January 1968Alexander Dubcek appointed leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
April 1968
Dubcek and allies issue an "action plan", softening censorship and advocating some features of democracy and a market economy.
March and July 1968
Dubcek fails to convince Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev that Czechoslovakia is not a danger to Kremlin control of eastern Europe.
August 20th-21st 1968
Soviet troops and Warsaw Pact allies invade Czechoslovakia.
August 27th 1968
Dubcek and team return from the Soviet Union having signed the Moscow Protocol, which scales back reforms.
April 1969
Dubcek is replaced as party leader by Gustav Husák. "Normalisation" begins, with former reformists forced out of public life.
December 1989
After the Velvet Revolution, dissident playwright Václav Havel (right) is elected president, and Dubcek becomes speaker of parliament.
