Czechs in Exile

Chronology of Events

The Foundation of Czechoslovakia

• 28 Oct 1918 - Czechoslovakia declare independence from Austria
• 11 Nov 1918 - Armistice Day: end of the First World War
• 14 Nov 1918 - Tomáš Masaryk becomes 1st Czechoslovak President
• 1 June 1925 - Jan Masaryk becomes Ambassador in London

The Countdown to War

• 30 Jan 1933 - Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany
• 18 Dec 1935 - Dr Edvard Beneš becomes 2nd Czechoslovak President
• 29 Sep 1938 - Munich Agreement: Sudetenland ceded to Germany
• 5 Oct 1938 - German troops annex Sudetenland, Beneš resigns
• 22 Oct 1938 - Dr Beneš goes into exile and moves to Putney
• 14 March 1939 - declaration of independent Slovakia under Josef Tiso
• 15 March 1939 - Germany declares Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia
• 1 Sep 1939 - Germany invades Poland
• 3 Sep 1939 - Great Britain declares war on Germany

The Second World War

• 10 May 1940 - Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister
• 22 June 1940 - Capitulation of France
• 9 July 1940 - Edvard Beneš becomes President-in-Exile in London
• 22 July 1940 - Churchill sets up the Special Operations Executive
• 18 Aug 1940 - Start of the Battle of Britain and the London Blitz
• 13 Oct 1940 - Czechoslovak Army arrives in the Leamington Spa area
• 13 Nov 1940 - Beneš and his presidential guards arrive at Aston Abbotts
• 18 July 1941 - Churchill fully recognises Beneš's Government-in-Exile
• 6 Dec 1941 - Japan attacks Pearl Harbor - USA enters the war

Czechoslovak Events

• 15 May 1942 - Czechoslovak Army leaves Leamington Spa area
• 27 May 1942 - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague
• 10 June 1942 - Nazis destroy the village of Lidice in Bohemia
• 5 Aug 1942 - British government revokes the Munich Agreement
• 24 Dec 1942 - Dr Beneš gives globe to Aston Abbotts School
• 28 Oct 1943 - Jubilee lime tree planted at The Abbey, Aston Abbotts
• 15 April 1944 - Beneš gives bus shelter to Wingrave and Aston Abbotts

The Countdown to Victory

• 6 June 1944 - D-Day landings in Normandy
• 29 Aug 1944 - Slovak Uprising begins
• 11 March 1945 - Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile flies to Moscow
• 4 April 1945 - new Czechoslovak Government set up in Košice, Slovakia
• 5 May 1945 - Prague Uprising begins
• 8 May 1945 - V.E. Day: Germany surrenders - Victory in Europe

Restoration of Democratic Czechoslovakia

• 9 May 1945 - Red Army troops enter Prague
• 16 May 1945 - Czechoslovak Government returns to Prague
• 26 May 1946 - Dr Edvard Beneš re-elected as Czechoslovak President
• 27 Feb 1948 - communist coup in Prague

Communist Czechoslovakia

• 10 March 1948 - Jan Masaryk found dead in Prague aged 61
• 7 June 1948 - President Beneš resigned
• 3 Sep 1948 - President Beneš died at Sezimovo Ústí aged 64
• 21 Aug 1968 - Soviet-led troops invade Czechoslovakia
• 2 Dec 1974 - Mrs Hana Beneš died at Sezimovo Ústí aged 89
• 9 Nov 1989 - Berlin Wall starts to come down
• 17 Nov 1989 - Velvet Revolution: end of communism in Prague

Post-Communist Europe

• 29 Dec 1989 - Václav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia
• 20 Oct 1998 - Václav Havel visits Wingrave
• 30 June 1991 - last Soviet-led troops leave Czechoslovakia
• 1 Jan 1993 - Velvet Divorce: Czechoslovakia splits into two states
• 1 May 2004 - Czech & Slovak Republics join the European Union (EU)
• 1 May 2005 - Lidice roses and lime tree planted at Aston Abbotts