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It started on November 16 1989 with a peaceful student demonstration in Bratislava. One day later, on November 17, 1989, another peaceful student demonstration in Prague was severely beaten back by the communist riot police. That event sparked a set of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December, and a general two-hour strike of the population on November 27. By November 20 the number of peaceful protestors assembled in Prague swelled from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million. With other communist regimes falling all around it, and with growing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on November 28November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 33 days remaining. Events 1095 On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appointed bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulous they would give up their monopolyAlternate use: Monopoly (game In economics, a monopoly (from the Greek monos one + polein to sell) is defined as a market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service. Monopolies are characterized by a lack of economic competition fo on political power. Barbed wireBarbed wire is a type of wire constructed with sharp edges or points. It is used to construct inexpensive fences. A person or animal trying to pass through a barbed-wire fence will suffer discomfort and possibly injury. Barbed-wire fencing requires only f was removed from the border with West GermanyWest Germany was the informal but almost universally used name for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until 1990, during which years the Federal Republic did not yet include the eastern part of Germany. Since the German reunification of 1990, the F and AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the on December 5December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 26 days remaining. Events 1484 Pope Innocent VIII writes a Papal Bull that sets the inquisition into full swing and kills hundreds of thousands (perhaps mil. On December 10December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 21 days remaining in the year. Events 1041 Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V. 1817, the Communist President Gustáv HusákGustav Husak ( January 10, 1913 Dubravka (today part of Bratislava) November 18, 1991 Bratislava) was a Slovak politician, a long-term Communist leader of Czechoslovakia and of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s. His rule is know appointed the first largely non-communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned. Alexander Dubcek was elected speaker of the federal parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on December 29 1989.
As one of the results of the Velvet revolution, the first democratic elections since 1948, held in June 1990, brought the first completely non-communist government to Czechoslovakia in over forty years.