Days Since World History

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Velvet Revolution Began?

Q: How many days since Velvet Revolution Began?

Use the live elapsed counter on this page to see exactly how many days since Velvet Revolution Began on 17 November 1989.

Q: How many weeks since Velvet Revolution Began?

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Q: What day of the week was Velvet Revolution Began?

Velvet Revolution Began was on a Friday, 17 November 1989.

Velvet Revolution Began was on 17 November 1989 — a Friday

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13,300days ago

1,900weeks ago

36.4years ago

1989year it happened

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Václav Havel — dissident to president

Václav Havel's journey from playwright to president is one of the most remarkable personal stories of the 20th century. Born in 1936 to a wealthy Prague family, he was classified as a "class enemy" under communism and denied university education, studying instead at evening classes while working as a stagehand. His absurdist plays — including The Garden Party (1963) and The Memorandum (1965) — brought him international recognition. After signing Charter 77, a human rights declaration, he was repeatedly imprisoned, spending nearly five years in jail between 1977 and 1989. He used his prison time to write Letters to Olga — meditations on ethics, responsibility and the meaning of human existence addressed to his wife — which became one of the defining texts of Central European dissident literature.

The wider context — 1989 across Eastern Europe

The Velvet Revolution was part of a remarkable wave of democratic revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in 1989. In Poland, partially free elections in June had seen Solidarity win overwhelmingly. In Hungary, the communist party had already begun to reform and the border with Austria was opened in May, allowing thousands of East Germans to flee to the West. In East Germany, the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November — two days before the Velvet Revolution began in Prague. In Romania, the revolution was far from velvet: Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed on Christmas Day after a violent uprising. By the end of 1989, every communist government in Eastern Europe had fallen or begun the process of transition — the most rapid political transformation of a region in modern history.

About Velvet Revolution Began

The Velvet Revolution was the peaceful transition of power that occurred in Czechoslovakia in November and December 1989, bringing an end to over 40 years of communist rule. Beginning on 17 November 1989 — when riot police violently dispersed a student demonstration in Prague — the revolution gathered momentum with extraordinary speed, producing one of the most complete and bloodless political transformations in European history.

Within days of the crackdown, massive demonstrations were taking place in Prague's Wenceslas Square, with crowds eventually reaching 500,000 people. Factory workers, artists, students and pensioners all joined the protests. The dissident playwright Václav Havel emerged as the revolution's moral leader, giving voice to the popular demand for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Havel's moral authority — derived from years of principled opposition to the regime, including multiple prison sentences — gave the movement both dignity and direction.

The communist government's response was telling: instead of deploying force as it had in the Prague Spring of 1968 — crushed by Soviet tanks — the party leadership entered negotiations. On 3 December 1989, a new government was formed with a non-communist majority. On 10 December, President Gustáv Husák resigned. On 28 December, Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia — completing one of modern history's most remarkable political journeys: from political prisoner to head of state in less than a month.

The term "Velvet Revolution" was coined to reflect the smooth, non-violent nature of the transition. It stands as one of the defining events of 1989 — a year that transformed Europe. Czechoslovakia later peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993 in what was called the Velvet Divorce. Havel went on to serve as President of the Czech Republic until 2003, becoming one of the most respected statesmen of the late 20th century.

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