Today in Communist History (Part 2)
Political Movements: Abolitionism - Bolshevism - Feminism - Gay Rights - Marxism - Socialism - Trotskyism - U.S. Civil Rights - Women's Suffrage
Historical Events
Events 101 - 200 of 296
- 1945-01-14 In Greece, Communists and the British agree to a cease-fire in the struggle to control Athens (and with it Greece)
- 1945-03-02 King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist government
- 1945-03-12 Italy's Communist Party (CPI) calls for armed uprising in Italy
- 1945-04-04 World War II: Soviet forces liberate Hungary from German occupation, establishing their own communist satellite state. This was celebrated as Liberation Day until 1989.
- 1945-07-27 US Communist Party forms
- 1945-08-08 USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea
Event of Interest
1945-10-11 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong's Communist Party

Mao Zedong

Chiang Kai-shek
- 1946-02-01 Republic of Hungary proclaims Zoltán Tildy as its communist president
- 1946-03-05 Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-found the Left Bloc.
- 1946-05-17 KVP Labor/Communists win 1st post-WW2 Dutch parliamentary elections
- 1946-11-10 Communists win many seats at French parliamentary election
- 1947-02-01 Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of christian-dems & communists
- 1947-02-17 Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against "godless communism"
- 1947-03-07 The Kuomintang and Communist Party of China resume full-fledged Civil War.
Event of Interest
1947-03-12 US President Harry Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight communism

Harry Truman
Event of Interest
1947-05-08 Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki, who had volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gain information about the Holocaust, is arrested by Polish communist police

Witold Pilecki
- 1947-05-31 Communists seize power in Hungary
- 1947-08-31 Hungarian communist party wins election
- 1947-10-20 HUAC opens hearings into alleged Communist influence in Hollywood
- 1947-11-17 The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
- 1947-11-24 The US House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities finds "Hollywood 10" in contempt because of their refusal to reveal whether they were communists
- 1947-11-25 The 1st systematic Hollywood blacklist is instituted, denying employment to American entertainment professionals due to alleged Communist ties or sympathies
- 1947-12-30 King Michael of Romania, forced by Communists abdicates his throne, sending him into exlie
- 1948-01-17 Trial of 11 US Communist party members begins in NYC
- 1948-02-20 Czechoslovakia's non-communist minister resigns
- 1948-02-24 Communist Party seizes complete control of Czechoslovakia
- 1948-02-25 Communists seize Czechoslovakia and C Gottwald becomes premier
- 1948-05-25 Polish war hero Witold Pilecki is executed by communist police after a show trial in Warsaw
- 1948-06-07 Communist complete takeover of Czechoslovakia; President Bernes resigns
- 1948-07-14 Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot near to the Italian Parliament in an assassination attempt
- 1948-07-20 US Communist Party chairman William Forster arrested
- 1948-08-03 FDR advisor Alger Hiss accused of being a "communist"
- 1948-08-17 Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
- 1948-09-01 Communist form North China People's Republic
- 1948-09-18 Communist Madiun-uprising in Dutch Indies (Muso/Sjarifudin)
- 1949-02-19 Mass arrests of communists in India
Excommunication
1949-07-13 Pope Pius XII excommunicates communist catholics

Pius XII
- 1949-07-30 British warship HMS Amethyst escapes down Yangtze River, having been refused a safe passage by Chinese Communists after 3-month standoff
- 1949-09-21 Chinese Communist leaders proclaim the People's Republic of China
- 1949-10-14 14 US Communist Party leaders convicted of sedition
- 1949-11-06 Greek civil war ends after 3 years with defeat of communist factions
- 1949-11-30 Chinese Communists captured Chungking
- 1950-01-06 Britain recognizes Communist government of China
- 1950-02-07 Senator Joe McCarthy finds "communists" in US Department of State (equiv. Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Event of Interest
1950-02-09 Senator Joseph McCarthy charges State Department infested with 205 communists

Joseph McCarthy
- 1950-02-12 Senator Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees
- 1950-04-24 US President Harry Truman denies there are communists in the US government
- 1950-07-17 Suppression of Communism Act comes into force in South Africa
- 1950-08-18 Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.
- 1950-08-27 General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family for alleged communist sympathies
- 1950-09-09 Mass arrests of communists in France
- 1950-09-12 Belgian government dismisses all communist civil servants
- 1950-11-16 US President Harry Truman proclaims emergency crisis caused by communist threat
- 1950-12-16 US President Harry Truman proclaims state of emergency against "Communist imperialism"
- 1951-01-06 Ganghwa massacre: Hundreds of South Korean communist sympathisers are slaughtered
- 1951-01-30 Belgium refuses to allow communists to make speeches on radio
- 1951-03-12 Communist troops driven out of Seoul
Event of Interest
1951-05-27 Chinese Communists force Dalai Lama to surrender his army to Beijing

Tenzin Gyatso
- 1951-06-18 In South Africa, the Suppression of Communism Act commences
- 1951-12-17 Dutch Communist Party members forbidden to be civil servants
- 1952-07-22 Poland adopts Communist-imposed Constitution
- 1952-10-05 19th congress of Communist Party meets in Moscow
- 1953-07-13 Battle of the Kumsong River begins - last major battle of the Korean war
Event of Interest
1953-09-14 Nikita Khrushchev appointed First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, succeeding Malenkov

Nikita Khrushchev

Georgy Malenkov
Republican Party
1953-12-03 Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in the Republican Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
- 1953-12-09 General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
Event of Interest
1954-01-01 Yugoslav parliament chairman and Vice President Milovan Djilas criticizes communism

Milovan Djilas
- 1954-04-07 US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in news conference is first to voice fear of a "domino-effect" of communism in Indo-China
Event of Interest
1954-04-13 Robert Oppenheimer accused of being a communist

Robert Oppenheimer
- 1954-08-11 Formal peace treaty ends over 7 yrs of fighting in Indochina between the French and the Communist Viet Minh
- 1954-08-24 US President Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party, at height of McCarthyism
- 1954-09-08 SE Asia Treaty Org (SEATO) forms to stop communist spread in SE Asia
- 1956-01-02 Poujadists/communists win French parliamentary elections
- 1956-02-25 Nikita Khrushchev denounces Joseph Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- 1956-04-06 Polish communist Gomulka freed from prison
- 1956-08-17 Federal Constitutional Court bans the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in West Germany
- 1956-11-05 Dutch Communist Party office of Felix Meritis seized
- 1957-01-09 Dutch Newspaper Society expels communist daily paper "Truth"
Event of Interest
1957-06-29 Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganowitsj and Sjepilov leave USSR communist party

Georgy Malenkov

Vyacheslav Molotov
- 1958-03-20 Clandestine Burasi Bizim Radio (communist) begins transmitting
- 1958-03-20 Greek Clandestine Radio (communist), Voice of Truth 1st transmission
- 1958-03-27 Nikita Khrushchev becomes Soviet Premier as well as First Secretary of the Communist Party
- 1958-12-09 Robert W. Welch Jr and 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form the conservative and anti-Communist John Birch Society
- 1959-04-13 Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics from voting for communists
- 1960-01-30 Dutch communist trade union EVC'58 disbands
- 1961-03-13 Elizabeth Gurley Finn (70) becomes President of US Communist Party
- 1961-10-09 US members of communist party obliged to report themselves to police
- 1961-10-18 Emergency crisis proclaimed in South Vietnam due to communist attack
Event of Interest
1961-11-11 Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovitsj expelled from USSR's communist party

Vyacheslav Molotov

Georgy Malenkov
Event of Interest
1961-12-02 Fidel Castro declares he's a Marxist & will lead Cuba to Communism

Fidel Castro
- 1962-03-06 US promise Thailand assistance against communist aggression
- 1962-07-19 Hungarian communist party expels Rákosi & Gero
- 1962-10-08 Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes article "Bedingt abwehrbereit" ("Conditionally prepared for defense") about NATO manoeuver called "Fallex 62", uncovering sorry state of West German army. Magazine soon accused of treason.
- 1963-02-08 1st transmission of Clandestine Voice of Iraqi People (Communist)
- 1964-08-26 Italian Communist Party selects Luigi Longo as chairman
Appointment of Interest
1964-10-14 Premier Nikita Khrushchev replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party

Leonid Brezhnev

Nikita Khrushchev
Election of Interest
1965-03-22 Nicolae Ceausescu is elected General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

Nicolae Ceausescu
- 1965-05-24 Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional
- 1965-07-03 Harold Strachan, member of the Communist Party of South Africa and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, is served with a restriction order in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act
- 1965-10-20 Mass arrests of communists in Indonesia
Famous Birthdays
Hu Jintao
1942-12-21 Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (2002-12) and President of the People's Republic of China (2003-13), born in Taizhou, Jiangsu

Hu Jintao
- 1945-05-05 Jiří Svoboda, Czech director and politician (2nd Chairman of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), born in Kladno, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
- 1945-11-05 Aleka Papariga, Greek politician (General Secretary of Communist Party of Greece 1991-2013), born in Athens, Greece
- 1948-04-27 Amrit Kumar Bohara, Nepalese politician, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)
- 1949-03-01 Zoia Ceauşescu, Romanian mathematician and daughter of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu
- 1951-09-04 Nicu Ceaușescu, youngest child of Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and considered the President's heir apparent, born in Scornicești, Romania
- 1952-06-27 Madan Kumar Bhandari, Nepalese politician (Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)), born in Taplejung, Nepal (d. 1993)
- 1953-03-17 Filemon Lagman, Filipino communist revolutionary (d. 2001)
Xi Jinping
1953-06-15 Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (2012-) and President of the People's Republic of China (2013-), born in Beijing

Xi Jinping
Famous Deaths
- 2005-10-30 Shamsher Singh Sheri, Indian communist leader (b. 1942)
- 2006-11-20 Zoia Ceauşescu, Romanian mathematician and daughter of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, dies of lung cancer at 57
Hua Guofeng
2008-08-20 Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (1976-81) and Premier of the People's Republic of China (1976-80), dies at 87

Hua Guofeng
- 2010-07-21 Luis Corvalán, Chilean communist leader (b. 1916)
- 2011-01-08 Vang Pao, charismatic Laotian general who commanded a secret army of his mountain people in a long, losing campaign against Communist insurgents, dies at 81
- 2011-10-07 Ramiz Alia, the former communist leader and first president of the Albanian pluralist (b. 1925)
- 2013-01-11 Lars Werner, Swedish communist leader, dies at 77
- 2015-10-06 Árpád Göncz, Hungarian politician, 1st post-communist President (1990-2000), dies at 93