of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. When martial law was declared in 1981, he was interned for almost a year. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. Negotiations with the government in 1989, known as the Round Table, led to partly free elections and the end of communist rule. Wałęsa was elected president of Poland in 1990 and lost the 1995 election to Aleksander Kwaśniewski.
Before and after
- September 1943Foibe massacres
- from 8 September 1943 to 22 November 1943Dodecanese Campaign
- from 21 September 1943 to 26 September 1943Massacre of the Acqui Division
- from 23 September 1943 to 25 April 1945Italian Social Republic
- 29 September 1943Birth of Lech Wałęsa
- October 1943Streptomycin, the first antibiotic that works against tuberculosis, is discovered
- 14 October 1943Birth of Mohammad Khatami
- from 31 October 1943 to 11 December 1943Kerch–Eltigen Operation
- from 1 November 1943 to 21 August 1945Bougainville Campaign
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918World War I
- 16 May 1916Sykes–Picot Agreement
- from February 1919 to March 1921Polish–Soviet War
- 4 June 1920Treaty of Trianon
- from 1933 to 1945The Holocaust
- from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945World War II
The era
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