Charter 77
1977 · Event
Provoked by the trial of a psychedelic rock band, 242 citizens — spokesman: a banned playwright named Václav Havel — sign a declaration politely asking the state to honour the human-rights covenants it has itself ratified. The signatories are hounded for a decade; and when the regime finally cracks in 1989, it is the Chartists who are standing there to replace it.
On these timelines: The Prague Spring, Eastern Europe & the Balkans, Cold War, Master, Arts and Thoughts
More from The Prague Spring
- Prague Spring (1968)
- Dubček takes the helm (1968)
- Jan Palach's torch (1969)
- The Moscow Protocol (1968)
- Censorship abolished — the Spring in full leaf (1968)
- Normalisation: Husák replaces Dubček (1969)
Around 1977
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- Iranian Revolution (1978)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Chernobyl disaster (1986)
- Six-Day War (1967)
- The Troubles (1968)
- Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)
- Night Fever (Bee Gees) (1978)
- Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) (Pink Floyd) (1979)