The Havel Festival : Timeline : The Presidency and beyond, 1990

Celebrating the life and art of Václav Havel
New York City, October through December 2006

Timeline: The Presidency and beyond, 1990 – 2006

Go back to
The Velvet Revolution
1989


	1990
		Havel assumes the Presidency. He releases all political prisoners and closes down the arms factory. In the June elections, he is elected by a landslide.Havel’s plays, most never seen in Czechoslovakia, appear in theaters throughout Prague.
	1992
		Slovakia presses for independence. Havel opposes the split and resigns. Summer Mediations, a book of Havel’s thoughts about politics and morality, is released.
	1993
		Czechoslovakia splits into the Czech and Slovak Republics, in what is called the Velvet Divorce. Havel is elected the first President of the Czech Republic.
	1996
		Havel’s wife, Olga, dies of cancer. Havel himself has an extended bout with lung cancer, from which he eventually recovers.
	1997
		Havel marries Dagmar Veskernova, an actress who has helped to nurse him back to health.
	1998
		Havel is re-elected president. Havel becomes ill from a ruptured intestine, but recovers.
	2003
		Havel steps down from the Presidency. A major political rival, Václav Klaus, is elected in his stead.
	2006
		Havel releases the book Prosim Strucne (Briefly, Please) in the Czech Republic, a collection of essays and further conversations with Karel Hvizdala, who collaborated with Havel on Disturbing the Peace. The Havel Festival, a festival of all of Havel’s plays, celebrates his 70th birthday in New York.

Go back to
The Velvet Revolution
1989

Václav Havel. Photo by Alan Pajer.

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