Happy Birthday ...Czechoslovakia
Just a quick entry about October 28th. Today is a national holiday. Today marks the day when Czechoslovakia succeeded from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Yes, true this nation hasn't been Czechoslovakia since 1993, but the celebration lives on.

So, a flash of history here...Czechoslovakia was ruled by either the Austrian-Hungarian Empire or Hapsburg Dynasty from 1526 up to the end of World War I.

In World War I, Austria-Hungary was against the Allied Powers (UK, USA, France & Italy).

Toward the end of the war, when Allied Powers were looking as the favorites to win, Bohemia and the neighboring lands recognized a good opportunity to declare independance from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

On October 28th, 1918, they got what they wished for and Czechoslovakia was born.

In 1938, Czechoslovakia was less than 20 years old when the rest of Europe parceled it up to appease Hitler. Still stinging from the "Great War" (no need yet to call it World War I), the UK, US, France and Italy believed in appeasement over war. The reward for Hitler to not wage war on them was a section of Czechoslovakia called "Sudenland". Of course, this failed and Czechoslovakia missed celebrating its 21st birthday in 1939 by six months before Nazi Germany came in and annexed the rest of the country. The historical lesson of the century was that appeasement doesn't work when dealing with a maniacal powermonger.

Czechoslovakia was 're-born' in 1945, released from Nazi Germany. But now as part of the Warsaw Pact, Czechoslovakia wasn't exactly "free." In the spring of 1968 (dubbed The Prague Spring), the leaders decided to "put a human face on socialism" turning Czechoslovakia into the most liberal country in the Eastern Bloc, allowing all sorts of human rights and freedoms. Most of the locals loved Prague Spring. The Soviets didn't. On August 21, 1968, the Soviets rolled between 5000 and 7000 tanks through Prague to show their displeasure.

It took a revolution (the Velvet Revolution) in 1989 to give Czechoslovakia its third birth as a nation. Finally, on January 1st, 1993, the nation split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Happy Birthday.