The Suwalki Agreement between Poland and Lithuania is signed.

The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.

Gabriel Narutowicz is announced the first president of Poland.

Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura, Polish Challenge 1932 winners, are killed when their RWD 6 airplane crashes during a storm.

World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.

Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day thus starting World War II in Europe.

World War II: following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany.

World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.

General Władysław Sikorski becomes commander-in-chief of the Polish Government in exile.

World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.

Members of Soviet politburo sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs, known also as the Katyn massacre.

World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.

A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Holocaust: In occupied Poland, the Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.

Jedwabne Pogrom: the massacre of Jewish people living in and near the village of Jedwabne in Poland.

Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland.

World War II: In Poland, the first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz.

World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.

World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, alienating the Western Allies, the Polish government in exile in London, from the Soviet Union.

Prisoners at the Nazi German Sobibor extermination camp in Poland revolted against the Germans, killing eleven SS troops who were guards there, and wounding many more. About 300 of the Sobibor Camp's 600 prisoners escaped from this Nazi extermination camp, and about 50 of these survived past the end of World War II (on May 8, 1945, European time).

World War II: Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.

The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland

Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.

Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.

The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.

Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.

World War II: The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.

The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.

Pope John Paul II first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.

In Poland, a plane crashes during final approach near Warsaw, killing 87 people, including a 14-man American boxing team.

Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.

After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.

Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union

General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by ''Solidarity''.

Poland bans Solidarity and all trade unions.

Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity leader, is released from a Polish prison after eleven months.

Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.

A Polish LOT Ilyushin IL-62M "Tadeusz Kościuszko" (SP-LBG) crashes after takeoff in Warsaw, Poland, killing 183 people.