Václav Havel was born on 5 October 1936 in Prague. A Czech writer and statesman, Havel gained a reputation in the 1960s as an absurdist playwright whose works, such as The Garden Party and The Memorandum, satirized bureaucracy. After the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 he became a leading dissident, a spokesman for Charter 77 and the author of the essay The Power of the Powerless, which urged people to live in truth under totalitarian rule. He was imprisoned several times. In 1989 he helped lead the Velvet Revolution and was elected president of Czechoslovakia in December. After the country split in 1992 he served as the first president of the Czech Republic until 2003.
Before and after
- 29 August 1936Birth of John McCain
- 3 September 1936Birth of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
- 7 September 1936The last thylacine dies in captivity
- 29 September 1936Birth of Silvio Berlusconi
- 5 October 1936Birth of Václav Havel
- 19 October 1936Death of Lu Xun
- 25 November 1936Anti-Comintern Pact
- December 1936Paracuellos massacres
- from 5 December 1936 to 9 October 1991Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
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