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

Timeline: The Velvet Revolution, 1989

Go back to
Life as a dissident playwright
1969 – 1988
Go forward to
The Presidency and beyond
1990 – 2006

1989

Havel is jailed for four months.

Protests increase throughout Prague. The Velvet Revolution is about to begin.

November
17

A peaceful student demonstration is violently disrupted by the police.

November
19
Havel forms the Civic Forum, a revolutionary organization open to all who wish to join it.
November
21
Prime Minister Adamec meets with the Civic Forum, though he refuses entrance to Havel.
November
22
Havel addresses a crowd of 20,000 from a balcony over Wencelas Square. The Civic Forum chooses a theater called Laterna Magika as its headquarters.
November
26
Prime Minister Adamec meets with Havel, then appears with Havel and former Czech leader Alexander Dubcek in front of an audience of one million at Letna Plain. Adamec is booed and hissed, until he is forced to retreat.
December
3
Havel requests a larger headquarters for the Civic Forum. They move to the building of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship on Wenceslas Square.
December
7
Adamec resigns as Prime Minister.
December
10
The Civic Forum nominates Havel as president. Havel is reluctant.
December
16
Havel appears on television and announces he would accept the presidency, but only until free elections can be held.
December
20
Disturbing the Peace, a book which records an extended conversation between Havel and Karel Hvizdala (a Czech journalist living in Bonn, Germany), is released. The publisher, Melantrich, has put together and released the book in an unprecedented ten days.
December
29
Havel is unanimously elected President of Czechoslovakia by the parliament.

Go back to
Life as a dissident playwright
1969 – 1988
Go forward to
The Presidency and beyond
1990 – 2006

Václav Havel. Photo by Alan Pajer.

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The Village Voice nytheatre.com