KEY EVENTS IN 1989

August 22--Authorities arrest 370 people for taking part in a demonstration marking the 21st anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion that crushed the “Prague Spring” reform movement.

October 27--Police in Prague round up major dissidents, including Vaclav Havel, the country’s most famous playwright and founder of Charter 77 human rights group.

October 28--Government uses heavily armed police to crush Prague demonstration demanding freedom and end to communism. The crowd is emboldened by changes in neighboring East Bloc nations.

November 14--Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec announces that exit visas will no longer be required in the new year for citizens wishing to travel abroad.

November 17--In largest anti-government rally since 1969, 30,000 demonstrators take to streets of Prague. Hundreds of demonstrators are clubbed and tear-gassed as riot police brutally crush the peaceful demonstration.

November 18--Protesters light candles and place flowers on bloodstained sidewalks where police attacked demonstrators a day earlier. Police order crowd to disperse and seal off Wenceslas Square. Student activists call for general strike.

November 19--Crowd of 30,000 marches in Prague denouncing police brutality. Police arrest 10 dissidents but do not interfere in march.

Opposition political groups, including some Communist allies, meet and form Civil Forum organization. They adopt resolution demanding resignations of Communist leaders “responsible for the 1968 invasion” that crushed a liberal Communist government.

November 20--More than 200,000 people demonstrate in Prague, demanding free elections and the resignations of hard-line Communist leaders.

Major protests also break out in other cities.

November 21--Adamec tells opposition leaders he favors role for non-Communists in Czech government. Jakes accuses demonstrators of trying to “disrupt the socialist system.” Crowd of 150,000 jams Wenceslas Square without police interference to hear prominent dissidents call for resignations of Communist Party leaders.

November 22--Prague demonstrators, rallying for sixth straight day, cheer as message is read from Alexander Dubcek.

November 23--More than 200,000 anti-government demonstrators pour into downtown Prague. Prominent dissident Jan Carnogursky is acquitted of sedition and subversion charges.

November 24--Jakes and the rest of the Communist leadership resign in an emergency session of the party Central Committee after Jakes admits the party had underestimated the effect of the pro-democracy movement sweeping Eastern Europe. Dubcek returns triumphantly to Prague and addresses crowd of 250,000 demonstrators in Wenceslas Square.

Karel Urbanek,48, a Politburo member and former leader of Czech Republic, is named to succeed Jakes.