After a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, led by the electrician Lech Walesa, spread across Poland in August 1980, the communist government signed the Gdansk Agreement on 31 August, allowing the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. Within a year, Solidarity had 10 million members, a third of the working-age population. General Jaruzelski declared martial law in December 1981 and banned it, jailing thousands. Backed by the Polish Pope John Paul II, the movement survived underground, and in 1989 negotiated with the government. Poland held semi-free elections in June 1989, an important step to the end of communism in Europe.
Before and after
- 25 July 1980Death of Vladimir Vysotsky
- 26 July 1980Birth of Jacinda Ardern
- 27 July 1980Death of Mohammad Reza I of Iran
- 26 August 1980Birth of Chris Pine
- 31 August 1980Solidarity is founded in Poland
- 9 September 1980Founding of Dutch Language Union
- from 22 September 1980 to 20 August 1988Iran–Iraq War
- October 1980Discovery of Atlas
- October 1980Discovery of Prometheus
More in Wars, politics & history
- 6 August 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- from January 1978 to February 1979Iranian Revolution
- from 25 December 1979 to 15 February 1989Soviet-Afghan War
- from 20 March 2003 to 15 December 2011Iraq War
- from 15 March 2011 to 8 December 2024Syrian Civil War
- 28 February 20262026 Iran War
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.