Timeline of Latvian history
This is a timeline of Latvian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Latvia and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Latvia. See also the list of presidents of Latvia.
7th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 650 | The Livonians were paying tribute to king Ivar Vidfamne of Scania
|
8th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 750 | In the legendary king of Denmark. According to Norna-Gests þáttr Sigurd Hring fought against the invading Curonians (Kúrir) in the southern part of what today is Sweden[1]
| |
| before 800 | The ancient Balts began to form specific tribal realms. |
9th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 800 | The Curonians had rebelled against the Swedes and refused to pay them tribute. | |
| 850 | The Danish king marshalled a great fleet and sailed to Courland in order to take over their goods and to make the Curonians pay tribute to instead. The Curonians gathered forces from all five of their towns and butchered half the Danish army and plundered their war ships. | |
| 854 | King Apulia . Curonians declared that they wished to be the subjects of the Swedish kings as in former times.
| |
| 870 | The legendary Danish king Hadingus wages wars in the Baltic and achieves victory against Curonian tyrant Loker (Loker, Curetum tyrannus) and king Handwanus of Duna (Duna urbs). | |
| 890 | The Curonian king Dorno (Curetum rex Dorno), one of the legendary kings in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, fights against the legendary Danish king Frotho I. |
10th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 925 | ||
| 950 | The Norse prince Ragnvald ( Polatsk .
|
11th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| before 1100 | The borders of the Jersika (known as Lettia) became settled. Latvia
|
12th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1106 | Daugava .
| |
| 1111 | Ugandi .
| |
| 1180 | Prince Mstislav Rostislavich led the Novgorodians against the Letts of Tālava. | |
| 1184 | The monk Livonian people .
| |
| 1186 | Meinhard was appointed bishop of Livonia by the Pope. | |
| 1198 | Bishop Livonians .
| |
| 1199 | Albert of Riga was elected the third bishop of Livonia. | |
| Pope Innocent III proclaimed a second Baltic Crusade. |
13th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1201 | Albert founded Riga on the site of earlier Livonian settlement. | |
| 1202 | The Catholic military order of Livonian Brothers of the Sword was founded by Bishop Albert. | |
| 1206 | The Livonians at Turaida
| |
| 1217 | The . | |
| 1229 | Bishop Albert died. | |
| 1236 | Battle of Saule: The Brothers of the Sword were defeated in the Land of Saule (terra Sauleorum) by combined forces of Samogitians and Semigallians. | |
| 1242 | Alexander Nevsky defeated the Livonian Order on Lake Peipus. | |
| 1255 | The Bishopric at Riga was elevated to become the Archbishopric of Riga. | |
| 1282 | Riga became a member of the Hanseatic League. |
14th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1378 | The Livonian Order raided Upytė, and another campaign threatened the Lithuanian capital in Vilnius. |
15th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1422 | A Livonian Diet first met. | |
| 1452 | The Livonian Order and Archbishopric of Riga began to rule jointly in Livonia. | |
| 1481 | Muscovy attacked Livonia .
|
16th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1501 | The Livonian Order, aided by Lithuania, launched an attack on Pskov. | |
| 1502 | Russian troops were defeated at the Battle of Lake Smolina near Palkino .
| |
| 1558 | Ivan the Terrible launched an attack on Livonia. | |
| 1561 | Livonian War: Livonia fell to Lithuania. | |
| 1569 | Poland joined to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Livonia became a joint domain administered directly by both realms.
|
17th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1629 | The Peace of Altmark was reached, under which Sweden annexed Livonia and several Courland territories to Swedish Livonia .
| |
| 1689 | The Old and New Testaments were published in Ernst Glück .
| |
| 1700 | Great Northern War: A war began which involved the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and Russia. |
18th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1710 | Riga fell to the Russians, though Courland remained under the control of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. | |
| 1721 | Treaty of Nystadt ended the war.
|
19th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1841 | A famine occurred in Livonia. | |
| 1873 | The first Latvian Song and Dance Festival took place. | |
| 1887 | Russification measures began in the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. |
20th century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1905 | 13 January | Russian army troops opened fire on demonstrators in Riga, killing seventy-three and injuring two hundred people. |
| A revolution took place in the Baltic region directed primarily against German landowners and Russian autocracy. | ||
| 1914 | 1 August | World War I: The war began. |
| 1918 | 18 November | An independent Latvia was proclaimed. |
| 1919 | Latvian rouble currency introduced.[3]
| |
| 1920 | 11 August | The Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty was signed. |
| 1921 | 22 September | Latvia became a member of the League of Nations. |
| 1922 | February | A Latvian constitution was adopted. |
| 1934 | 15 May | Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis took power in a bloodless coup d'état. |
| 1939 | 23 August | The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Nazi Germany. |
| 1940 | 16 June | An ultimatum was presented by the USSR to Latvia. |
| 17 June | Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940: Soviet troops occupied the country. | |
| 5 August | Latvia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, becoming the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). | |
| 1941 | 14 June | The first mass deportations of Latvians to various sites in the Soviet Union began.
|
| 1 July | . | |
| 1944 | October | Occupation of Latvia by Soviet Union 1944-1945: The Soviet army reentered Riga .
|
| 1955 | About thirty thousand deportees returned to Latvia from the USSR under a general amnesty. | |
| 1981 | The modern Daugava River in Riga .
| |
| 1987 | 14 June | The first demonstration in Riga to commemorate the 1941 deportations took place. |
| 1988 | 23 August | Mass demonstrations took place against the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. |
| 1990 | 4 May | The Latvian SSR Supreme Council adopted the declaration On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia. |
| 1991 | January | The Barricades: Pro-Communist political forces attempted to restore Soviet power in Latvia. |
| 6 September | The Soviet Union recognized Latvian independence. | |
| 17 September | Latvia became a member of the United Nations. |
21st century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 29 March | Latvia became a member of NATO. |
| 1 May | Latvia became a member of European Union. | |
| 2014 | 1 January | Latvia became a member of Eurozone. |
See also
References
- Plakans, Andrejs (2008). Historical Dictionary of Latvia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5515-1.
- ^ Norna-Gests þáttr, c. 1157, Níkulás Bergsson, Iceland.
- ^ Rev. W. C. Green. The Story of Egil Skallagrimsson: An Icelandic Family History of the Ninth ... Chapter 46
- ISBN 978-0-7864-4042-9.
Further reading
- "Latvia". Political Chronology of Europe. ISBN 978-1-85743-113-1.
External links
- "Latvia Profile: Timeline", BBC News