The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalisation in Czechoslovakia that began in January 1968, when Alexander Dubcek became first secretary of the Communist Party. His reform programme promised greater freedom of speech and the press, an end to censorship, and what he called socialism with a human face. Public debate flourished, but the Soviet leadership feared that the changes would weaken communist control in the Eastern Bloc. On the night of 20 to 21 August 1968 troops from the Soviet Union and several Warsaw Pact allies invaded and occupied the country. Dubcek was removed in 1969 and replaced by Gustav Husak, who led a period of hardline rule known as normalisation. Czechoslovakia regained its freedom only with the Velvet Revolution of 1989.
Before and after
- 9 November 1967Launch of Apollo 4
- from 30 November 1967 to 22 May 1990South Yemen
- 3 December 1967Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant
- 21 December 1967Birth of Mikheil Saakashvili
- 1968Prague Spring
- 1 January 1968Establishment of Comoé National Park
- 1968Founding of European Olympic Committees
- from 1968 to 1982Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon
- 1968Founding of FK Sūduva
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The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.