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History of Lithuania: a timeline

10000 BC: Settlement of the first permanent inhabitants on contemporary Lithuanian territory.
ca 2500 BC: Indo-Europeans arrive to the territories of old Europeans.
ca 2000 BC: Balts are being formed.
VI – V c./600-500 BC: Western Baltic tribes (Prussians, Yotvingians, Curonians) are formed.
9 March 1009 AD: The name of Lithuania is mentioned for the first time, when Bruno of Querfurt, a Christian missionary bishop has been murdered.
1236: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania is established when Lithuania’s Grand Duke Mindaugas unites the Lithuanian lands.
1251: Baptism of Mindaugas.
6 July 1253: Mindaugas and his wife Morta are crowned as king and queen of Lithuania.
1298: Grand Duke Vytenis makes a union with Riga and the Archdiocese of Riga against the Livonian Order.
 1312: Vytenis invites the Franciscan Order to Lithuania.
1316: The Greek Orthodox Church establishes a local Metropole in Lithuania.
1323: The city of Vilnius is mentioned for the first time as capital of Grand Dukehood.
2 February 1386: Lithuania establishes a union with Poland.
15 February 1386: Lithuania’s Grand Duke Jogaila is baptised.
4 March 1386: Coronation of Jogaila as king of Poland.
1386: Jogaila forbids mixed marriages to hinder the growth of Greek Orthodoxy. A Polish priesthood is established free of all taxes.
1387: Baptism of Lithuania. Vilnius bishopry is established when Jogaila finds the archdiocese of Vilnius and provides land for the Bishop’s headquarters.
22 February 1387: Jogaila issues a proclamation for all Lithuanians to accept Catholicism.
22 March 1387: Jogaila gives Vilnius the rights of Magdeburg. Vilnius becomes the first self-governed Lithuanian city.
12 March 1388: Pope Urban VI authorizes Poznan’s Bishop Dobrogost to establish a Vilnius archdiocese.
1388: Vytautas allows Jews to live, do business, lend money, and establish their own communities and judges in Lithuania. Similar freedoms are allowed to other foreigners, including the Tartars.
10 Jan 1389: Jogaila authorizes the Bishops of Vilnius to build churches and urges believers to donate 10 percent for their upkeep.
15 July 1410: Joint Lithuanian-Polish forces defeat the Teutonic Knights (crusaders) in the Žalgiris (Grundwald) battle.
1413: Vytautas and Jogaila convert Samogitians (žemaičiai) in western Lithuania to Christianity.
1417–21: Samogitian Archbischopric is established.
25 February 1418: At the Constance church synod, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Lithuania, Gregory Camblak, proposes a union between the Orthodox and the Catholic church.
1418: Samogitians rebel against the Church and nobility. Churches are destroyed and the estates of the nobles are attacked. Vytautas supresses the rebellion.
4 March 1484: Casimir (LT Kazimieras; PL Kazimierz), the son of Lithuania’s Grand Duke Casimir, dies in Grodno at the age of 25. In 1602, he is declared a saint and protector of Lithuania.
8 January 1547: The first Lithuanian book, Katekizmas, is printed in Konigsburg (Karaliaučius) by Martynas Mažvyda. It is intended to help the priests in teaching the native language and spreading the ideas of the Reformation (Lutheranism).
4 March 1562: The Archdiocese of Riga is attached to Lithuania.
1 July 1569: Union of Lublin – Lithuania and Poland create a commonwealth, where direct rule over Lithuania is passed to Poland. Lithuania maintains certain ministers, laws, money and an army.
1569: The Jesuits arrive in Lithuania to counter Protestant advance. Due to the fractured status of the Reform sects (numbered as many as 60), it was not a difficult task to accomplish.
1570: A Jesuit college is established.
28 January 1573: In Warsaw, a confederation act acknowledges freedom of religion in Lithuania and Poland.
1579: Vilnius University (academia) is established.
1595: Canon Mikalojus Daukša publishes Katekizmas, – the first Lithuanian book, a catechism translated from Polish, in Lithuanian Grand Dukehood.
1600–1700: The first Lithuanian Bible is published in London.
1596: A Brasta church union between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches is declared in the Commonwealth.
1700-1800: The Gaon of Vilnius excommunicates the Hasidic Jews after they replace the traditional Jewish prayer book with one written by Isaac Luria.
1726: The first school of the Piarists (the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools) is established in Vilnius.
1742: Jesuits establish a college in Vilnius.
1762: Ignotas Masalskis becomes bishop of Vilnius. Within two years, he calls for a diocese independent of Polish control.
1765: „Metų laikai“ (En: "The Seasons") by Pastor Kristijonas Donelaitis is published in Prussia.
5 March 1783: King Stanislav Augustas Poniatovski grants rights to Jews of Kaunas.
24 October 1795: Lithuania and Poland are partitioned.
1796: Elijahu ben Solomon Zalman, the Gaon of Vilnius, encourages Jews to study grammar, astronomy and other disciplines as well as the Torah.
9 October 1797: Death of Elijahu ben Solomon Zalman, the Great Gaon of Vilnius – one of the most influential Rabbinic authorities since the Middle Ages.
1864: The Russian Empire bans the Lithuanian language and persecutes the Catholic faith.
6 September 1865: Russia forbids the use of Latin letters in the Lithuanian language. Following the 1863 uprising, the Czarist authorities prohibit the publication of Lithuanian books in Roman letters. Secret book couriers smuggle books lettered in Latin until 1904.
15 February 1918: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia adopt the Gregorian calendar.
16 February 1918: The Council of Lithuania signs the Act of Independence of Lithuania.
1920–1939: Period of Polish occupation of Vilnius.
1920–1940: Kaunas is established as the capital of Lithuania.
16 February 1922: Vytautas Magnus University is established in Kaunas.
18 April 1923: Poland annexes central Lithuania.
10 February 1925: Poland makes an agreement with the Vatican; the archdiocese of Vilnius is revived as one of five Polish dioceses.
4 April 1926: The Papal Bull "Lituanorum Gente" establishes Lithuania as a province of the Catholic Church.
23 August 1939: Non-aggression pact – "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact" between the USSR and Germany is signed, where Eastern Europe is divided between them. According to the secret protocol, Lithuania (as well as all Baltic states) is assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence.
15 June 1940: the USSR occupies Lithuania.
14–22 June 1941: On 14 June 1941, the first mass deportation of Lithuanian inhabitants to Siberia started (approximately 18000 people were deported).
22 June 1941: the Germany-USSR war and Nazi occupation of Lithuania start.
End of June 1941: the genocide (Holocaust) of Lithuanian Jews starts, in which almost 200,000 Jews are killed.
22–23 May 1948: the most numerous mass deportation of Lithuanian inhabitants to remote areas of the Soviet Union (approximately 40,000 people are deported).
25–28 March 1949: one of the major deportations of Lithuanian inhabitants (approximately 30,000 people are deported).
2–3 October 1951: one of the major deportations of Lithuanian inhabitants (approximately 17,000 people are deported).
1944-1953: partisan resistance period in Lithuania, in which approximately 36,000 people die.
14 May 1972: Romas Kalanta sets himself on fire in Kaunas in protest against the occupation of Lithuania.
23 August 1979: the Baltic memorandum is signed by human rights fighters and forwarded to the UN Secretary General and foreign state embassies.
22-24 October 1988: First gathering of Sajūdis (the Reform Movement of Lithuania). National symbols are returned to the state, Vilnius Cathedral is returned to the Church.
23 August 1989: the Lithuanian Sąjūdis, in cooperation with the Estonian and Latvian National Fronts, hold the Baltic Way event. 2 million people form a live chain from Vilnius to Tallinn as a symbolic requirement for independence.
11 March 1990: The independence of Lithuania is restored.
13 January 1991: The Soviet army and Special Forces storm the Lithuanian TV tower, Radio and Television buildings. 14 people are killed and nearly a thousand people are injured or suffer otherwise.
31 August 1993: The last troops of the Russian (former USSR) occupation army leave Lithuania.
04-08 September 1993: Pope John Paul II visits Lithuania.
29 March 2004: Lithuanian becomes a member of NATO.
1 May 2004: Lithuania joins the EU.
June 2008: Parliament bans display of Soviet and Nazi symbols. The restrictions are the strictest among other former Soviet republics.
2014: Radio „Marijos radijas“ is established.
22-23 September 2018: Pope Francis visits Lithuania.

D 13 July 2021    ARasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson

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