AD 872 The Přemysl Dynasty begins its 421-year rule of Bohemia.

935 Good King Wenceslas (Václav I) is assassinated by his brother and made the country's patron saint.

1346 Devout Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, is crowned king of Bohemia and ushers in its Golden Age.

1415 Religious reformer Jan Hus is burned at the stake in Constance; four years later, in Prague, his supporters throw Catholic councilors from town hall windows and start the Hussite Wars.

1583 The Habsburg court moves to Prague.

1848 The Habsburgs suppress an uprising of Czech nationalism.

1914 Czechs are forced to fight for the Austrian Habsburgs in World War I, but thousands desert to the Russians.

1918 With the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the new state of Czechoslovakia is proclaimed.

1938 Czechoslovakia is forced to hand over Sudetenland to Hitler.

1945 Slovakia and the Czech lands are liberated by the Red Army; the Communist Party seizes power in 1948.

1968 The First Secretary, Alexander Dubček, introduces “socialism with a human face” in the reforms of the “Prague Spring”; in August, Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia.

1989 “Velvet Revolution”; Václav Havel elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1993 Czechoslovakia splits into Czech and Slovak republics.

1999 Czech Republic becomes a NATO member.

2004 Czech Republic joins the European Union.