Today before… (selection of today’s anniversaries)

Today is the day of St. Atanas, it’s Zikmund’s holiday.

Today is World Birdsong Day.

Today is Hurvínek’s 98th birthday, Petr Olympic Janda’s 82nd, Ondřej Soukup’s 73rd.

635 years ago today, Wenceslas IV. takes Žofia from Wittelsbach as his second wife in Cheb.

405 years ago today, Moravian estates join the rebellion against King Ferdinand II.

295 years ago today, Sofia Frederika Augusta von Anhalt-Zerbst, later known as Catherine the Great, Empress, was born in the then Prussian Szczecin.

128 years ago today, the first section of the metro was put into operation in Budapest.

85 years ago today, the construction of the D1 highway Prague – Brno – Zlín – Slovak border began.

79 years ago today, the Red Army conquers Berlin and raises the red flag over the Reichstag. Nevertheless, the Nazis execute 56 Czech resistance fighters in Terezín and burn down the estate of Vařák Paseka in Wallachia, 4 victims.

71 years ago today, 17-year-old King Hussein I ascended the Hashemite throne in Jordan.

69 years ago today, the communists executed members of the group of Mašín brothers – Václav Švéda, Zbyňek Janata and Ctibor Novák, Zdena Mašínová’s brother – in Pankrác.

46 years ago today, Zdeněk Fierlinger died, a serial traitor to the country – during the Great War he defected to the enemy on the Russian front, during the Second World War he betrayed in favor of Stalin as an ambassador in Moscow, after the war he betrayed Social Democracy by organizing its merger with the Communist Party of the Czech Republic.

35 years ago today, Hungary removes the fence on the border with Austria, thousands of East Germans flee to the West.

Augustin Navrátil, indomitable peasant, active Catholic, anti-communist activist, dies 21 years ago today.

13 years ago today, arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden was shot dead by a SEAL commando in Abbottabad, Pakistan.