Polish History Timeline

Events 1 - 200 of 367

• 0966-04-14 Christianisation of Poland - Polish ruler Mieszko I and his court baptized
• 0972-06-24 Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces; Mieszko I of Poland decisively defeated Odo I of Lusatia
• 1018-01-30 The Holy Roman Empire and Poland conclude the Peace of Bautzen

• 1025-04-18 Bolesław I the Brave is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland
• 1079-04-11 Bishop Stanislaus of Kraków is executed by order of Bolesław II of Poland
• 1227-11-23 Polish Prince Leszek I the White is assassinated at an assembly of Polish dukes at Gąsawa
• 1241-04-09 Battle of Liegnitz - Mongolian armies inflict one of the largest defeats in Polish history on Polish and Germans force led by Henry of Silesia with 20-25,000 killed or massacred, including Henry
• 1257-06-05 Kraków, Poland, receives city rights.
• 1264-09-08 The Statute of Kalisz, guaranteeing Jews safety and personal liberties and giving battei din jurisdiction over Jewish matters, is promulgated by Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland.
• 1320-01-20 Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes King of Poland
• 1331-09-27 Battle of Płowce: Kingdom of Poland defeats the Teutonic Order in a strategic victory
• 1384-10-16 Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, despite being a woman
• 1386-03-04 Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) crowned King of Poland

• 1454-03-06 Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to Casimir IV of Poland, and the Polish king agrees to help in their struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights.
• 1454-09-18 In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.
• 1514-09-08 Battle of Orsha: Polish Lithuania army defeats the Russian army
• 1515-07-22 First Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland and Holy Roman Empire - rise of the Habsburgs influence
• 1518-04-18 Bona Sforza is crowned queen consort of Poland
• 1541-12-29 Isabella of Poland and King Ferdinand of Austria sign Treaty of Gyalu
• 1561-11-29 Lofland subjects himself on Sigismund August II of Poland
• 1569-07-01 Latvian Parliament accepts Union of Lublin, incorporating it into Poland
• 1570-04-14 Polish Calvinists, Lutherans and Hernhutters unify against Jesuits
• 1573-01-28 Articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.
• 1573-05-09 Polish Parliament selects Duke of Anjou as king
• 1574-06-18 Polish King Hendrik of Anjou secretly leaves Poland
• 1575-12-14 Polish Parliament selects Istvan Bathory as king of Poland
• 1577-12-16 Danzig rebellion ends in a compromise between the city's nobility and Polish King Stephen Báthory, after the King restored and recognized the city's economic and religious privileges
• 1582-01-15 Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, loses access to Baltic
• 1587-08-18 Saul Wahl is elected King of Poland (according to legend)

• 1594-02-19 Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.
• 1605-09-27 The armies of Sweden are utterly defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm
• 1610-07-04 Battle of Klushino: King Sigismund III's Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army defeats Russia and Sweden
• 1610-08-27 Polish King Wladyslaw IV Vasa claims crown as King of Russia (disputed)
• 1618-12-11 The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia agree to the Truce of Deulino ending the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618)
• 1620-09-20 Battle at Jassy: Turks beat king Sigismund III of Poland
• 1621-09-28 Battle at Chocim Dniester: King Sigismund III Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth defeats an invading Ottoman Imperial army
• 1621-10-09 Turkey & Poland signs Peace of Chotin
• 1629-09-26 Sweden & Poland signs Peace of Altmark
• 1634-02-19 Battle of Smolensk: King Wladyslaw IV of Poland beats Russians [NS=Mar 1]
• 1634-03-01 Battle at Smolensk: Polish King Wladyslaw IV beats Russians
• 1634-06-14 Russia and Poland sign Peace treaty of Polianov
• 1635-09-12 Sweden and Poland sign ceasefire Treaty of Stuhmsdorf
• 1648-04-29 Beginning of 18 day battle of Zhovti Vody in Ukraine - Polish King John II Casimir eventually defeated by Cossacks
• 1648-05-16 Battle of Zhovti Vody: Ukrainian Cossacks, commanded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Crimean Tatars led by Tuhaj Bej, defeat Polish King John II Casimir, after 18 days of battle
• 1648-06-24 Cossacks slaughter 2,000 Jews and 600 Polish Catholics in Ukraine
• 1651-06-28 Battle of Beresteczko between Poles and Ukrainians starts.
• 1651-06-30 The Deluge: Khmelnytsky Uprising - the Battle of Beresteczko ends with a Polish victory
• 1654-09-16 Russian troops occupy Smolensk in Poland
• 1655-07-31 Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): the Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years
• 1656-07-01 Siege of Warsaw: Polish King Jan II Casimir recaptures Warsaw from Swedish occupiers
• 1656-10-24 Treaty of Vilnius: Russia & Poland sign anti-Swedish covenant
• 1656-11-03 Treaty of Vilnius: Russia & Poland sign anti-Swedish covenant [NS]
• 1656-12-01 Germany promises Poland aid against Sweden
• 1657-09-19 Brandenburg & Poland sign Treaty of Wehlau
• 1657-11-06 Brandenburg & Poland sign unity of Bromberg
• 1660-04-23 Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland
• 1660-05-03 Sweden, Poland, Brandenburg & Austria sign Peace of Oliva
• 1667-01-03 Resistance of Androsovo in Russia-Poland
• 1667-01-20 Treaty of Andrussovo ends 13 year war between Poland & Russia
• 1667-01-30 Treaty/Truce of Andrusovo signed between Tsardom of Russia & Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
• 1667-02-09 Treaty of Andrussovo: Russia and Poland signs peace treaty
• 1668-09-16 Polish King John II Casimir Vasa resigns and goes to France the following year
• 1669-06-19 Polish parliament selects Litouwer Michael Wisniopwiecki as king
• 1672-10-18 Treaty of Buchach ends the first phase of the Polish–Ottoman War between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire
• 1673-11-11 Second Battle of Khotyn in the Ukraine, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski. defeat the Ottoman army. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz were successfully used.
• 1674-05-21 General John Sobieski chosen King of Poland
• 1676-10-27 Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire sign the Peace of Warsaw
• 1683-03-31 Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and King John III Sobieski of Poland sign a covenant against Turkey, beginning of the Holy League
• 1683-09-09 Expelled Polish & Lotharings reach Wienerwald
• 1684-03-05 Emperor Leopold I, Poland & Venice sign Heilig Covenant of Linz
• 1697-06-27 Polish parliament selects monarch August of Saxony as king
• 1699-01-26 Venice, Poland & Austria sign Treaty of Karlowitz with Ottoman Empire, ending the Great Turkish War (1683-97) - 1st time Ottomans concede significant territory
• 1699-11-22 Treaty of Preobrasjensku Denmark, Russia, Saksen and Poland divide Sweden
• 1704-07-12 Stanislaw Leszcynski becomes king of part of Poland

• 1719-01-05 Britain, Hannover, Saxony-Poland and Austria sign anti-Prussian Russian pact
• 1724-12-07 Tumult of Thorn - religious unrest was followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.
• 1733-09-12 Polish Landowners select Stanislaw Lesczynski king
• 1733-09-22 Polish King Lesczynski flees to Danzig
• 1736-01-26 Stanislaw I of Poland abdicates his throne

• 1772-02-17 1st Partition of Poland signed in Vienna by Austria, Prussia and Russia
• 1772-08-05 1st Partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia and Russia is made public
• 1772-09-22 1st Partition of Poland is ratified by Austria, Prussia and Russia
• 1773-10-14 The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission of National Education), is formed in Poland
• 1775-01-17 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests in Kalisk, Poland
• 1775-01-22 Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski confiscates goods being sold by Jews in settlements on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland
• 1775-02-22 Jews expelled from their settlements on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland
• 1775-03-19 Poland & Prussia sign trade agreement
• 1777-09-11 Battle of Brandywine, Pennysylvania; Americans lose to the British, Polish soldier Casimir Pulaski saves life of George Washington
• 1785-09-29 Chasidic sect is excommunicated in Kraków, Poland
• 1791-05-03 Constitution of May 3 is proclaimed by the Great Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, becoming the 1st modern constitution in Europe
• 1792-05-19 Russian army enters Poland
• 1793-01-23 Prussia and Russia sign the Treaty of Grodno, later known as the 2nd Partition of Poland, ceding large portions of Poland to their bigger neighbors

• 1795-03-28 Partitions of Poland: The Duchy of Courland, a northern fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ceases to exist and becomes part of Imperial Russia.
• 1795-10-24 3rd Partition of Poland, between Austria, Prussia & Russia
• 1815-11-27 Adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland
• 1815-11-27 City of Kraków (Poland) declared a free republic state by the Congress of Vienna
• 1830-11-29 November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia's rule beings in Poland begins
• 1831-02-20 Polish revolutionaries defeat Russians in battle of Growchow
• 1832-02-26 Polish constitution abolished and replaced by Tsar Nicholas I
• 1846-02-23 Polish revolutionaries march on Kraków, but are defeated
• 1851-03-07 Poll tax levied on Russo-Polish Jews entering Austrian Galicia ends
• 1861-02-27 Russians shoot at Poles protesting Russian rule of Poland in Castle Square, Warsaw
• 1863-01-10 January uprising begins in Poland
• 1863-01-19 General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland
• 1883-01-13 Fire in Circus Ferroni in Berditschoft, Poland, kills 430
• 1893-05-27 Audath Yisroel forms at Kattowitz (Katowice) Poland

• 1902-06-13 Prussian Upper house gives 350 million marks to Poland

• 1906-04-05 St Pius X encyclical "On the Mariavites or Mystic Priests of Poland"
• 1906-06-14 Pogrom against Jews in Bialystok, Polish Russia
• 1908-09-09 Russia annexes part of Poland
• 1913-11-26 Russian kingdom forbids Polish congregation of speakers
• 1914-08-11 Jews are expelled from Mitchenick, Poland
• 1914-10-06 The Russians fall back along the Eastern Front in Poland and Galicia
• 1914-12-17 Austrian troops beat Russians in Limanova Poland
• 1915-06-03 Austro-German forces recapture Przemysl, a crucial city in southeastern Poland, and the entire Russian front begins to collapse
• 1916-11-05 German Emperor Wilhelm II and Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I establish the Kingdom of Poland
• 1918-11-03 Poland proclaims independence from Russia after WW I
• 1918-11-06 Republic of Poland proclaimed

• 1918-11-13 Stahlhelm forms (anti communist/Polish/French) in Magdenburg
• 1918-11-21 Polish soldiers organize a pogrom against Jews of Galicia, Poland
• 1918-11-22 Józef Piłsudski appointed Provisional Chief of State of newly independent Poland by the government
• 1918-11-22 Polish forces attack Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov)
• 1918-12-27 The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
• 1919-02-14 The Polish-Soviet War begins.
• 1919-04-05 Polish Army executes 35 young Jews
• 1919-04-20 Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army
• 1920-02-10 Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea
• 1920-04-24 Polish troops attack Ukraine
• 1920-05-05 Polish troops occupy Kiev
• 1920-07-11 East and West Prussia vote in a plebiscite to become part of Germany, though a slice of West Prussia will be handed to Poland to provide a 'Polish Corridor'
• 1920-08-10 Allies recognize Poland, Czechoslovakia & Romania
• 1920-08-12 Battle of Warsaw between Poland and Russia begins
• 1920-08-15 Polish troops commanded by Józef Piłsudski defeat the Soviets at the Battle of Warsaw (Miracle upon the Vistula)
• 1920-08-25 Russia suffers a final decisive defeat in the Battle of Warsaw against Poland
• 1921-03-17 The Second Republic of Poland adopts the March Constitution
• 1921-03-18 2nd Peace of Riga, Poland enlarged
• 1922-02-20 Vilnius, Lithuania, agrees to separate from Poland
• 1922-05-15 Germany turns over the Upper Silesia region to Poland under Allied pressure and despite a plebiscite in favor of merging with Germany
• 1922-09-23 Gdynia Seaport Construction Act passed by the Polish parliament.
• 1922-12-01 Polish state Chief Marshal Józef Piłsudski resigns
• 1922-12-09 Gabriel Narutowicz elected Polish president
• 1922-12-20 Polish parliament selects Stanislaw Wojcieckowski as president
• 1923-03-14 Allies accepts Vilnius taking East-Galicia in Poland
• 1923-04-18 Poland annexes Central Lithuania
• 1923-12-10 Polish government of Grabski forms
• 1925-01-05 Under Polish control, Danzig establishes Port Gdańsk post office
• 1926-05-12 General Józef Piłsudski returns to power in Poland after coup d'état against the Witos regime
• 1926-06-01 Ignacy Mocicki elected President of Poland
• 1926-06-04 Ignacy Mościcki becomes President of Poland (holds office till 1939)
• 1927-02-25 Gdańsk and Polish accord concerning traffic through Polish corridor
• 1928-07-31 Halina Konopacka of Poland hurls discus world record 39.62m to win first gold medal in women's Olympic athletics at the Amsterdam Games; American Lillian Copeland and Ruth Sveberg of Sweden take minor medals
• 1929-02-09 USSR, Estonia, Latvia, Poland & Romania sign Litvinov's Pact, providing for renunciation of war among its signatories
• 1931-06-15 Poland and USSR sign friendship and trade treaty
• 1932-09-11 Polish aviators Franciszek Żwirko (36) and Stanisław Wigura (31), international 'Challenge 1932' winners, are killed when their RWD- 6 plane crashes in a forest of Těrlicko, Czechoslovakia during a storm enroute to an air meet in Prague
• 1932-11-27 Poland & USSR sign non-aggression treaty
• 1933-03-06 Poland occupies the free city of Danzig (Gdańsk)
• 1934-01-26 Nazi Germany & Poland sign 10-year non-aggression treaty
• 1934-06-26 Germany & Poland sign non-aggression treaty
• 1935-04-23 Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted
• 1938-04-15 Anti-Jewish riots break out in in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Poland
• 1938-06-13 Jews injured & property destroyed in Przemyal, Poland
• 1939-03-21 Nazi Germany demands the return of Danzig (Gdańsk) from Poland
• 1939-03-31 Britain & France agree to support Poland if invaded by Germany
• 1939-04-06 Great Britain & Poland sign military pact

• 1939-05-23 Adolf Hitler proclaims he wants to move into Poland

• 1939-08-27 Nazi Germany demands Danzig & Polish corridor
• 1939-08-28 Journalist Care Hollingworth observes the “large numbers of troops, literally hundreds of tanks, armored cars and field guns” Germany had aligned along the Polish border. Three days later, Hitler invades Poland and WWII begins.
• 1939-08-30 Poland mobilizes for war
• 1939-08-31 Staged "Polish" assault on radio station in Gleiwitz

• 1939-09-03 World War II: Britain declares war on Germany after invasion of Poland. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada
• 1939-09-04 Mir, a Nazi ghetto in occupied Poland, is exterminated
• 1939-09-17 Poland's President Ignacy Mościck and Prime Minister Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski flee to Romania
• 1939-09-17 Soviet Union invades Eastern Poland allowing Germans to advance West, taking 217,000 Poles prisoner, without a formal declaration of war
• 1939-09-18 Polish government of Moscicki flees to Romania
• 1939-09-19 Wehrmacht (German regular army) murders 100 Jews in Lukov Poland
• 1939-09-30 Germany & Russia agree to partition Poland
• 1939-10-04 Last Polish troops surrender
• 1939-10-06 WWII: Last Polish troops surrender to Soviet army
• 1939-10-08 Germany annexes Western Poland
• 1939-10-26 Polish Jews forced into obligatory work service
• 1939-10-30 USSR & Germany agree on partitioning Poland, Adolf Hitler deports Jews
• 1939-11-12 Jews in Lodz, Poland, ordered to wear a yellow star of David

• 1939-11-28 Hans Frank, Nazi Governor-General of Poland, organizes Judenrat

• 1940-01-06 Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznań, Warthegau.
• 1940-01-25 Nazi decrees establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz Poland
• 1940-01-26 Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains
• 1940-02-08 Lodtz, 1st large ghetto established by Nazis in Poland

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• Agnieszka Radwańska
• Albert Sabin
• Casimir Pulaski
• Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
• David Ben-Gurion
• Frédéric Chopin