Liberating Europe

During the Second World War, the Allies were faced with many challenges, not least of which was the task of retaking Europe from Nazi hands.

On June 6, 1944, American landing forces land on Omaha Beach (public domain)

Beginning on 6 June 1944 with the successful D-Day landings and culminating in the fall of Berlin in May 1945, the liberation of Europe would see brutal fighting, displays of valour and the sacrifice of many.

We invite you to an event “Liberating Europe” organised by National Army Museum. In this talk, Professor John Buckley highlights the many obstacles faced by the Allies as they began to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation.

John Buckley is Professor of Military History at the University of Wolverhampton. He is the author of several books on the Second World War, including Operation Market Garden, The Armchair General, and Monty’s Men.

The event will take place on 7 January at 12.00pm.

To watch this event online, register at: http://bityl.pl/2lNqn

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April 23, 997 - St Adalbert was killed during the Prussians' conversion to the Christian faith.
April 22, 1909 - Jan Sehn was born. He was a Polish lawyer who helped prepare accusations against several dozen German war criminals after World War II.
April 21, 1920 - The Petlura-Piłsudski Agreement, a military-economical alliance between the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic against Bolshevik Russia, was signed in Warsaw.
April 20 1873 - Wojciech Korfanty was born. He was an influential Christian democratic Polish politician who organized the Polish Silesian Uprisings in Upper Silesia. Korfanty fought to protect Poles from discrimination and Germanisation policies in Upper Silesia before the war and sought to join Silesia to Poland after the country regained its independence.
April 19, 1943 - German forces entered the Warsaw Ghetto to complete its liquidation but faced organized resistance as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out.
April 18, 1025 - It is the most probable day when Bolesław I the Brave was crowned the King of Poland, the first such ruler in the country's history.
April 17, 1865 - Ursula Ledóchowska was born. She was a Polish Roman Catholic and the foundress of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus and a devoted supporter of Polish independence.
April 16, 1952 - General August Emil Fieldorf, one of the commanders of the Home Army, was sentenced to death by the communist regime after being falsely accused. The sentence is classified as a court murder and a Stalinist crime. His grave has still not been found.
April 15, 1786 - Walerian Łukasiński was born. This Polish officer and political activist became a symbol of the Polish struggle for independence - having been sentenced by Russian Imperial authorities to 14 years' imprisonment. He was never released and died after 46 years of solitary incarceration in 1868.
April 14, 1915 - Jan Zumbach was born. He was a Polish fighter pilot who became an ace during the Second World War. In the postwar period, he became a mercenary in Africa, a topic discussed in his intriguing memoirs.
April 13, 1883 - Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski, Professors of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, were the first in the world to liquefy nitrogen.
April 12, 1963 - Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz died. He was a Polish philosopher and logician, a prominent figure in the Lwów–Warsaw school of logic.
April 9, 1241 - The Battle of Legnica took place. Polish forces under Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia attempted unsuccessfully to halt the Mongol invasion of Europe and ultimately suffered a heavy defeat.
April 8, 1909 - Helena Modjeska (Modrzejewska) died in Newport Beach, California. She was one of the most renowned actresses of the late 19th century, specializing in Shakespearean and tragic roles.
April 7, 1884 - Bronisław Malinowski was born. This Polish anthropologist is a towering figure in the history of the discipline, famous for his main work "Argonauts of the Western Pacific" (1922).
April 6, 1901 - Marian Hemar was born in Lwów. He was a Polish poet, playwright and songwriter of Jewish descend. After World War II, he was unable to return to communist Poland and settled in England. He was called "The bard of Lwów, the troubadour of the London emigration".
April 5, 1941 - General Franciszek Kleeberg died in Oflag IV-B Königstein. In 1939, he commanded Independent Operational Group Polesie, which fought in the Battle of Kock, the last battle before Poland's capitulation. He never lost a fight in the German invasion of Poland.
April 4, 1794 - The battle of Racławice took place. It was one of the first engagements of the Kościuszko Uprising against Russia. It ended with a victory for the Polish troops.
April 3, 1081 (or 1082) - Bolesław II the Generous died in Hungary. He was a prince of Poland from 1058 to 1076 and Poland's king between 1076 and 1079. In 1079, however, he sentenced Stanisław, the bishop of Kraków, to death, which caused the Polish nobles' rebellion to flower into open revolt. Consequently, Bolesław was deposed and banished from the country.
April 2, 2005 - Pope John Paul II died. He was the first Pole in the See of Peter. On Good Friday, 25 March 2005, he celebrated his last Stations of the Cross. Due to bad health, he was unable to attend the annual ceremony at the Roman Colosseum.
April 1, 1656 - The Lwów Oath took place. The vows were made during the Swedish Deluge, by Polish King John II Casimir Vasa in front of the image of Our Lady of Grace in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lwów. The author of the text of the Lwów Oath was St. Andrzej Bobola.
March 31, 1892 - General Stanisław Maczek was born. He was the commander of the famous 1st Polish Armored Division (1942–45), and later commander of the I Polish Army Corps under Allied Command (1945–47).
March 30, 1892 - Stefan Banach, an outstanding Polish mathematician, was born. He is considered one of the world's most important and influential mathematicians of the 20th century, and is especially known as the founder of modern functional analysis.
March 29, 1937 - Karol Szymanowski died in Lausanne. He was a Polish composer and pianist, the most celebrated Polish composer of the early 20th century and widely viewed as one of the greatest Polish composers.
March 28, 1364 - In the presence of King Casimir III the Great, the Archbishop of Gniezno, Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki, consecrated the Wawel Cathedral.
March 27, 2006 - Stanisław Lem, one of the most famous Polish writers, died in Krakow. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 45 million copies.
March 26, 1943 - The Operation Arsenal took place in Warsaw. I was the first major operation by the Gray Ranks, Polish Underground formation during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. The plan was to free the troop leader Jan Bytnar "Rudy", who was arrested together with his father by the Gestapo.
March 24, 1794 - Tadeusz Kościuszko announced the all-Polish uprising against Russia in the Main Square in Krakow.
March 23, 1786 - Joachim Lelewel was born in Warsaw. He was a Polish historian, geographer, bibliographer, politician and influential activist of the Great Emigration.
March 22, 1925 - Wielka Krokiew (The Great Krokiew), the biggest ski jumping hill built on the slope of Krokiew mountain in Zakopane, was officially opened.
March 21, 1809 - Józef Poniatowski officially became the Commander in Chief of the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw.
March 20, 1942 - The "Anchor", a sign of Poland’s fight for independence, appeared for the first time on the walls of Warsaw. It was a symbol of hope for regaining Polish independence from its occupation by Nazi Germany. It was widely used during World War II.
March 19, 1058 - Casimir I the Restorer died in Poznań. He was the duke of Poland from 1040 until his death. He gained his nickname because he managed to reunite all parts of the Kingdom of Poland after a period of turmoil.
March 18, 1596 - The King of Poland Sigismund III Vasa decided to move the administrative capital from Krakow to Warsaw. The monarch himself settled permanently in the Royal Castle in Warsaw in 1611.
March 17, 1921 - The March Constitution of the Republic of Poland was adopted. It was regarded as very democratic and expressly ruled out discrimination on racial, religious or social grounds.
March 16, 1980 - Tamara Łempicka died in Mexico. She was a Polish painter, best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, as well as for her highly stylized paintings of nudes.
March 15, 1777 - Polish artillery general Józef Sowiński was born. He was one of the heroes of Poland's 1830 November Uprising.
March 14, 1882 - Polish mathematician Wacław Sierpiński was born in Warsaw. He was known for contributions to set theory, number theory, theory of functions and topology.
March 13, 1202 - Mieszko III the Old died in Kalisz. He was Duke of Greater Poland from 1138 and High Duke of Poland, with interruptions, from 1173 until his death. He was the last Duke during the Fragmentation of realm of Poland, whose power over the whole country was not subject to discussion.
March 12, 1910 - Zygmunt Szendzielarz “Łupaszka” was born. He was the commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Brigade of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), and was executed in the notorious Mokotów Prison as one of the leaders of the anti-communist underground following the Soviet takeover of Poland at the end of World War II.
March 11, 1928 - The Warsaw Zoological Garden, known simply as the Warsaw Zoo (Warszawskie Zoo), was opened.
March 10, 1944 - In the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto, the Germans shot a group of Jewish prisoners. Among the victims were Emanuel Ringelblum, historian and founder of the underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, and their two Polish guardians from the underground bunker.
March 9, 1962 - "Knife in the Water" (Nóż w wodzie) premiered in Warsaw. It is a Polish drama film co-written and directed by Roman Polanski, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
March 8, 1822 - Ignacy Łukasiewicz was born. He was a Polish pharmacist, engineer, businessman and inventor. Among other things, he built the world's first modern oil refinery, the modern kerosene lamp and the world's first modern oil well.
March 7, 1000 - The Congress of Gniezno began. It was the pilgrimage of Emperor Otto III to the tomb of St. Wojciech, as well as a meeting with Bolesław, the Duke of Poland. The purpose of this meeting was for the emperor to gain the favor and support of the prince to implement federalism in Polish and Hungarian states.
March 6, 1745 - Casimir Pulaski was born. He was a Polish nobleman, soldier and officer who has been called "the father of the American cavalry". Pułaski was one of the leading military commanders for the Bar Confederation and fought against the Russian domination over Poland and later travelled to North America to participate in the American Revolutionary War.
March 5, 1940 - The Katyn massacre was initiated following NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all captive members of the Polish officer corps. The proposal was approved by the Soviet Politburo led by Joseph Stalin.
March 4, 1819 - Narcyza Żmichowska was born. She was a Polish novelist, poet and was a pioneer of feminism in Poland.
March 3, 1846 - Austrian troops crushed the Krakow Uprising. This patriotic revolt was an attempt at a nationwide democratic uprising. Not only did it not achieve its primary goal, but the Uprising also ended the existence of the Free City of Krakow, and as a result, the city was incorporated into Austria.
March 2, 1921 - Former player and the coach of Poland’s national football team, Kazimierz Górski, was born in Lwów. He is recognized as the best Polish football coach of the 20th century.
March 1, 1877 - Antoni Patek died in Geneva. He was a Polish insurgent during the November Uprising. He was a Polish pioneer in watchmaking and a creator of Patek Philippe & Co., one of the most famous Swiss watchmaking companies.
February 27, 1913 - Kazimierz Aleksander Sabbat was born. He served as the President of Poland in Exile from 8 April 1986 until his death on 19 July 1989. He also served (from 1976) as the Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile.
February 26, 1901 - Wojciech Gerson, a leading Polish painter of the mid-19th century, died in Warsaw. He was one of the foremost representatives of Poland’s school of Realism during its partitions. A large number of his paintings were stolen by Nazi Germany in World War II and were never recovered.
February 25, 1972 - Hugo Steinhaus died. He was an outstanding Polish mathematician and popularizer of mathematics, professor at the Jan Kazimierz University, co-founder of the Lwów School of Mathematics.
February 24, 1953 - General Emil August Fieldorf "Nil" was executed by the functionaries of the communist regime in Poland. He had served as a deputy commander-in-chief of the Home Army after the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. Fieldorf's body remains buried in an unknown location to this day.
February 23, 1884 - Kazimierz Funk was born. He was a Polish biochemist, credited with being among the first scientists to formulate the concept of vitamins.
February 22, 1810 (or 1 March - Frédéric Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola. A renowned Polish composer and virtuoso pianist, he was also a luminary of the Romantic era, and is often called "the poet of the piano".
February 21, 1573 - Henry de Valois was crowned King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in Kraków. He was the first ruler of Poland-Lithuania to have been chosen through free election.
February 20, 1919 - The Legislative Sejm inaugurated Józef Piłsudski with the title of Head of State (Naczelnik Państwa). On December 14, 1922, Piłsudski handed over power to the first president of the Republic of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, elected by the National Assembly under the March constitution.
February 19, 1812 - Zygmunt Krasiński was born. He is traditionally ranked with Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki as one of Poland's Three National Bards — the trio of great Romantic poets who influenced national consciousness during the period of Poland's political bondage under the three partitions.
February 18, 1374 - Jadwiga of Poland is believed to have been born in Buda, Hungary. She was the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, and reigned from 1384 until 1399. Her marriage to Władysław Jagiełło enabled the creation of the union of Poland and Lithuania, establishing one of the largest countries in Europe. In 1997, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II.
February 17, 1834 - The play "Zemsta" ("Revenge") by Aleksander Fredro premiered in Lwów. The play is part of the Polish literary canon.
February 16, 1758 - Polish poet, playwright and statesman Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was born. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of 3 May 1791 and one of the important figures of classicist culture in Poland.
February 15, 1910 - Irena Sendler was born in Warsaw. She was a Polish nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. It is estimated that during the war she saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children.
February 14, 1919 - Polish–Soviet War began. Bolshevik Russia sought to relieve pressure by crossing Poland in order to stimulate a Europe-wide communist revolution and conquer European states and transform them into Soviet republics. The war ended with a Polish victory and a halt to the Bolshevik march on Europe.
February 13, 1834 - Adam Mickiewicz completed his work on "Master Thaddeus" ("Pan Tadeusz"). It is considered to be the last great epic poem in European literature.
February 12, 1784 - In Warsaw, court chemist and royal mineralogist Stanisław Okraszewski made a successful attempt to launch a balloon filled with hydrogen into the air in the presence of King Stanisław August Poniatowski.
February 11, 1938 - Kazimierz Twardowski, the Polish philosopher considered to be the "father of Polish logic", died in Lwów.
February 10, 1920 - Poland’s Wedding to the Sea was performed by General Józef Haller in Puck. It was a symbolic celebration of the restitution of Polish access to the open sea.
February 9, 1591 - Stanisław Koniecpolski was born in Koniecpol. He was a hetman, recognized as one of Poland’s most outstanding military leaders and an excellent cavalry commander.
February 8, 1296 - King Przemysł II of Poland was murdered during a failed kidnapping attempt made by henchmen of the Margraves of Brandenburg.
February 7, 1831 - During the November Uprising, the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland passed a resolution on the national cockade (The National Cockade Act), i.e. on the Polish national colors. It was the first legal regulation on this matter in history.
February 6, 1989 - The Round Table discussions began in Warsaw between the democratic opposition and the communist authorities.
On 5 February 1909, Grażyna Bacewicz was born. She was one of the first Polish female composers and violinists to achieve international recognition.
February 4, 1505 - Mikołaj Rej, the Renaissance writer, poet and translator, was born in Żurawno in Red Ruthenia (eastern Galicia).
February 3, 1735 - Ignacy Krasicki was born. He was the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, later the Archbishop of Gniezno and above all, he was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet, sometimes referred to as "Poland's La Fontaine".
February 2, 1536 - Piotr Skarga was born. He was a Polish Jesuit, theologian, writer, preacher, a leading Polish representative of the Counter-Reformation, the first rector of the University of Vilnius, and the author of the famous "Sejm Sermons", containing a suggestive description of the situation of Poland and postulates regarding the reform of the state.
January 31, 1974 - Samuel Goldwyn died in Los Angeles. He was a Polish-American film producer known for being a founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood.
January 30, 1831 - Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was elected chief of the Supreme Council (Polish National Government) during the November Uprising.
January 29, 1477 - Gregory of Sanok died near Stanisławów. He was a Polish bishop, professor at the Kraków Academy, metropolitan archbishop of Lwów, scholar, philosopher, Humanist and a major figure in the Polish Renaissance.
January 28, 1687 - Jan Heweliusz died in Gdańsk, Kingdom of Poland. He was a royal astronomer of Jan III Sobieski, mathematician, brewer, printer and inventor of the periscope.
January 28, 1573 - The declaration of the Warsaw Confederation was approved at a Sejm held in Warsaw. It guaranteed to uphold peace between the adherents of the diverse confessions of faith then practiced in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
January 27, 1945 - The remaining prisoners of the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau were liberated by the Soviet Army.
On 26 January 1934, the German–Polish Non-aggression declaration (commonly yet inaccurately referred to as the Non-Aggression Pact) was signed in Berlin. Both countries pledged to resolve their problems via bilateral negotiations and to forgo armed conflict for a period of 10 years.
January 25, 1913 - Polish composer and orchestral conductor, Witold Lutosławski was born. He was one of the major European composers of the 20th century.
January 24, 1507 - Sigismund I the Old was crowned King of Poland at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków by Primate Andrzej Boryszewski. His 42-year reign was marked by significant contributions to Polish architecture, cuisine, language and customs.
January 23, 1889 - Ignacy Domeyko died in Santiago, Chile. He was a Polish geologist, mineralogist, educator, and founder of the University of Santiago in Chile. Domeyko contributed to the popularization of education in Chile and triggered the awakening of its intellectual movement.
On 22 January 1863, the January Uprising, one of the most important Polish attempts at regaining independence, began. The insurrection took place in the Russian-controlled part of partitioned Poland. It aimed at the restoration of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and continued until the last insurgents were captured by Russian forces in the autumn of 1864.
January 21, 1940 - The Czortków uprising against the Soviet state repressions took place. It was the first Polish civil uprising against the Nazi-Soviet occupation of Poland.
January 20, 1661 - King John II Casimir Vasa of Poland founded the Lwów Academy. It would become the third oldest university in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Jagiellonian University (1364) and the Vilnius University (1579).
January 19, 1945 - The Home Army (Armia Krajowa), the dominant Polish resistance movement in Poland during occupation by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II, was disbanded by General Leopold Okulicki.
January 18, 1773 - Józef Sułkowski was born in Rydzyna. He was a Polish captain in the French Revolutionary Army, and a friend and aide de camp to Napoleon Bonaparte, who called him "the officer of the highest hopes".
January 17, 1732 - Stanisław August Poniatowski , the last king of Poland, was born. During his reign, three partitions of Poland took place, which for over 120 years wiped Poland off the map of Europe.
January 16, 1826 - Polish general and war hero Romuald Traugutt was born. Commander of the January Uprising of 1863 and its last leader, he would also lead the Polish national government from 17 October 1863 to 20 April 1864, and was president of its Foreign Affairs Office.
January 15, 1582 - The Treaty of Yam-Zapolsky was signed between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. It ended the Livonian War and followed the successful Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory, culminating in the successful Siege of Pskov.
January 14, 1770 - Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was born. He began his international career as a foreign minister to Russian Tsar Alexander I and built an anti-Napoleon coalition, only to became a leader of the Polish government in exile, and a bitter foe of Russian Tsar Nicholas I. After the end of the November Uprising, he became the unquestionable leader of the Polish conservatists in exile, and was referred to as “the uncrowned king of Poland”.
January 13, 1870 - Polish politician, engineer and socialist activist Jędrzej Moraczewski was born. He was one of the leaders of the Polish Socialist Party and the first Prime Minister of reborn Poland, from November 18, 1918 to January 16, 1919.
January 12, 1578 - The “Dismissal of the Greek Envoys” (Odprawa posłów greckich), a Renaissance tragedy by Jan Kochanowski, was staged for the first time in the presence of Polish King Stephen Báthory at his court in Jazdów. It is considered to be the first Polish modern drama attempting to implement assumptions referring to ancient tragedy-writing traditions, both Greek and Roman.
January 11, 1933 - Polish historian of law and statehood, Oswald Balzer, died in Lwów. He was a professor at the University of Lwów and long-standing director of the City Archives in Lwów, being at the same time one of the most renowned Polish historians of his time.
January 10, 1892 - Melchior Wańkowicz was born. He was a popular writer, political journalist and publisher, famous for his reporting for the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II and writing a book about the battle of Monte Cassino.
On 9 January 1797, General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski signed an agreement with the government of Lombardy to create the Polish Legions in Italy.
January 8, 1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson formulated his famous Fourteen Points in a speech on war aims and peace terms which he addressed to the Congress. The thirteenth point, of vital importance for the future of Poland, went as follows: "An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant".
January 7, 1939 - Roman Dmowski, one of the principal figures instrumental in the postwar restoration of Poland's independent existence, was buried at the Bródno Cemetery in Warsaw. At least 100 thousand gathered for his funeral.
January 6, 1813 - Hipolit Cegielski was born. He was a Polish businessman and social and cultural activist. He was the founder of a well-known manufacturing company producing machines in Poznań.
January 5, 1901 - Adam Ciołkosz was born. He was a Polish scout, soldier, journalist and politician who was one of the most important leaders of the Polish Socialist Party, both in the Second Polish Republic and in exile, during and after World War II. A strong anti-communist, he opposed Soviet domination in Eastern Europe after 1945.
January 4, 1919 - An unsuccessful coup d'etat in Poland took place. The coup's leaders included Marian Januszajtis-Żegota and Prince Eustachy Sapieha attempted to overthrow the government of Jędrzej Moraczewski and Józef Piłsudski.
January 3, 1945 - Polish writer, explorer, university professor and anti-Communist political activist Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski died. He is famous for his books about Lenin and the Russian Civil War, in which he participated.
January 2, 1907 - Tadeusz Żenczykowski was born in Warsaw. He was a Polish political activist and soldier of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) during World War II. After 1945, he emigrated, becoming a journalist and deputy chief of the Polish Section of Radio Free Europe as well as a lauded historian.
January 1, 1467 - King Sigismund I the Old was born. He was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty and the son of Casimir IV. He was an outstanding patron of the arts. He is merited with the very early introduction of Renaissance art to Poland, which (apart from Hungary) was ahead of other European countries in this respect. The period of his reign is referred to in culture as the Polish Golden Age.
December 31, 1435 - The Teutonic Knights signed a peace treaty at Brześć Kujawski to end the Polish–Teutonic War (1431–1435). After quite long negotiations, the Teutonic Knights agreed to cease their support to Lithuanian Duke Švitrigaila (who tried to break the Polish-Lithuanian union) and in the future to support only Grand Dukes properly elected jointly by Poland and Lithuania.
December 30, 1938 - Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski died in Warsaw. He was a Polish politician, diplomat and a member of the Regency Council. As Cardinal and Archbishop of Warsaw, he was also the last titular Primate of the Kingdom of Poland before Poland fully regained its independence in 1918.
December 29, 1989 - The Polish Sejm adopted an act amending the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland, under which the name of the country was changed from the People's Republic of Poland to the Republic of Poland and the crown of the white eagle was restored to the Coat of arms. It is considered to be a symbolical end of the communist regime in Poland.
December 28, 1939 - Polish historian of law, bibliographer, professor and rector of the Jagiellonian University, Stanisław Estreicher, died in the Nazi German concentration camp Sachsenhausen.
December 27, 1918 - The Polish uprising against Germany broke out in Poznań, after a patriotic speech by Ignacy Paderewski, a famous pianist, who would soon become the Prime Minister of reborn Poland. The uprising proved successful and had a significant effect on the Treaty of Versailles, which granted the Second Polish Republic the area of Greater Poland won by the Polish insurrectionists.
December 26, 1820 - Adam Mickiewicz wrote his poem "Ode to Youth" (Oda do Młodości) which was a decisive break with classical forms in Polish literature. The ode has become the anthem and the manifesto of the young generation of romanticists.
December 25, 1025 - Mieszko II Lambert was crowned King of Poland. The son of king Bolesław the Brave was thoroughly educated, and spoke German, Latin and Greek. His reign, however, came at a difficult time due to numerous external invasions and internal problems.
December 24, 1473 - Polish priest, scholastic philosopher, physicist and theologian John Cantius died in Kraków. In 1737, he was proclaimed the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania by Pope Clement XII. He also became a patron of the Jagiellonian University.
December 23, 1884 - The first instalment of the novel “Deluge” (Potop) by Henryk Sienkiewicz was published in the Warsaw-based conservative daily "Word" (Słowo). The novel was being published up until September 10, 1886. The novel tells the story of a fictional Polish soldier and noble Andrzej Kmicic and tells a tale of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the historical period of the wars against Sweden in the 1650s.
December 22, 1914 - The Battle of Łowczówek started. It was a battle during World War I between the First Brigade of the Polish Legions, fighting on the part of Austria-Hungary, and the troops of Imperial Russia. Due to the bravery of the Polish soldiers, the Russian offensive was stopped, and the frontline remained static until May 1915.
December 21, 1878 - Polish logician and philosopher Jan Łukasiewicz was born in Lwów. He is famous for the so called “Polish notation" and "Łukasiewicz logic’. He is widely regarded as one of the most important historians of logic. From 1919-1920, he also served as Polish Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Education.
December 20, 1982 - Polish classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein died in Geneva. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists and Chopin interpreters of all time.
December 19, 1954 - Polish actor, director and theater director Ludwik Solski died in Kraków. He is considered to be one of the greatest Polish actors in history. His last performance took place six months after his 99th birthday, which means that Solski managed to play nearly a thousand theatrical roles.
December 18, 1529 - Zygmunt II August was elected King of Poland. It was the only election in the history of the country that was carried out vivente rege, i.e. during the life of the then king, Sigismund the Old. As a result, for 18 years, Poland had two monarchs simultaneously, which was an unprecedented case. However, the nobility did not like this idea – in 1530 it prompted the father-king to issue an act stating that the vivente rege election was a one-off event.
December 16, 1981 - Pro-Solidarity miners striking against the declaration of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski were dispersed by the troops of the Polish army and militia. The special platoon of ZOMO, paramilitary-police formations, opened a “shoot to kill” fire at the strikers, killing nine and wounding twenty one of them.
December 15, 1595 - Polish magnate and statesman, Jerzy Ossoliński, was born. He was a politician and diplomat, Great Crown Chancellor from 1643. Famous for being extensively educated, he was a skillful politician and a persuasive public speaker.
December 14, 1658 - The Polish cavalry led by Stefan Czarnecki daringly crossed the sea strait and captured the island of Alsen to aid the Danes fighting against the Swedes. The nearly 500 meter wide strait was covered by Poles on boats towing floating horses. This feat was immortalized by Józef Wybicki in the second verse of “Dąbrowski's Mazurka”, the Polish national anthem.
December 13, 1981 - The authoritarian communist government of the Polish People's Republic under General Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced martial law. It drastically restricted normal life in an attempt to crush political opposition embodied by the all-Polish trade union and social movement “Solidarność”. Thousands of opposition activists were jailed without charge and approximately one hundred were killed.
December 12, 1586 - Stephen Báthory died in Grodno. From 1576 he was Queen Anna Jagiellon's husband and iure uxoris King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Although he reigned only a decade, he is considered to be one of the most successful kings in Polish history.
December 11, 1876 - Mieczysław Karłowicz was born. He was a Polish composer and conductor of the late Romantic period. He developed an original musical language expressed in harmony and orchestration, the latter of which he mastered like few other composers.
December 10, 1850 - Józef Bem died in Aleppo. He was a Polish engineer and general, an Ottoman pasha and a national hero of Poland and Hungary, and a figure intertwined with other European patriotic movements of the first half of 19th century.
December 9, 1922 - Gabriel Narutowicz was elected the first president of the Second Polish Republic. He served as president of Poland for a mere five days, after which he was assassinated by oppositionist Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Art Gallery in Warsaw.
December 8, 1990 - Polish theatre director, stage designer and painter Tadeusz Kantor died in Kraków. He was an influential and innovative reformer of theatre and one of the most important figures in artistic life in Poland.
December 7,1925 - The League of Nations granted Poland the right to maintain a military guard at Westerplatte, a peninsula located in the harbor channel of Gdańsk, which then was the territory of the Free City of Danzig. 14 years later, the attack on the Polish military depot would begin World War II.
December 6, 1520 - Barbara Radziwiłłówna was born. She would become Queen of Poland, the wife of King Sigismund II, the last male monarch of the Jagiellonian dynasty. Their secret marriage caused a scandal and was vehemently opposed by Polish nobles. From the 18th century onwards, the life of Barbara became romanticized as a great tragic love affair, and was used as an example of "love conquers all".
December 5, 1911 - Władysław Szpilman was born. He was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film “The Pianist”, which was based on Szpilman's memoir.
December 4, 1942 - The Polish Council to Aid Jews was formed with the Government Delegation for Poland. It was an underground Polish resistance organization, and its main task was to organize help for Jews in and outside the ghettos in Nazi German occupied Poland. The council operated under the underground code name "Żegota".
December 3, 1857 - Writer Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) was born in Berdyczów. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists to ever write in the English language. He is considered to be a modernist, but his works contained elements of 19th century realism as well. His most well-known works include Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim.
December 2, 1789 - A Black Procession took place in Warsaw. It was inspired by Hugo Kołłątaj, and was led by city’s mayor, Jan Dekert. The burghers demanded similar privileges to those held by the nobility (szlachta). Their demands included the right to buy and own land estates, the right to be represented in the Polish Sejm and reforms of the urban law. The procession influenced the Great Sejm to create a Commission for the Cities.
December 1, 1415 - Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat and soldier Jan Długosz was born. He was an author of numerous historical publications, including the most famous work Annales seu cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae (Annals, or chronicles of the famous Kingdom of Poland), covering the history of Poland from the earliest times to 1480. He is considered to be one of the greatest historiographers of the Middle Ages.
November 30, 1591 - Saint Andrew Bobola was born. He was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the "hunter of souls". He was tortured to death during the Chmielnicki Uprising in 1657, and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1938.
November 29, 1830 - Young students of the School of Infantry Cadets in Warsaw under the command of Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki started the November Uprising against the Russian Empire in cooperation with civil conspirators. The uprising lasted for eleven months, but ultimately collapsed and Polish society experienced severe repression by the Russians.
November 28, 1627 - The Battle of Oliwa took place. It was a naval battle which was fought just north of the port of Gdańsk, off the coast of the village of Oliwa, during the Polish–Swedish War. It was the largest naval engagement ever fought by the Navy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and resulted in the defeat of a Swedish squadron. The battle did not play a major role in the overall military situation, however, it was of great moral and propaganda importance.
November 27, 1922 - The last session of the Legislative Sejm of the Second Polish Republic took place. It was the first elected parliament of independent Poland, operating from 10 February 1919. The most important acts passed by this Sejm included the March Constitution of 1921, the Organic Statute of the Silesian Voivodeship and a wide package of social acts.
November 16, 1855 - Adam Mickiewicz died in Constantinople. He was a Polish poet, dramatist and political activist, but was foremost a principal figure in modern Polish culture and one of the most important figures in European Romanticism. He is best known for the poetic drama "Dziady" (Forefathers' Eve) and the Polish national epic poem "Pan Tadeusz" (Master Thaddeus).
November 25, 1728 - Polish priest, historian and diarist Jędrzej Kitowicz was born. He is best known as the author of two treatises: “Description of Customs during the reign of August III” (Opis obyczajów za panowania Augusta III) and “Memoirs, or History of Poland” (Pamiętniki, czyli Historia polska). Both constitute an invaluable source of information on the cultural and political history of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.
November 24, 1227 - The Prince of Kraków, Leszek the White (Leszek Biały), was murdered during a congress of Piast rulers in Gąsawa in the Kujawy region. The death of Leszek fundamentally changed the political situation in divided Poland, resulting in the strengthening of the division into semi-independent provinces.
November 23, 1793 - The Grodno Sejm ended. It was the last Sejm (session of parliament) in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the last and one of the most stormy and most tragic Sejms: the assembled deputies were forced by Prussia and Russia to approve the second partition of Poland.
November 22, 1827 - Karol Estreicher, Senior was born in Kraków. He was a Polish historian of literature and theater, literary critic, bibliographer and a long-term director of the Jagiellonian Library. He is often referred to as the "father of Polish bibliography".
November 21, 1962 - Władysław Pobóg-Malinowski, a Polish soldier, historian and journalist, died in Geneva. He is best known as a historian and author of numerous books on the modern history of Poland. His most notable work is the "Modern political history of Poland" published in 1956 in London, clandestinely published and re-edited in Poland several times, although blacklisted by the censorship in Communist-controlled Poland.
November 20, 1898 - An equestrian statue of the King of Poland John III Sobieski, funded by the city of Lwów, was officially unveiled in the city. When the city was captured by the Soviet Union in 1950 the statue was transferred to Poland. Today, the monument is located in Gdańsk.
November 19, 1765 - The National Theatre in Warsaw was founded by King Stanisław August Poniatowski. To this day, the National Theater remains one of the most important theatrical stages in Poland, enjoying official status as a national institution of special importance to Polish culture.
November 18, 1860 - Polish pianist and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born. In the first two decades of 20th century he became an influential spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he served as the Polish Prime Minister and foreign minister, being at the same time the main Polish representative during the Paris Peace Conference, which resulted in the Treaty of Versailles.
November 17, 1577 - Jan Herburt died in Felsztyn. He was a Polish historian, humanist, lawyer and the author of many works on diplomatic issues. He was one of the signatories of the act of the Union of Lublin in 1569.
November 16, 1603 - Father Augustyn Kordecki was born. He was curate and provincial of the Jasna Góra Monastery. In 1655, during the Deluge, he led the Polish defense of the monastery against Swedish troops, which was immortalized in the novel “Deluge” (Potop) by Henryk Sienkiewicz.
November 15, 1916 - The Polish journalist, novelist and Nobel Prize laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz died in Vevey, Switzerland. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especially for the internationally known bestseller "Quo Vadis" and "Trilogy". He became one of the most popular Polish writers of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and numerous translations earned him international renown.
November 14, 1801 - Polish Catholic priest, educator, writer, and philosopher of the Age of the Enlightenment Grzegorz Piramowicz died. He was an important figure of the late period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, being among other things a member of the Commission of National Education and Society for Elementary Books, and one of the founders of the Society of Friends of the Constitution.
November 13, 1806 - Countess Emilia Plater was born in Wilno. She was a patriotic revolutionary, who fought in the November Uprising of 1830–1831 against the Russian Empire, and was immortalized in a poem by Adam Mickiewicz. She received the rank of captain in the Polish insurgent forces and formed a partisan unit of 280 riflemen, several hundred peasant scythemen (kosynierzy) and 60 cavalrymen. She fell ill and died in December 1831.
November 12, 1454 - King Casimir IV Jagiellon announced The Nieszawa Statutes. These were laws and concessions to the Polish nobility (szlachta) in exchange for their support in the upcoming Thirteen Years' War. The Statutes strengthened the position of the nobility at the expense of the burghers, and at the same time were one of the most important foundations of law leading to the emergence of a Nobles’ Democracy in Poland.
November 11, 1918 - The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland transferred power over the army under its command to Józef Piłsudski. On this day, Poland celebrates National Independence Day in commemoration of regaining its sovereignty and returning to the map of Europe after 123 years of partitions.
November 10, 1444 - King Władysław III of Poland died at the Battle of Varna during a crusade against the Ottoman Turks. The 20 year old king was killed while personally leading a charge by his own royal Polish heavy cavalry company. The sultan’s Janissaries managed to kill the king's bodyguard and beheaded the king himself, displaying his head on a pole. This effectively contributed to the woeful defeat of the Christian forces in the battle. The fallen king received the nickname of “Warneńczyk” in memory of the battle.
November 9, 1839 - Polish historian Tadeusz Korzon was born in Minsk. He paved new paths for historical research: he was the first to take into account the administrative, economic, financial and population conditions which the nation found itself in during the epochs he researched on. He was a member of the Warsaw Historical School and the Polish Historical Society.
November 8, 1784 - Teodor Narbutt was born. He was a Polish romantic historian, bibliophile and military engineer in the service of the Russian Empire. He is best remembered as the author of a nine-volume Polish-language history of Lithuania from the early Middle Ages to the Union of Lublin.
November 6, 1939 - The so-called Sonderaktion Krakau operation was carried out. It was a pacification action by the German Nazis against the Polish academic staff in Kraków, which involved the arrest of 184 people, mainly professors and lecturers of the Jagiellonian University. Most of them were subsequently imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. At least 20 of those arrested died as a result of the harsh camp conditions or were murdered.
November 5, 1370 - Casimir III the Great died. He was the last king of Poland from the Piast dynasty. Although he did not leave a legal male heir, he is considered one of the greatest Polish rulers. On November 17, his nephew Louis of Hungary ascended the throne in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary.
November 4, 1790 - The Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw was established on land donated by the Polish nobleman Melchior Szymanowski. It is the most famous cemetery in the Polish capital and is the burial place of many illustrious individuals from Polish history, including politicians, people of culture and scientists.
November 3, 1771 - The Bar Confederates attempted to kidnap King Stanisław August Poniatowski on Miodowa Street in Warsaw. The conspiracy involved, among others Col. Kazimierz Pułaski and the apostolic nuncio in Poland. The kidnapping was the result of the dethronement act issued by some nobility and reflected deep criticism of the king's policy, but ultimately proved unsuccessful.
November 2, 1660 - The Battle of Cudnów took place between the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia, allied with the Cossacks. It is considered to be the largest and most important Polish victory over Russian forces until the Battle of Warsaw in 1920.
November 1, 1705 - The Order of the White Eagle was instituted by King Augustus II the Strong. It is Poland's highest order awarded to both civilians and the military for their merits, including to the most distinguished Poles and the highest-ranking representatives of foreign countries.
October 30, 1944 - Polish forces of the 1st Armored Division liberated Breda in the Netherlands. Despite the fact that Breda was manned by three German divisions, the city avoided bloody fights. The Poles attacked without artillery preparation in order to avoid losses among the civilian population and in the city’s historic buildings. Thanks to the Polish strategy, no civilians were hurt, and the buildings were practically undamaged.
October 29, 1824 - Juliusz Kossak was born in Nowy Wiśnicz. He was a Polish historical painter and master illustrator specializing in battle scenes, military portraits, and horses. The progenitor of an artistic family that spanned four generations, Kossak was the father of painter Wojciech Kossak and the grandfather of painter Jerzy Kossak.
October 28, 1550 - Saint Stanislaus Kostka was born. He was a Polish novice of the Society of Jesus. In 1606, Pope Paul V authorized his public worship in the Church, which led to his beatification. He was the first blessed Jesuit in the history of the Church. He was canonized in 1726.
October 27, 1939 - Stefan Starzyński was arrested by the Gestapo. He was the Mayor of Warsaw and chairman of the Citizens’ Committee during the defense of Warsaw after the German aggression in 1939. His subsequent fate is unknown, but he was probably murdered by the Germans in December 1939.
October 26, 1940 - Olga Boznańska died in Paris. She was a notable female painter in Poland and Europe and was stylistically associated with French impressionism.
October 25, 1501 - Poland’s King Alexander Jagiellon granted the Privilege of Mielnik. It was an act that significantly limited the royal power in favor of the Senate and practically established Poland as an oligarchic-aristocratic republic with a revocable king at the head of the Senate.
October 24, 1558 - Polish Renaissance poet Szymon Szymonowic was born in Lwów. Sometimes called ”the Polish Pindar,” he was one of the organizers of the Zamojski Academy. He wrote in Polish, Latin, and Greek. Szymonowic’s most important work was “Sielanki” (Pastorals) published in 1614 in Zamość.
October 23, 1870 - The Polish Museum was established in Rapperswil (Switzerland). It was founded by Count Władysław Broel-Plater, who rented and renovated a thirteenth-century castle from the Rapperswil commune. Financed by the Polish landed gentry, the museum was gradually expanded and eventually boasted a library, archives, and a publishing house. After Poland regained independence, the collections of the museum and library were moved to Warsaw. Unfortunately, most of it was burned during World War II.
October 22, 1948 - Polish Cardinal and Primate of Poland August Hlond died in Warsaw. The only member of the College of Cardinals to be arrested and taken into custody by the Gestapo during World War II. For the final years of his life, he was a critic of the Soviet-backed Communist regime in Poland.
October 21, 1831 - Zamość Fortress, the last point of resistance of the Polish insurgents, capitulated to the Russians. This surrender ended the November Uprising. After the fall of the Uprising, Tsar Nicholas I Romanov stated: ” I don’t know if there ever will be a Poland, what I am sure of is that there will be no Poles.”
October 20, 1677 - Stanisław Leszczyński was born in Lwów. He was King of Poland (1704-1709 and 1733-1736), Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Lorraine, and a count of the Holy Roman Empire. He also published ”Głos wolny wolność ubezpieczający” (A Free Voice Ensuring Freedom), one of the most important political treatises of the Polish Enlightenment.
October 19, 1813 - Prince Józef Poniatowski died during ”the Battle of the Nations” at Leipzig. Poniatowski was a Polish leader, general, minister of war, and army chief, who became a Marshal of the French Empire. He has always been an inspiration to those who were fighting for Poland’s freedom.
October 18, 1558 - King Sigismund II Augustus initiated the first international postal connection between Krakow and Venice. Its first director and manager was Prospero Provana, a Piedmontese by origin. This date is considered to be the date of establishment of “Poczta Polska” (the Polish Post).
October 17, 1849 - Renowned Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin died in Paris, probably of tuberculosis. A luminary of the Romantic era, he is often called ”the poet of the piano.”
October 15, 1817 - Polish statesman, engineer, and military leader Tadeusz Kościuszko died in Solothurn, Switzerland. Kościuszko fought in the Polish struggles against Russia and Prussia and with the American army in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, and the United States.
October 14, 1864 - Polish novelist and dramatist Stefan Żeromski was born. He was a member of the Young Poland movement at the turn of the 20th century. Żeromski often touched upon social issues in his works and is sometimes called the ”conscience of Polish literature.”
October 13, 1805 - The Krzemieniec Lyceum was opened. A Polish school in Krzemieniec in Volhynia, it was founded with help from Hugo Kołłątaj by Tadeusz Czacki. It operated between 1805-1831 and was reactivated between 1922-1939. It was also called “the Volhynian Athens” and played a significant role in developing Polish culture in Volhynia.
October 12, 1840 - Helena Modrzejewska (Modjeska) was born in KrakówKrakow. She was a renowned actress specializing in Shakespearean and tragic roles and is considered one of the greatest Polish actresses in history.
October 11, 1779 - Casimir Pułaski died in America at the Second Battle of Savannah in Georgia. He was a Polish nobleman, soldier, and officer who has been called ”the father of the American cavalry.” Pułaski was one of the leading military commanders of the Bar Confederation and fought against the Russian domination over Poland. Later, he traveled to North America to support Americans during the American Revolutionary War.
October 10, 1410 - The Battle of Koronowo took place as part of Poland’s Great War against the Teutonic Order. The Poles were victorious, and it contributed to the signing of the peace of Thorn 1411.
October 9, 1944 - Heinrich Himmler ordered the complete destruction of Warsaw in retaliation for the outbreak of the uprising. An example of the bestiality of the German fight against Polish culture, the destruction of Warsaw did not serve any military or colonial purpose; it was carried out solely as an act of reprisal.
October 8, 1910 - Maria Konopnicka died in Lwów. She was a Polish poet, novelist, children’s writer, and activist for women’s rights and Polish independence. She was one of the most important poets of Poland’s Positivist period. Her works were highly patriotic, such as ”Rota,” which was set to the music by Feliks Nowowiejski and two years later became an unofficial anthem of Poland.
October 7, 1620 - Polish magnate and writer Stanisław Żółkiewski died following the Battle of Cecora against the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the most accomplished military commanders in the history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Żółkiewski’s best-known victory was against the combined Russian and Swedish forces at the battle of Klushino in 1610.
October 6, 1939 - The Battle of Kock ended in Poland’s defeat, resulting in German and Soviet forces gaining full control over Poland. Tactically the battle was a victory for the Poles, but strategically it was won by the twice as large German forces. It was the last battle of the 1939 Polish defensive war fought by the regular army.
October 5, 1939 - 38 defenders of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk were shot by Nazi Germans. The Defense of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk was one of the first acts of World War II. All but four of the defenders, who were able to escape from the building during the surrender, were sentenced to death by a German court-martial as illegal combatants and executed.
October 2-3, 1944 - After 63 days of fighting, the Warsaw Uprising ended. It was among the largest military efforts undertaken by European resistance movements during World War II. About 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions by the Germans.
October 2, 1413 - The Union of Horodło was signed. This confirmed the common policy of both Poland and Lithuania, introduced the institution of a separate Grand Duke in Lithuania, elected by the King of Poland on the advice and knowledge of Lithuanian boyars and Polish lords, established joint Polish-Lithuanian parliaments and conventions, and equated the Lithuanian Catholic nobility with Polish families.
October 1, 1817 - The Philomath Society, a secret student organization, was created at the Imperial University of Vilnius. Striving for moral improvement, it called for the cultivation of Polish national traditions and culture. In 1823, the organization was discovered by Russian authorities, and some members were sentenced to imprisonment or “katorga” and exiled to Siberia. Notable members included Adam Mickiewicz, Ignacy Domejko and Tomasz Zan.
September 30, 1700 - Stanisław Konarski was born. He was a Polish pedagogue, educational reformer, political writer, poet, dramatist, Piarist priest, and a precursor of the Enlightenment in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
September 29, 1802 - Polish General Władysław Jabłonowski died in Haiti. He had fought in Tadeusz Kościuszko’s uprising and then served as a leader of the Danube Legion, a Polish unit in the service of Napoleonic France. He is the first known Polish general of African descent.
September 28, 1865 - The premiere of ”The Haunted Manor” (Straszny dwór) opera with music by Stanisław Moniuszko and a libretto by Jan Chęciński took place at the Grand Theater in Warsaw, followed by a great patriotic manifestation.
September 27, 1939 - The ”Gray Ranks” (Polish: Szare Szeregi) were created in Warsaw. This was a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association of children and youngsters. The organization actively resisted and fought the German occupation of Warsaw until 18 January 1945 and significantly contributed to the resistance operations of the Polish Underground State.
September 26, 1920 - The Battle of the Niemen River, which was decisive for the Polish-Bolshevik war, ended. It was the second major military success of the Polish Army in the counteroffensive against the Red Army after the Battle of Warsaw.
September 25, 1967 - General Stanisław Sosabowski died in London. He fought in the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, during Operation Market Garden, as commander of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Like many other Polish wartime officers and soldiers who were unable to return to Communist Poland, he eventually settled in England, where he worked, among other things, as a factory worker.
September 24, 1821 - Cyprian Kamil Norwid was born. A Polish poet, prose writer, playwright, sculptor, painter, and philosopher, he is often considered the last of the four most important Polish Romantic poets.
September 23, 1908 - The Polish poet and novelist Jadwiga Łuszczewska, known as Deotyma, died in Warsaw. Her young adult historical novels were quite popular, especially ”Panienka z okienka” (Maiden from the Window).
September 22, 1939 - The Battle of Lwów ended. It was fought between the Polish Army and the invading Wehrmacht and the Red Army. Although Poles signed the act of surrender, the Soviets broke the previously agreed upon terms. The vast majority of the defenders who were captured were sent to prisoner-of-war camps and then murdered.
September 21, 1845 - The Polish novelist, playwright, editor, translator, teacher, and activist Klementyna Hoffmanowa died near Paris. She was the first woman in Poland to make a living from writing and teaching, as well as one of Poland’s first writers of children’s literature.
September 20, 1920 - Battle of the Niemen River began. It was the second-greatest battle of the Polish-Soviet War after the Battle of Warsaw (16-25 August 1920). The Poles outflanked the Soviets and crushed the Red Army, thwarting Bolshevik plans to take over Poland and export the communist revolution to Western Europe.
September 19, 1897 - Polish poet and political writer Kornel Ujejski died near Lwów. Named the ”last of the greatest poets of Romanticism” his writing conveyed patriotic and historic messages meant to support the Polish people in their fight for independence.
September 18, 1939 - The Battle of Wilno began. The battle was fought by the Polish Army against the Soviet invasion of Poland on 18-19 September 1939. In the aftermath, the Soviets transferred Wilno to Lithuania according to the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty.
September 17, 1939 - The Soviet invasion of Poland began without a formal declaration of war. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Germany invaded Poland from the west. This act was the implementation of a secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939, which divided Poland into ”spheres of influence” between the two powers and drastically impacted the future existence of the Polish state and nation.
September 16, 1825 - The important sentimental Polish poet Franciszek Karpiński died. An important Polish figure during the Age of Enlightenment, Karpiński wrote several religious and patriotic songs, hymns, and carols. He is the author of ”Bóg się rodzi” (God Is Born), one of the most beloved Polish Christmas carols.
September 15, 1862 - Polish romantic poet, writer, and translator Władysław Syrokomla died in Wilno. His works greatly influenced many artists of the 19th century; among them were the Polish poet Teofil Lenartowicz and the Russian classical composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
September 14, 2000 - Jerzy Giedroyc died in Maisons-Laffitte, France. He was a Polish writer, émigré publicist, political activist, and one of the most important figures of the Polish diaspora. For many years he was an editor of ”Kultura," the highly influential Paris-based periodical on culture and politics.
September 13, 1894 - Polish poet Julian Tuwim was born in Łódź. He was the co-founder of the Skamander group of experimental poets and was a major figure in Polish literature during the interwar period. He was also admired for his contribution to children’s literature.
September 11, 1932 - Polish aviators Stanisław Wigura and Franciszek Żwirko fatally crashed in a plane accident in Czechoslovakia. The prominent Polish sport and military aviators won the international air contest Challenge 1932 on a Polish RWD-6 aircraft, which was the first major international success for Polish sport aviation.
September 10, 1939 - The Battle of Wizna ended. Between 350 and 720 Poles defended a fortified line for three days against more than 40,000 Germans. Wizna is sometimes referred to as the ”Polish Thermopylae.” During the battle, Captain Władysław Raginis, the commanding officer of the Polish force, swore to hold his position as long as he was alive. When his units ran out of ammunition, he ordered his men to surrender their arms and committed suicide by throwing himself on a live grenade.
September 9, 1939 - The 10-day long Battle of the Bzura began. It was the largest battle of the 1939 German invasion of Poland. It began as a Polish counteroffensive, but the Germans outflanked the Polish forces to seize western Poland. Winston Churchill called this battle an ”ever-glorious struggle.”
September 8, 1968 - Ryszard Siwiec committed suicide by public self-immolation in protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was a Polish accountant and former Home Army resistance member.
September 7, 1943 - Operation Bürkl was carried out. The operation’s goal was to liquidate Franz Bürkl, a notorious member of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and one of the most sadistic officers in the Pawiak prison in Warsaw. He had been sentenced to death by the Polish Special Courts (a part of the Polish Underground State) for the murder of at least several dozen people.
September 6, 1831 - Polish artillery general Józef Sowiński died in Warsaw. He was known as one of Poland’s November 1830 Uprising heroes. He personally commanded the heroic defense of the Polish capital’s western approaches until he was bayonetted to death by the Russians just after the surrender negotiations. His death was immortalized by Polish poets, including Juliusz Słowacki in his “Sowiński w okopach Woli” (Sowiński in the Wola Trenches).
September 5, 1915 - The Polish painter and art theoretician Stanisław Witkiewicz died in Lovran, a Croatian resort town. He was known for inventing the “Zakopane Style” of architecture (also known as the “Witkiewicz Style”), in which he designed homes and interiors for well-off and artistically inclined Poles.
September 4, 1809 - Polish Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki was born. Considered one of the ”Three Bards” of Polish literature, he was a major figure in the Polish Romantic period and the founding father of modern Polish drama. His most popular works include the poems “Beniowski," ”Testament mój,” and the dramas ”Kordian” and ”Balladyna.”
September 3, 1941 - In Auschwitz, the Nazi Germans used Zyklon B to execute 600 Soviet POWs and 250 Poles. It was the first instance of this gas being used to commit mass murder. In early 1942, Zyklon B was the preferred killing tool in extermination camps during the Holocaust. They used it to kill roughly 1.1 million people in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and elsewhere.
September 2, 1621 - The battle of Chocim began between the army of the Commonwealth led by Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and the Turkish army under the command of Sultan Osman II. The siege of the city ended with a tactical victory of the Commonwealth's army and the signing of a treaty confirming the provisions of the Peace of Busza.
September 1, 1939 - Nazi Germany invaded Poland and began World War II. This was followed by a global war, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. It was the deadliest conflict in the history of humanity, resulting in 70 to 85 million fatalities.
August 31, 1945 - Stefan Banach, an outstanding Polish mathematician, died in Lwów. He is considered one of the world’s most important and influential mathematicians of the 20th century, especially known as the founder of modern functional analysis.
August 30, 1938 - Max Factor Sr. (born Maksymilian Faktorowicz) died in the USA. He was a Polish-American businessman, beautician, entrepreneur, and inventor of Jewish descent. He founded the cosmetics giant Max Factor & Company.
August 29, 1756 - Jan Śniadecki was born. He was a mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, member of the Commission of National Education, and the director of astronomical observatories in Kraków and Wilno.
August 28, 1946 - Danuta Siedzikówna ”Inka” was murdered in Gdańsk. Siedzikówna was a Polish medical orderly and member of the anti-communist resistance movement. Captured, tortured, and sentenced to death at the age of 17 by the communist authorities, she is considered today a national heroine of Poland.
August 27, 1894 - Kazimierz Wierzyński was born in Drohobycz. He was a Polish poet, journalist, elected member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature in the Second Polish Republic, and co-founder of the Skamander group of poets. His early poems celebrated the joy of living, but his later works, written in exile, are more somber and socially conscious.
August 26, 1938 - Teodor Axentowicz died in Kraków. Axentowicz was a Polish painter and the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Famous for his portraits, he was awarded many gold medals at both national and international exhibitions.
August 25, 1905 - Saint Faustyna Kowalska was born in Głogowiec. She was a Polish Roman Catholic nun and mystic. Her visions of Jesus Christ inspired Roman Catholic devotion to Divine Mercy.
August 24, 1776 - Józef Hoene-Wroński was born in Wolsztyn. Hoene-Wrońsk was a Polish Messianist philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and inventor. He was engaged in mathematical analysis, especially developing functions into a power series and differential equations. His most important achievements include the development of the eponymously named functional determinant of equations, the Wrońskian.
August 23, 1939 - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The pact’s Secret Protocol divided the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland between the two totalitarian regimes. As a result of this mutual agreement, World War II broke out a week later, on 1 September 1939.
August 22, 1584 - Jan Kochanowski died in Lublin. He was a Polish Renaissance poet who established the poetic patterns that would become integral to Poland’s literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz.
August 21, 1944 - Maciej Kalenkiewicz was killed by the NKVD in Surkonty. Kalenkiewicz was a soldier of Henryk Dobrzański’s military unit, officer of the Home Army loyal to the Polish Government in Exile, and member of Cichociemni (elite special-operations paratroopers).
August 20, 1845 - Albert Chmielowski was born. He was a Polish nobleman, noted painter, disabled veteran of the January Uprising of 1863, founder of both the Albertine Brothers and Sisters, and Roman Catholic saint. Chmielowski abandoned his painting career to live among the poor and to follow a beggar’s lifestyle. Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) wrote a well-received play about him, entitled ”Our God’s Brother.”
August 19, 1970 - Paweł Jasienica died in Warsaw. Jasienica was a Polish historian, journalist, essayist, and member of the anti-Soviet resistance. His books, popular to this day, played an important role in promoting Polish history among several generations of readers.
August 18, 1925 - Polish Radio was founded and began regular broadcasts from Warsaw a few months after. From 1931, Polish Radio operated one national channel, transmitted through one of Europe’s most powerful longwave transmitters and nine regional stations.
August 17, 1629 - Jan Sobieski was born at Olesko Castle. He was elected King of Poland in 1674. An able military leader, Sobieski is most famous for his victory over the Turks at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The defeated Ottomans named Sobieski the ”Lion of Lechistan," and the Pope hailed him as the ”savior of Western Christendom.”
August 16, 1910 - Zygmunt Gloger died in Warsaw. Gloger was a Polish historian and ethnographer. His life’s work was the ”Encyklopedia staropolska ilustrowana” (1900-1903), still considered a fundamental work about the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
August 15, 1920 - The Polish Army stopped Soviet troops during the Battle of Warsaw and halted the spread of communism further westwards into Europe. The battle resulted in a decisive Polish victory during the Polish-Soviet War. Lord D’Abernon called it “The eighteenth [most] decisive battle of the world.”
August 14, 1941 - Maximilian Kolbe died in the German death camp of Auschwitz. He was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger. In 1982, he was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. John Paul II declared him ”The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century.”
August 13, 1920 - The Battle of Warsaw began. Bolshevik troops led by Mikhail Tukhachevsky attacked Polish positions just 23 kilometers shy of Warsaw. On the verge of total defeat, Poland repulsed and defeated the Red Army in a battle that Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader, called ”an enormous defeat” for his forces.
August 12, 1914 - Polish troops organized by Józef Piłsudski participated in the capture of Kielce by Austrians. The First Cadre then attempted to break through the Russian lines and continue north. The objective was to capture Warsaw in hope of setting off an uprising in Tsarist Poland against the Russian authorities.
August 11, 1937 - The Polish Operation of the NKVD began in the Soviet Union. It was a genocide against Poles living in the USSR during the period of the Great Purge. It resulted in the executions of more than 111,000 members of the Polish minority. It was the largest killing of Poles in history, excluding armed conflicts.
August 10, 1889 - Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was born. She was a Polish writer and World War II resistance member. She co-founded two Polish wartime organizations: The Front for the Rebirth of Poland and Żegota, set up to assist Polish Jews in surviving the Holocaust. Later she was recognized as Righteous Among Nations.
August 9, 1650 - Jerzy Ossoliński died in Warsaw. He was a Polish magnate, writer, diplomat, and one of the most influential politicians of his time. He had a major impact on Poland’s foreign policy in the first half of the 17th century.
August 8, 1747 - The Załuski Library in Warsaw was opened to the public. It is considered the first Polish public library. Initially, it held some 200,000 items, maps, and precious manuscripts. German troops deliberately destroyed these holdings during the planned destruction of Warsaw in October 1944.
August 7, 1944 - A massive attack of German artillery on the Warsaw Old Town during the Warsaw Uprising began. By January 1945, 90% of the city’s historic buildings were completely destroyed.
August 6, 1942 - Roman Kramsztyk was shot in the Warsaw Ghetto. Kramsztyk was a Polish realist painter of Jewish descent famous for his portraits and still life. During his detention in the ghetto, he created drawings showing the life of the Jews imprisoned there.
August 5, 1944 - The Nazi Germans began a week-long massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, a suburb of Warsaw. The massacre was ordered by Hitler, who directed them to kill ”anything that moves”.
August 4, 1944 - Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński died in the Warsaw Uprising. Baczynski was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most well-known of the Generation of Columbuses, the generation of Polish writers born soon after Poland’s restoration of independence in 1918, and whose young adulthood was marked by the tragic times of World War II.
August 3, 1914 - Józef Piłsudski founded the First Cadre Company. A predecessor of the Polish Legions, it formed the core of the Polish Legions’ First Brigade during World War I. It was the first regular Polish military unit on Polish soil since the January Uprising.
August 2, 1943 - A revolt began in the Nazi German extermination camp Treblinka II. The main goal was to destroy the camp and enable the collective escape of prisoners. Out of about 840 prisoners who were in the camp when the uprising broke out, several hundred died in combat, and nearly 400 managed to escape. It is estimated that more than 900,000 people were murdered at this camp.
August 1, 1944 - The Warsaw Uprising against Nazi German occupation broke out. It was an operation led by the Home Army, a Polish resistance group, to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It is among the largest military efforts undertaken by European resistance movements during World War II.
July 31, 1953 - Kornel Makuszyński died in Zakopane. He was a famous Polish writer of children’s and young adult literature. His children’s books, particularly his series about a goat, Koziołek Matołek, have achieved enduring popularity in Poland and Israel. Makuszyński was temporarily blacklisted during the Stalinist period.
July 30, 1656 - Polish army was defeated in the battle of Warsaw by Swedish and Brandenburgian-Prussian forces. It was a major battle in the Second Northern War between Poland and Sweden that lasted from 1655 to 1660.
July 29, 1979 - The Young Poland Movement was established in Gdańsk. It was an anti-communist organization formed by a group of young people active in the democratic opposition. They combined both democratic and conservative traditions in their ideological concepts. The movement is considered one of the most important Polish intellectual groups of the 1970s and 1980s.
July 28, 1998 - Zbigniew Herbert died in Warsaw. He was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, and moralist. Herbert is one of the best-known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. He created the figure of Mr. Cogito, embodying the universal element of humanity and expressing his opinions on various aspects of life and existence.
July 27, 1597 - Jakub Wujek died in Kraków. A Polish Jesuit, writer, Doctor of Theology, and Vice-Chancellor of the Academy of Vilnius, Wujek also translated the Bible into Polish. The Jakub Wujek Bible was the main Polish translation of the Bible used in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland from the late 16th century till the mid-20th century.
July 26, 1941 - Kazimierz Bartel was murdered by special order of Heinrich Himmler. Bartel was an established Polish mathematician, rector of Lwów Polytechnic, and three-time Prime Minister of Poland. After the Nazi Germans entered Lwów, the Gestapo offered him a top post in their puppet government, but he categorically refused. He was shot soon after the Massacre of the Lwów professors.
July 25, 1510 - Florian Ungler founded the first printing house in Poland, that printed books entirely in the Polish language. Ungler’s typographic collection was extensive and diverse. His printing house had several dozen sets of types, a series of initials, and over a thousand woodcuts.
July 24, 1969 - Witold Gombrowicz died in Vence, France. A Polish poet and playwright, Gombrowicz is now considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature of the 20th century. Alongside Bruno Schultz and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz “Witkacy,” he is regarded as the most important Polish avant-garde artist of the 20th century.
July 23, 1422 - King Władysław Jagiełło signed the Privilege of Czerwińsk. With this privilege, the King pledged to the nobility that he would not confiscate their property without due process. He also promised that court proceedings would be based on a code of law.
July 22, 1944 - The Polish Committee of National Liberation, a Soviet-backed administration, published its manifesto. It is regarded as the symbolic starting point of Communist rule in Poland. The text of the manifesto, which was printed in Moscow, was also personally amended by Joseph Stalin.
July 21, 1775 - Szymon Czechowicz died in Warsaw. He was one of the most prominent Polish painters of the Baroque period, known for his portraits and sacral paintings. Czechowicz established his own school of painting which would have a fundamental influence on Polish art.
July 20, 1897 - Tadeusz Reichstein was born in Włocławek. A Polish-Swiss chemist and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (1950) for his work on hormones, Reichstein later became interested in the phytochemistry and cytology of ferns. The principal industrial process for the artificial synthesis of Vitamin C still bears his name.
July 19, 1943 - A Nazi German concentration camp, commonly known as "Gęsiówka", was established in Warsaw. It was built on the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto by special order of Heinrich Himmler. The Home Army liberated the camp during the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944.
July 18, 1944 - After winning the Battle of Ancona, the armored troops of the Polish II Corps liberated the Italian city of Ancona from the Nazi Germans. Afterward, the Corps took part in the Gothic Line Offensive and the Allied spring 1945 offensive, resulting in the ultimate surrender of the Axis forces in Italy.
July 17, 1399 - Jadwiga of Poland died in Kraków. She was the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland and reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. Her marriage to Władysław Jagiełło enabled the creation of a personal union between Poland and Lithuania, what over time led to the establish one of the largest countries in Europe. In 1997 Pope John Paul II canonized her as a Roman Catholic saint.
July 16, 1519 - The Lubrański Academy was established in Poznań. A university college founded by Bishop Jan Lubrański, the Academy introduced new and downright revolutionary teaching methods. Many well-known discussions, treatises, dictations, speeches, and poems were written there.
July 15, 1410 - The Battle of Grunwald took place. The allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the army of the Teutonic Order. It is considered one of the largest battles in medieval Europe.
July 14, 1854 - Jacek Malczewski was born. Often referred to as the father of Polish Symbolism, Malczewski is one of the most revered painters in Poland’s history. His creative output combined the predominant style of his times, historical motifs of Polish martyrdom, the romantic ideals of independence, and Christian and Greek mythology.
July 13, 2000 - Jan Karski died in Washington. He was a Polish soldier and resistance fighter. Between 1940 and 1943, Karski reported to the Polish Government-in-Exile and Poland’s Western Allies about the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially about Germany’s extermination camps on Polish soil where Nazi Germans murdered Jews, Poles, and members of other nationalities.
July 12, 1945 - The Augustów roundup took place. It was a military operation against the Polish anti-communist resistance movement following the Soviet takeover of Poland. Out of 2,000 Poles arrested by the Soviet forces, about 600 have never been located. They are presumed to have been executed and buried in an unknown location in present-day Russia or Belarus. Some call the crime ”the Little Katyn”.
July 10, 1834 - Wawrzyniec Żmurko was born in Jaworów. He was a Polish mathematician, inventor of conographic geometric devices, professor at Lwów University and Lwów Polytechnic, and considered a forerunner of the Lwów School of Mathematics.
July 9, 1521 - The Royal Sigismund Bell was installed in the Sigismund Tower of the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow. It tolls on special occasions, primarily religious and national holidays, and is regarded as one of Poland’s national symbols.
July 8, 1796 - Adam Naruszewicz died in Janów Podlaski. He was a Polish nobleman, historian, poet, playwright, translator, and publicist. He was also a Jesuit and the titular Bishop of Smolensk and Bishop of Łuck. Naruszewicz is sometimes referred to as the father of Polish classicism.
July 7, 1944 - Operation Ostra Brama began. The primary goal of the Home Army operation was to liberate Vilnius from German occupation. The Home Army forces intended to establish themselves ”as the hosts of the area” in anticipation of the Red Army’s arrival.
July 6, 2000 - Władysław Szpilman died in Warsaw. He was a Polish pianist and composer of Jewish descent. He is most widely known as the protagonist of the 2002 Roman Polanski film ”The Pianist”, based on Szpilman’s memoirs.
July 5, 1921 - The Third Silesian Uprising ended in a ceasefire. It was the last, largest, and longest of the three German-Polish armed conflicts in Upper Silesia between the World Wars. As a result, the Conference of Ambassadors decided to divide the region, with the Weimar Republic retaining most of the land area, while Poland received the most industrialized and mineral-rich parts.
July 4, 1941 - 25 Polish academics from the city of Lwów along with their families were killed by the Nazi German occupation forces. This massacre of the Polish professors was part of the plan to exterminate the Polish intelligentsia.
July 3, 1935 - Michał Bobrzyński died. A notable Polish historian and conservative politician, Bobrzyński was a symbolic figure of the Cracow conservative circles of the late Habsburg monarchy. In 1877, he became a professor of legal history at the Jagiellonian University.
July 2, 1927 - The Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw and Primate of Poland, Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski, crowned the icon of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn [Ostra Brama] in the presence of Józef Piłsudski and President Ignacy Mościcki.
July 1, 1569 - The Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania signed the Union of Lublin. The treaty merged the two sovereign countries, Poland and Lithuania, into a single state that became the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth [Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów], which was ruled by a single monarch chosen through a free election by the nobility of both nations.
June 30, 1940 - Gen. Stefan Rowecki became the commander-in-chief of the Union of Armed Struggle and the Armed Forces commander in occupied Poland. In 1944, he was murdered by the Gestapo in prison on the personal order of Heinrich Himmler.
June 29, 1930 - Sławomir Mrożek was born in Borzęcin. A Polish dramatist, writer and cartoonist, Mrożek's theatrical works belong to the genre of absurdist fiction, intended to shock the audience with non-realistic elements, political and historical references, distortion, and parody.
June 28, 1651 - The Battle of Beresteczko began. Under King John II Casimir, the Polish army defeated a Cossack force led by Bohdan Chmielnicki in one of the greatest land battles of the 17th century.
June 26, 1295 - Przemysł II was crowned King of Poland in Gniezno. Since that day, the white eagle has been the symbol of Poland.
June 25, 1976 - A series of protests and demonstrations in the People's Republic of Poland followed the announcement of food price increases. The communist authorities brutally suppressed the strike leading to some deaths. Hundreds of workers were also beaten, several of whom were later hospitalized.
June 24, 972 - The army of Mieszko I of Poland defeated Hodo or Odo I of Lusatia in Cedynia near the Oder river. It was the first documented victory of the Polish forces.
June 23, 1800 - Karol Marcinkowski was born in Poznań. He was known as a Polish physician and social activist in the Greater Poland region.
June 22, 1935 - Szymon Askenazy died in Warsaw. A Polish historian, statesman and diplomat of Jewish descent, Askenazy's work was influential in defining the creation and history of the Polish nation.
June 20-21, 1940 - In Palmiry near Warsaw, eminent representatives of Poland's political, social and cultural milieu were shot dead by the Germans. About 7,000 Poles, including community leaders, professors, teachers and priests (labelled as suspected of criminal activity), were subsequently massacred secretly at various locations, including at the Palmiry forest complex.
June 20, 1885 - Andrzej Gawroński was born in Geneva. He was a Polish Indologist, linguist and polyglot and a Professor of both Jagiellonian University and Lwów University. It is likely that he would have known 140 languages!
June 19, 1670 - Samuel Przypkowski died in Królewiec. A Polish poet and Socinian theologian, Przypkowski was a leading figure in the Polish Brethren and an advocate of religious tolerance.
June 17, 1793 - The last Sejm of pre-partition Poland began its proceedings in Grodno. The Grodno Sejm ratified the country's division in a futile attempt to prevent the subsequent complete annexation of the land two years later during the 1795 Third Partition of Poland.
June 16, 1944 - Colonel Jan Piwnik "Ponury" was killed during a successful attack against German Nazi troops near the village of Jewłasze not far from Vilnius. He was a Polish World War II soldier, a Cichociemny special-operations paratrooper and a notable leader of the Home Army in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains.
June 14, 1940 - Nazi Germans organized the first mass transport to Auschwitz concentration camp. Seven hundred twenty-eight Polish political prisoners and members of the Polish resistance from Tarnów became the camp's first inmates.
June 13, 1833 - Jakub Kubicki died in Wilków. He was a renowned Polish classicist as well as an Empire-style architect and designer of numerous palaces.
June 12, 1915 - Józef Brandt died in Radom. A Polish painter and representative of the Munich School, Brandt's paintings were primarily focused on 17th-century military life.
June 11, 1940 - Polish submarine ORP "Eagle" was officially declared lost in the North Sea. The boat is best known for its escape from internment in neutral Estonia during the early stages of World War II.
June 10, 1979 - The first pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Poland ended. It was at this time that he uttered his famous words calling for faith and the change of the communist system to democracy: And I cry — I who am a Son of the land of Poland and who am also Pope John Paul II — I cry from all the depths of this Millennium, I cry on the vigil of Pentecost: Let your Spirit descend. Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, the face of this land.
June 9, 1855 - Piotr Michałowski died near Kraków. A Polish painter of the Romantic period, he was also a social activist, legal advocate and city administrator. Michałowski is primarily remembered for his many portraits and oil studies of horses.
June 8, 1956 - Jan Lechoń, a Polish poet and critic of both literature and the theater, committed suicide in New York City. According to Polish exile politician Adam Ciołkosz, Lechoń had been deeply depressed by the strengthening communist regime in Poland.
June 7, 1492 - Casimir IV Jagiellon died in Kraków. Since being crowned King of Poland in 1447, he was an active ruler who led Poland to victory over the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Years' War. Following his death, the Jagiellonian dynasty became one of the leading royal houses in Europe.
June 6, 1700 - Wespazjan Kochowski died in Kraków. He was a historian and poet of the Polish Baroque and the most recognized representative of the philosophy and literature of Sarmatian.
June 5, 1894 - The Racławice Panorama officially opened in Stryjski Park in Lwów. A monumental (15 × 114 meter) cycloramic painting depicting the Battle of Racławice during the Kościuszko Uprising, it was conceived as a patriotic commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the victorious battle.
June 3, 1605 - Jan Zamoyski died in Zamość. A Polish nobleman and magnate, Zamoyski was regarded as one of the most skilled politicians and statesmen of his time. Throughout his lifetime, he played a significant role in the politics of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
June 2, 1920 - During the Polish-Bolshevik war, the battle of Boryspol near Kiyv took place. Although numerically inferior, the Polish forces managed to take the enemy by surprise and, after a short skirmish, the Russians withdrew eastwards. After capturing the Russian supply dumps, the Poles returned to Kyiv.
June 1, 1926 - Ignacy Mościcki was elected president of Poland by the National Assembly. A chemist and rector of the Lwów Polytechnic, Mościcki was Poland's president when Nazi Germany invaded the country on 1 September 1939, starting World War II.
May 31, 1957 - Leopold Staff died in Skarżysko-Kamienna. He was a Polish poet, considered to be one of the greatest artists of European modernism.
May 30, 1505 - Łaski's Statutes were adopted by the Polish parliament in Radom. It was the first codification of law that consolidated nearly all the legislation in Poland and existing Polish laws, decisions and mandates. The document, in 720 folio pages, was drawn up by Primate Jan Łaski.
May 29, 1861 - Joachim Lelewel died in Paris. He was a Polish historian, geographer, bibliographer, politician and activist of the Great Emigration.
May 28, 1941 - Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner 16670. Kolbe volunteered to take place for a man selected to be starved to death, becoming a martyr of the Nazi German concentration and death camps. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1982
May 27, 1876 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski was born. He was a Polish writer, explorer, university professor, and Sovietologist. His books were translated almost 150 times into 20 other languages.
May 26, 1331 - King Ladislaus I of Poland organized a meeting of Poland's nobility in the village of Chęciny to discuss the oncoming war with the Teutonic Knights. This event is sometimes regarded as the beginning of Polish parliamentarianism.
May 25, 1948 - Witold Pilecki was murdered in Mokotów in a communist prison. Pilecki was a Polish resistance leader and a member of the Home Army who volunteered for a Polish resistance operation that involved being imprisoned in the KL Auschwitz. Pilecki is now considered "one of the greatest wartime heroes".
May 24, 1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus died in Frombork, Poland. He was a Renaissance-era polymath and polyglot. In the pioneering book "De revolutionibus", he formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the universe.
May 23, 1786 - Maurycy Beniowski died in Madagascar. He was a Polish military officer, adventurer and author of Hungarian descent.
May 22, 2010 - Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was given a second funeral in Frombork Cathedral after the discovery of his remains.
May 21, 1674 - Jan Sobieski was elected the King of Poland. He was an able military leader, most famous for his victory over the Turks at the 1683 Battle of Vienna. Pope hailed him as the savior of Christendom, and Ottomans called him the "Lion of Lechistan".
May 19, 1912 - Bolesław Prus died in Warsaw. He was a Polish novelist, journalist and prominent figure in world literature. Internationally he is best known for his novels like "The Doll" (1890) and "Pharaoh" (1895).
May 18, 1920 - Karol Józef Wojtyła was born in Wadowice, Poland. He was a Polish cardinal, philosopher, and poet. He would go on to serve as Pope John Paul II from 1978 to 2005. Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.
May 17, 1918 - Bronisław Piłsudski died in Paris. He was the brother of Józef Piłsudski and a Polish anthropologist who conducted research on indigenous people like the Ainu, Oroks and Nivkhs on Sakhalin Island.
May 16, 1657 - Andrzej Bobola, a Polish missionary and Jesuit, was killed by the Cossacks after being subjected to various tortures. He is known as the "hunter of souls".
May 15, 1940 - Heinrich Himmler defined special directives for the kidnapping of Polish children. With more than 200,000 victims, occupied Poland lost the largest proportion of children to abduction by Nazi Germans.
May 14, 1791 - The Targowica Confederation was proclaimed by Polish and Lithuanian magnates. The confederation opposed the Constitution of 3 May 1791 adopted by the Great Sejm. In the Polish language the term, "targowica" is synonymous with treason up to the present day.
May 13, 1981 - Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Ağca unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome.
May 12, 1364 - King Casimir III the Great established Poland's first (and Central Europe's second) university (studium generale), originally known as the Cracow Academy.
May 11, 1573 - Polish nobles elected Henry de Valois the King of Poland. He was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
May 10, 1034 - Mieszko II Lambert died in Poznań. He was the second King of Poland.
May 9, 1935 - Halina Poświatowska was born. She was a Polish poet and an important figure in modern Polish literature. She was 32 when she died.
May 8, 1953 - Polish bishops sent a formal letter "Non possumus" to the party leaders of the communist People's Republic of Poland to declare their decisive refusal to subordinate the Church to the communist state.
May 7, 1794 - General Tadeusz Kościuszko announced The Proclamation of Połaniec. The document provided the peasants with personal freedom, the right to assistance from the state against the nobility's abuses and awarded them specific property rights.
May 6, 1945 - General Stanisław Maczek, commander of the 1st Polish Armored Division, accepted the surrender of the German naval base of Wilhelmshaven, taking the entire garrison captive.
May 5, 1846 - Henryk Sienkiewicz, a famous Polish novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate, was born.
May 4, 1505 - The Polish priest Ladislas of Gielniów died. He was a medieval preacher, poet and translator.
May 3, 1791 - The Polish Four-Year Sejm adopted the Constitution of 3 May. It is considered Europe's first and the world's second modern written national constitution.
May 2, 1921 - During the night of 2/3 May 1921, the Third Silesian Uprising began. It was the last, most extensive, longest, and, ultimately, the most successful of the three Silesian uprisings.
May 1, 1908 - Krystyna Skarbek was born. She was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive during World War II. She was described as Britain's "most glamorous spy" and the "bravest of the brave". Ian Fleming, in his James Bond novels, is said to have modelled Vesper Lynd on Skarbek.
April 11, 1079 - Bishop Stanislaus of Szczepanów was killed by Polish King Bolesław II the Generous, following a political conflict. The martyr later became a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.
April 10, 2010 - Polish Air Force plane crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński, his wife Maria, and Poland's former President in Exile Ryszard Kaczorowski.
February 1, 1411 - The First Peace of Toruń was concluded, ending the so-called great war between Poland and the Teutonic Order. The treaty was of great importance for Poland's position in the international arena, but did not lead to a lasting peace between the Teutonic state and the Crown.
October 4, 1918 - General Józef Haller took supreme command of the Polish Army in France. The army was formed on 4 June 1917 and was made up of Polish volunteers serving alongside allied forces in France during World War I. Haller’s troops subsequently took part in Poland’s victory over the advancing Bolshevik forces in the Polish-Soviet War.
April 5, 1941 - General Franciszek Kleeberg died in Oflag IV-B Königstein. In 1939, he commanded Independent Operational Group Polesie, which fought in the Battle of Kock, the last battle before Poland's capitulation. He never lost a fight in the German invasion of Poland.
October 31, 1945 - Polish politician Wincenty Witos died in Kraków. One of the founders of the Polish agrarian movement, he was a prominent member and leader of the Polish People’s Party (PSL), who served three times as the Prime Minister of Poland in the 1920s.
March 25, 1977 - The Movement for the Defense of Human and Citizen’s Rights (Ruch Obrony Praw Człowieka i Obywatela), the organization of democratic opposition in Poland, was formed in Warsaw. Its existence was announced on the following day.

Liberating Europe

The event will take place on 7 January at 12.00pm.

To watch this event online, register at: http://bityl.pl/2lNqn

Michał Sędziwój: an alchemist who discovered oxygen

(2 February 1566 – 1636)

Jan Sehn. Poland’s forgotten Nazi hunter

An interview with Dr. Filip Gańczak, author of the book Jan Sehn. Tropiciel nazistów (Jan Sehn – Tracking the Nazis)

The Mark, the Lech and the Zloty, or how Poland’s currency was born

When the Bank of Poland began issuing the Zloty

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733–1795: Light and Flame

Review of the book by Richard Butterwick