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25 April 2024 –
Russia–NATO relations
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Sergei Ryabkov warns that Russia will make
NATO
nuclear weapons in
Poland one of its primary targets if they are deployed there.
(The Jerusalem Post )
7 April 2024 –
2024 Polish local elections
Polish opposition party
Law and Justice comes first in
local elections while the
ruling coalition retains a majority of the votes.
(Politico )
(Reuters)
1 April 2024 –
Israel–Hamas war
Seven volunteers from the
World Central Kitchen , including six
British ,
Polish ,
Australian and
Palestinian nationals and a dual
American -
Canadian citizen, are killed in an
Israeli
airstrike south of
Deir el-Balah .
(Al Jazeera)
29 March 2024 –
Polish President
Andrzej Duda signs a law suspending the country's participation in the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe .
(TVP World)
24 March 2024 –
Russian invasion of Ukraine
March 2024 Polish airspace violation
A
Russian
cruise missile violates
NATO airspace over
Poland , prompting the activation of aircraft from the
Polish Air Force .
(Reuters)
(Sky News)
1 March 2024 –
Nineteen people, including six children, are injured in a
vehicle-ramming attack in
Szczecin ,
Poland .
(Barron's)
Archived news
Latest news on top
2023
On 13 November, former TV host
Szymon Hołownia of the
Poland 2050 party was elected
Marshal (speaker) of the
Sejm (lower house of parliament).
On 15 October, the ruling
Law and Justice party won the
parliamentary election , but failed to retain a majority in the
Sejm , while a
nationwide referendum on a variety of topics failed due to a widespread boycott.
On 30 September,
Grzegorz Ryś ,
Archbishop of Łódź , was elevated to
cardinalate .
On 16 September,
Poland won the
2023 Men's European Volleyball Championship .
On 14 September,
Piotr Wawrzyk , dismissed from his post of Deputy Foreign Minister amid a
cash-for-visa scandal , was hospitalized after a suicide attempt.
On 9 September,
Green Border , a drama film directed by
Agnieszka Holland about the ongoing
migrant crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border, won the
Special Jury Prize at the
80th Venice International Film Festival .
On 25–27 August, saboteurs suspected to work for
Russia carried out a series of
cyberattacks against the Polish railway radio network , resulting in traffic disruption.
On 28 July, Poland won the gold medal in
women's team épée at the
2023 World Fencing Championships .
On 23 July,
Poland , the host nation, won the
2023 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League .
On 2 July, the
2023 European Games in
Kraków concluded with
Poland ranked 6th in the medal table.
On 30 June,
a road tunnel under the
Świna Channel, linking Poland's two largest islands,
Wolin and
Usedom (Uznam), was opened in
Świnoujście .
On 21 June, the
2023 European Games were opened at the
Municipal Stadium in
Kraków .
On 10 June, Polish tennis player
Iga Świątek won the
2023 French Open , her fourth
Grand Slam singles title.
On 4 June, the 34th anniversary of the
first partly free election in post-war Poland , at least 100,000 people
demonstrated in
Warsaw against
democratic backsliding under the
Law and Justice party.
On 21 February,
U.S. President
Joe Biden delivered a speech at the
Royal Castle in
Warsaw , ahead of the first anniversary of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine .
2022
On 12 December, Gen.
Mirosław Hermaszewski , the only Polish
cosmonaut to reach outer space, died at the age of 81.
On 15 November, during a
massive Russian shelling of targets throughout Ukraine , one
missile fell on Polish territory , killing two people in
Przewodów near the Ukrainian border.
On 14 November,
Jerzy Połomski , a popular actor and pop singer, died at the age of 89.
On 3 October,
Jerzy Urban , a scandalizing anti-clerical journalist who had served as press secretary for the Communist government in the 1980s, died at the age of 89.
On 27 September, one day after
a series of explosions rendered the
Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Germany inoperable, the
Baltic Pipe , carrying natural gas from the
North Sea to Denmark and Poland, was opened.
On 23 September,
Franciszek Pieczka , a prominent stage and film actor, died at the age of 94.
On 11 September, the
2022 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship , co-hosted by Poland and Slovenia, concluded with
Poland , the defending champion, in the second place.
On 10 September,
Iga Świątek won the
2022 US Open , her third
Grand Slam singles title, becoming the first Polish player to do so.
On 21 August, the
European Athletics Championships concluded with Poland winning 14 medals and finishing sixth in the medal table.
On 11 August, a
mass die-off of fish, beavers and other wildlife was discovered in the
Oder River downstream from
Oława .
On 9 August, the
44th Chess Olympiad concluded with Poland's
Oliwia Kiołbasa as the best individual player in the women's event.
On 24 July, the
World Athletics Championships concluded with
Poland winning four medals and finishing 8th in the medal table.
On 30 June, Poland completed the construction of a
5.5-meter-high steel wall topped with barbed wire along its
border with Belarus to prevent the
entry of migrants and asylum seekers .
On 4 June, Polish tennis player
Iga Świątek won the
French Open tournament.
On 16 March,
Karolina Bielawska won the
Miss World 2021 title, becoming the second Polish woman to achieve this after
Aneta Kręglicka in 1989.
On 24 February, Russia launched a
full-scale invasion of Ukraine , causing a massive influx of
Ukrainian refugees (over 3.6 million by 26 May) into Poland.
Poland at the 2022 Winter Olympics : on 6 February,
Dawid Kubacki won a bronze medal in
ski jumping .
2021
On 11 November, Agnieszka Mikołajczyk, an operatic soprano singer also known as
Aga Mikolaj , died at the age of 50.
On 29 October, the number of reported
COVID-19 cases in Poland surpassed three million.
On 27 October, the
European Court of Justice
imposed a daily fine of 1 million euros on Poland for its refusal to suspend
the disciplinary chamber of its
Supreme Court .
On 22 October, Poland legalized
pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers by force, which is illegal under EU and international law.
On 21 October,
Bruce Xiaoyu Liu of Canada won the
XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition held in
Warsaw .
On 7 October, Poland's
Constitutional Tribunal , chaired by
Julia Przyłębska , ruled that the supremacy of
European Union law is incompatible with the
Constitution of Poland .
On 21 September, the
Court of Justice of the European Union imposed a daily fine of 500,000 euros on Poland for its refusal to close the
Turów Coal Mine located close to the Czech and German borders.
On 12 September, Cardinal
Stefan Wyszyński , the
primate of Poland known for his opposition to Nazism and Communism, and
Róża Czacka , a nun and teacher of the blind, were
beatified in
Warsaw .
On 9 September,
Wiesław Gołas , a popular stage, cabaret and film actor, and
Home Army veteran, died at the age of 90.
On 2 September, Poland announced
a state of emergency along its border with Belarus, denying humanitarian workers access to
refugees stranded on the border .
Poland won 25 medals, including seven gold, at the
2020 Summer Paralympics , ranking 17th in
the medal table .
On 23 August, Poland
announced it would build a wall on its
border with Belarus , while refusing to admit or provide humanitarian aid to 32 Afghan refugees stranded on the border.
Poland won 14 medals, including four gold, at the
2020 Summer Olympics , ranking 17th in
the medal table .
On 7 August, Poland won a silver medal in
women's 4×400 m relay and a bronze medal in
women's K-4 500 m kayak sprint .
On 6 August,
Dawid Tomala won a gold medal in
50 km walk , while
Maria Andrejczyk won a silver medal in
javelin throw .
On 4 August,
Wojciech Nowicki and
Paweł Fajdek won gold and bronze medals respectively in
hammer throw , while
Agnieszka Skrzypulec and
Jolanta Ogar won a silver medal in
470 dinghy sailing , and
Patryk Dobek won a bronze medal in
800 m run .
On 3 August,
Anita Włodarczyk and
Malwina Kopron won gold and bronze medals respectively in
hammer throw , while
Karolina Naja and
Anna Puławska won a silver medal in
K-2 500 m kayak sprint , and
Tadeusz Michalik won a bronze medal in
Greco-Roman wrestling .
On 31 July, Poland won a gold medal in
mixed 4×400 m relay .
On 28 July, Poland won a silver medal in
women's quadruple sculls .
On 6 August,
Jan-Krzysztof Duda won the
Chess World Cup .
On 4 August, Belarusian Olympic athlete
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arrived in Poland on a
humanitarian visa following the
Belarus Olympic Committee 's attempts to repatriate her against her will.
On 31 July,
Jerzy Matuszkiewicz , called a "founding father of Polish jazz", died at the age of 93.
On 28 July, parts of Poland's
Bieszczady National Park were added to the serial
UNESCO World Heritage site , the
Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe .
From 29 to 30 May,
European Athletics Team Championships were held at the
Silesian Stadium in
Chorzów , with Poland defending the championship title.
From 5 to 7 March, the
European Athletics Indoor Championships were held in
Toruń .
On 27 February, Polish ski jumper
Piotr Żyła won a gold medal at the
Nordic World Ski Championships .
On 20 February,
Varso Tower , under construction in
Warsaw , was architecturally
topped out , becoming, at 310 m, the
tallest building in the European Union .
On 6 January, Polish ski jumpers,
Kamil Stoch and
Dawid Kubacki , won the first and third places, respectively, in the
Four Hills Tournament .
2020
On 19 December, Polish Olympic athlete
Maria Piątkowska died from
COVID-19 at the age of 89.
On 17 December, Polish footballer
Robert Lewandowski won the
FIFA World Player of the Year Award .
On 10 December,
Cyberpunk 2077 , a role-playing video game by the Polish game developer
CD Projekt , was released to universal critical acclaim, but widely criticized for technical faults in the console versions.
On 9 December, Polish film director
Agnieszka Holland was elected President of the
European Film Academy .
On 2 December, the number of reported
COVID-19 cases in Poland surpassed one million.
On 22 October, the
Constitutional Tribunal ruled that
abortion due to fetal defects was unconstitutional, leading to
large-scale pro-choice and anti-government protests across Poland in spite of a rapidly worsening
COVID-19 pandemic .
On 10 October, Polish tennis player
Iga Świątek won the
2020 French Open becoming the first Pole to win a
Grand Slam singles title.
On 6 August,
Andrzej Duda was sworn in for his second term as
president of the Republic of Poland .
On 29 May, writer and columnist
Jerzy Pilch , best known for his novel about alcoholism, The Mighty Angel , died at the age of 67.
On 12 July, the incumbent President
Andrzej Duda (endorsed by
Law and Justice ) won the
presidential election by a narrow margin, following the first round held on 28 June.
On 28 June, Poland held the first round of a
presidential election , in which the incumbent
Andrzej Duda (endorsed by
Law and Justice ) and Warsaw mayor
Rafał Trzaskowski (
Civic Platform ) advanced to the runoff vote.
On 10 May, the government failed to hold the
presidential election scheduled for that day amid an ongoing
coronavirus pandemic .
On 29 March, composer
Krzysztof Penderecki died at the age of 86.
On 10 March, a
lockdown was introduced across Poland to stem a
coronavirus pandemic .
2019
On 24 November, Polish
Romani singer
Viki Gabor won the
2019 Junior Eurovision Song Contest held in
Gliwice , Poland, with the song "
Superhero ".
On 13 October, the ruling
Law and Justice party won the
parliamentary elections in Poland .
On 10 October, Polish writer
Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2018.
On 6 July, the
Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region was inscribed in the
UNESCO World Heritage list.
On 7 February, former Prime Minister
Jan Olszewski died at the age of 88.
On 14 January, the mayor of
Gdańsk ,
Paweł Adamowicz , died at the age of 53 after being stabbed by a man who rushed on stage during an open-air charity event.
On 5 January, five 15-year-old girls died in a
fire in an escape room in
Koszalin .
2018
On 2–14 December, the
COP24 climate-change conference was held in
Katowice .
On 25 November, Polish singer
Roksana Węgiel won the
2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest with the song "
Anyone I Want to Be ".
On 30 September,
Poland won the
Volleyball Men's World Championship .
On 29 July,
Tomasz Stańko , an avant-garde jazz trumpeter, died at the age of 76.
On 28 July,
Olga Jackowska , a popular rock singer better known as Kora, died at the age of 67.
On 22 July,
Andrzej Bargiel became the first person to ski down from the summit of
K2 to the base camp.
On 29 June,
Irena Szewińska , a distinguished sprinter and sole Polish
IOC member, died at the age of 72.
On 22 May,
Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the
Man Booker International Prize for her novel
Flights .
Poland at the 2018 Winter Olympics :
On 6 February, President
Andrzej Duda signed an
amendment to the Act on the
Institute of National Remembrance that makes it a crime to imply the complicity of the Polish nation or state in the
Holocaust , for example, by referring to
German-operated concentration camps in Poland as
"Polish death camps" .
On 6 January,
Kamil Stoch became the second ski jumper ever to win all events of the
Four Hills Tournament .
2017
On 20 December, President
Andrzej Duda signed new legislation to restructure the
National Council of the Judiciary , defying disciplinary measures launched on the same day by the
European Commission , concerned that judiciary reforms in Poland present a "clear risk of a serious breach of the
rule of law ".
On 11 December, in a mid-term government reshuffle, finance minister
Mateusz Morawiecki (
Law and Justice party) was sworn in as
prime minister of Poland , replacing
Beata Szydło , who stayed in the cabinet as a deputy prime minister.
On 6 December, the discovery of
Halszkaraptor , a genus of semiaquatic bird-like dinosaur named after Polish paleontologist
Halszka Osmólska , was announced.
Poland at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics :
During its 41st session held in
Kraków (a
World Heritage site ) from 2 to 12 July 2017, the
UNESCO
World Heritage Committee added the
Tarnowskie Góry Silver Mine to the World Heritage List and called on Poland to stop logging another World Heritage site, the
Białowieża Forest .
On 2 June, Poland
was elected a non-permanent member of the
United Nations Security Council for the years 2018–2019.
On 26 May,
Zbigniew Brzezinski , a Polish-born diplomat, political scientist and former
national security advisor to U.S. President
Jimmy Carter , died at the age of 89.
On 22 May,
Zbigniew Wodecki , a popular singer, musician and composer, died at the age of 67.
On 15 March,
Wojciech Młynarski , a prominent poet, composer, singer and translator, died at the age of 75.
On 9 March, former Polish Prime Minister
Donald Tusk was re-elected
president of the European Council with support from all
EU member states except Poland.
On 5 March, Poland topped the medal table at the
2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships .
On 12 February, Polish composer and conductor
Krzysztof Penderecki won his fifth
Grammy Award , this time for
Best Choral Performance .
On 9 January,
Zygmunt Bauman , a prominent Polish-British sociologist and philosopher who developed the idea of
liquid modernity , died at the age of 91.
On 6 January, Polish ski jumpers,
Kamil Stoch and
Piotr Żyła , won the first and second places, respectively, in the
Four Hills Tournament .
During the first week of January, 46 people in Poland died from cold, as the
temperatures fell to −20 °C.
2016
A disagreement between the
Constitutional Tribunal on the one side and the legislative and executive powers, fully controlled by the
Law and Justice party since 2015, on the other resulted in a
constitutional crisis throughout 2016.
On 10 December, the
29th European Film Awards were presented in
Wrocław .
On 11 November, the
Temple of Divine Providence , first proposed in 1791, was opened in
Warsaw .
On 9 October,
Andrzej Wajda , a prominent film and theatre director and a notable representative of the
Polish Film School , died at the age of 90.
Poland at the 2016 Summer Paralympics :
Poland at the 2016 Summer Olympics :
Poland won 11 medals
at the 2016 Summer Olympics , including two gold medals awarded to
Magdalena Fularczyk and
Natalia Madaj in
women's double sculls , and
Anita Włodarczyk in
women's hammer throw .
On 20 August,
Maja Włoszczowska won a silver medal in
women's cross-country cycling .
On 19 August,
Oktawia Nowacka and
Wojciech Nowicki won bronze medals in
women's modern pentathlon and
men's hammer throw , respectively.
On 18 August,
Monika Michalik won a bronze medal in
women's freestyle 63 kg wrestling .
On 16 August,
Polish female kayakers won silver and bronze medals in
K-1 200 m and
K-2 500 m , respectively.
On 15 August,
Anita Włodarczyk won a gold medal in
women's hammer throw .
On 13 August,
Piotr Małachowski won a silver medal in
men's discus throw .
On 11 August,
Polish female rowers won gold and bronze medals in
double and
quadruple sculls , respectively.
On 6 August,
Rafał Majka won a bronze medal in
men's road bicycle race .
On 2 August, Cardinal
Franciszek Macharski ,
archbishop emeritus of Kraków , died at the age of 89.
From 26 to 31 July,
Kraków hosted the
World Youth Day , a gathering of young Catholics from around the world.
From 16 to 17 July, Kraków hosted the final round of the
2016 FIVB Volleyball World League .
On 10 July,
Poland topped the medal table at the
2016 European Athletics Championships .
From 8 to 9 July,
Warsaw hosted
a NATO summit .
On 5 June,
Stanislaus Papczyński , a Polish priest who founded the
Congregation of Marian Fathers , was
canonized .
From 17 to 31 January 2016,
European Men's Handball Championship was held in Poland.
Wrocław was designated one of two
European Cities of Culture for the year 2016.
2015
On 16 November,
Beata Szydło ,
Law and Justice party, was sworn in as
prime minister of Poland .
On 5 November, Gen.
Czesław Kiszczak , the
last Communist prime minister of Poland (in 1989), died at the age of 90.
On 1 November,
Agnieszka Radwańska won the
2015 WTA Finals tennis tournament.
In the
parliamentary election held on 25 October,
Law and Justice became the first party since the
fall of Communism to win a
majority in both houses of
Polish parliament .
On 20 October,
Seong-Jin Cho won the
XVII International Chopin Piano Competition in
Warsaw .
On 11 October,
Kajetan Kajetanowicz became the third Polish driver to win the
European Rally Championship .
On 22 September,
Robert Lewandowski , a Polish footballer playing for the German team
Bayern Munich , broke several records by scoring five goals in nine minutes.
On 6 September, Poland held a
referendum on questions related to electoral law, taxation, and financing of political parties, with results non-binding due to record-low turnout.
On 6 August,
Andrzej Duda was sworn in as
president of the Republic of Poland .
On 29 July,
Jan Kulczyk , an entrepreneur listed by
Forbes as the richest man in Poland, died at the age of 65.
On 24 May,
Andrzej Duda (
Law and Justice ) was
elected
president of the Republic of Poland , narrowly defeating the incumbent
Bronisław Komorowski in the
runoff vote .
On 19 May,
The Witcher 3 , a Polish
role-playing video game based on a
fantasy
book series by
Andrzej Sapkowski , was released with universal critical acclaim.
On 10 May, Poland held the first round of a
presidential election in which
Andrzej Duda (
Law and Justice ) and the incumbent
Bronisław Komorowski advanced to the
runoff vote .
On 24 April,
Władysław Bartoszewski , a
Warsaw Uprising veteran, former
foreign minister and champion of German-Polish and Jewish-Polish reconciliation, died at the age of 93.
On 13 April,
Günter Grass , a German-language writer of
Kashubian -German origin and
Nobel Prize winner, who explored the theme of German-Polish relations in
Nazi-era
Danzig , died at the age of 87.
On 8 March, a 6 km stretch of the second, east-west line of the
Warsaw Metro , Poland's only underground
rapid transit system, was opened for use.
Ida , a film directed by
Paweł Pawlikowski , won a
BAFTA award on 8 February and an
Oscar on 22 February.
On 1 February,
Poland won the bronze medal in the
World Men's Handball Championship .
On 9 January,
Józef Oleksy , former
prime minister and
marshal of the Sejm (parliamentary speaker), died at the age of 68.
On 7 January,
Tadeusz Konwicki , a
Home Army veteran, writer and film director known as a prominent representative of the
Polish Film School , died at the age of 89.
2014
On 26 December,
Stanisław Barańczak , a poet, translator, scholar and former dissident, died at the age of 68.
On 22 October, the world's first
monument to Wikipedia was unveiled in
Słubice .
In a government reshuffle prompted by former PM
Donald Tusk ' s election as
president of the European Council on 30 August,
Ewa Kopacz was sworn in as
prime minister of Poland on 22 September and replaced by former foreign minister
Radosław Sikorski as
Marshal of the Sejm (parliamentary speaker) on 24 September.
On 21 September,
Poland , the host nation, won the
2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship .
On 19 September, the
Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre was opened on the site where English troupes staged
William Shakespeare 's plays during his lifetime.
On 30 August, Polish Prime Minister
Donald Tusk was elected
president of the European Council .
On 24 July, the
ECHR
ruled that Poland had violated the
European Convention on Human Rights by allowing the
CIA to
torture two alleged terrorists in a
black site at
Stare Kiejkuty in 2002–2003.
On 4 June, leaders of Poland, the United States, and about 40 other countries gathered in
Warsaw to mark the 25th anniversary of
Solidarity 's victory in the
1989 parliamentary election that led to the first non-communist government in the
Eastern Bloc .
On 3 June,
Crimean Tatar activist
Mustafa Dzhemilev became the first recipient of the
Solidarity Prize .
On 25 May, the ruling
Civic Platform narrowly defeated the opposition
Law and Justice party in the
European Parliament election in Poland , while the inhabitants of
Kraków voted to withdraw their city's
bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in a binding referendum.
On 25 May, Gen.
Wojciech Jaruzelski , a
Cold War -era
military dictator and
president of Poland , died at the age of 90.
On 21 May,
Leszek Balcerowicz , Poland's former
finance minister , received the
Milton Friedman Prize awarded by the
Cato Institute think tank.
On 17 May,
Wojciech Polak succeeded
Józef Kowalczyk as
Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland .
On 27 April,
Pope Francis
canonized his Polish-born predecessor,
John Paul II .
On 24 April,
Tadeusz Różewicz , an
avant-garde poet and playwright, died at the age of 92.
On 7–9 March, the
2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships were held in
Sopot .
On 20 February, Polish foreign minister
Radosław Sikorski helped negotiate an end to the
civil unrest in Ukraine amid
widespread popular support in Poland for the Ukrainian Euromaidan .
Poland at the 2014 Winter Olympics :
Poland won six medals at the
2014 Winter Olympics , including four gold, the nation's best result in any winter Olympics.
On 22 February, Poland won silver and bronze medals in, respectively,
women's and
men's team pursuit speed skating .
On 15 February,
Zbigniew Bródka won a gold medal in
men's 1500 m speed skating , while
Kamil Stoch won a gold medal in
men's large hill individual ski jumping , his second gold medal in this Olympic Games.
On 13 February,
Justyna Kowalczyk won a gold medal in
women's 10 km classical cross-country skiing .
On 9 February,
Kamil Stoch won a gold medal in
men's normal hill individual ski jumping .
2013
On 29 December,
Wojciech Kilar , an acclaimed classical and film music composer, died at the age of 81.
On 5 December, Poland was hit by a
winter storm brought by
Cyclone Bodil (known locally as Ksawery), causing five deaths and blackouts in 400,000 households.
From 11 to 22 November, the
2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in
Warsaw .
On 28 October,
Tadeusz Mazowiecki , Poland's first
prime minister after the
fall of Communism , died at the age of 86.
On 21 October,
UNESCO designated
Kraków a
City of Literature .
From 20 to 27 October, the
2013 World Weightlifting Championships were held in
Wrocław .
On 15 August,
Sławomir Mrożek , a writer famous for his
satirical ,
absurdist and
black-humor dramas and stories, died at the age of 83.
On 12 August,
Paweł Fajdek won a gold medal in
men's hammer throw at the
2013 World Championships in Athletics .
2013 Wimbledon Championships :
On 7 July,
Artur Hajzer , one of the most accomplished Polish mountaineers, died at the age of 51 after falling off
Gasherbrum I .
On 15 May, the world's first life-saving
full face transplant was performed in
Gliwice .
On 19 April, the 70th anniversary of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , the
Museum of the History of Polish Jews was opened to the public (its permanent exhibition still under construction).
On 5 March,
Maciej Berbeka , Tomasz Kowalski, Adam Bielecki, and Artur Małek made the first winter ascent of
Broad Peak (8,051 m); the former two died during descent.
On 23 January, Cardinal
Józef Glemp ,
Primate Emeritus of Poland , died at the age of 83.
2012
On 20 October, the
Keret House , dubbed "the world's thinnest house", was opened in
Warsaw .
Poland at the 2012 Summer Paralympics :
Poland at the 2012
FAI World Gliding Championships :
Poland at the 2012 Summer Olympics :
On 8 July,
Poland won the
FIVB Volleyball World League for the first time.
On 7 July,
Agnieszka Radwańska became a runner-up in the
Wimbledon Championships women's singles in tennis.
From 8 June to 1 July, Poland and Ukraine jointly hosted the
2012 UEFA European Football Championship :
On 16 June, Brig. Gen.
Sławomir Petelicki (aged 65), the first commander of the
GROM special forces unit, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
On 31 May, U.S. President
Barack Obama expressed regret over erroneously referring to a "
Nazi death camp in
German-occupied Poland " as a
"Polish death camp" while posthumously awarding the
Presidential Medal of Freedom to
Jan Karski two days earlier.
On 3 March,
two passenger trains collided head-on near the town of
Szczekociny in southern Poland, killing 16 passengers and injuring 51 others.
On 1 February,
Wisława Szymborska , a poetess and
Nobel Prize winner, died at the age of 88.
On 29 January, the
National Stadium was opened in
Warsaw .
On 26 January, Poland signed the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement despite street, parliamentary, and online protests, including
DoS attacks against government websites (update: on 17 February Poland decided not to ratify the treaty) .
On 7 January,
Justyna Kowalczyk became the first cross-country skier to win the
Tour de Ski three times in a row.
2011
On 8–11 December, the
2011 European Short Course Swimming Championships were held in
Szczecin , where the host nation, Poland, ranked fourth in the medal table.
On 5 December,
Violetta Villas , a
coloratura soprano singer and former
Las Vegas diva, died at the age of 73.
On 4 December,
Adam Hanuszkiewicz , a prominent theater actor and director, died at the age of 87.
On 18 November,
Donald Tusk (
Civic Platform ) became Poland's first
prime minister since the
fall of communism to be sworn in again after a full four-year term in office.
On 8 November,
Anna Grodzka (
Palikot's Movement ) was sworn in as Poland's first
transsexual
member of parliament , while
Ewa Kopacz (
Civic Platform ) was elected Poland's first female
marshal of the Sejm .
On 1 November,
Tadeusz Wrona performed a
successful belly landing of a
LOT Polish Airlines
Boeing 767 at the
Warsaw Chopin Airport .
On 8−16 October,
Table Tennis European Championships were held at the
Ergo Arena in
Gdańsk and
Sopot .
On 9 October, the
Civic Platform became Poland's first policital party since 1989 to retain a plurality in
a parliamentary election .
On 9 October,
Agnieszka Radwańska won the
China Open women's singles in tennis.
On 29 August,
Paweł Wojciechowski won a gold medal in
men's pole vault at the
2011 World Championships in Athletics .
On 12 August,
a train derailed in the village of
Baby in central Poland, killing one passenger and injuring about 50 others.
On 5 August,
Andrzej Lepper (aged 57), leader of the
Self-Defence party, former
deputy marshal of the Sejm and former
deputy prime minister , was found hanged in his office, in a possible suicide.
On 10 July,
Poland , the host team of the
2011 FIVB World League final round, won the competition's bronze medal.
During the second half of 2011, Poland held the rotating
presidency of the Council of the European Union .
On 25 June,
Jan Kułakowski , Poland's principal negotiator in
accession talks with the
European Union , died at the age of 80.
On 1 June, a
Warsaw court acquitted seven Polish soldiers involved in the
Nangar Khel incident in Afghanistan of war crime charges.
On 17 May,
The Witcher 2 , a
role-playing video game and a sequel to
The Witcher , based on a
fantasy
book series by
Andrzej Sapkowski , was released.
On 1 May,
Pope Benedict XVI
beatified his Polish-born predecessor,
John Paul II .
On 3 March,
Irena Kwiatkowska , a popular
comedian and
cabaret actress, died at the age of 98.
2010
On 14 December,
John Godson (
Civic Platform ) was sworn in as Poland's first
black
member of parliament .
On 26 November, the Russian
State Duma declared
Joseph Stalin and other officials of the
Soviet Union to have been responsible for the 1940
Katyn massacre .
On 12 November, classical composer
Henryk Górecki , best known for his
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs , died at the age of 76.
On 6 November, the construction of a 33-meter tall statue of
Christ the King , the world's tallest effigy of
Jesus , was completed in
Świebodzin .
On 5 November, the
Copernicus Science Centre , Poland's largest
science museum , was opened in
Warsaw .
Chopin Year 2010, a series of events throughout the year celebrating the 200th birthday of
Frédéric Chopin :
On 17 October,
Pope Benedict XVI canonized
Stanisław Sołtys , a 15th-century Polish priest and theologian.
On 9 October, the
2010 Speedway Grand Prix season ended in
Bydgoszcz , with Poles
Tomasz Gollob and
Jarosław Hampel ranking first and second respectively in the final classification.
On 6 August,
Bronisław Komorowski was sworn in as
president of the Republic of Poland .
On 17 July, 6,000 people, watched by 200,000 visitors, took part in a
reënactment of the
Battle of Grunwald as part of its 600th anniversary celebrations.
On 12 July,
Henryk Jankowski , a controversial Roman Catholic priest who supported the
Solidarity movement in the 1980s, died at the age of 73.
On 9–11 July,
Wikimania (see
Wikimania 2010 ) was held at the
Polish Baltic Philharmonic in
Gdańsk .
On 3–8 July,
Microsoft 's
Imagine Cup student technology competition finals were held in
Warsaw .
On 4 July, following President
Lech Kaczyński 's death in
a plane crash ,
Sejm Marshal and acting President
Bronisław Komorowski (
Civic Platform ) won
an early presidential election , narrowly defeating the late president's twin and former Prime Minister
Jarosław Kaczyński (
Law and Justice ) in a
runoff vote .
On 2–4 July, the 10th Anniversary Ministerial Conference of the
Community of Democracies took place in
Kraków .
On 20 June, Poland held the first round of
an early presidential election following the death of President
Lech Kaczyński in
a plane crash on 10 April.
On 16 June, at the
Sonisphere Festival in
Warsaw , the
"Big Four"
thrash metal bands performed together for the first time.
On 6 June,
Jerzy Popiełuszko , a
Solidarity chaplain killed by the
Communist secret police , was
beatified in
Warsaw .
Several towns in southern Poland hit in May by the
worst flooding to strike
Central Europe in 160 years were inundated again in June.
On 23 May, 120 U.S. troops and a battery of
Patriot missiles were deployed in
Morąg near the Polish-Russian border.
On 22 May, bones found in the
Frombork Cathedral in 2005 and identified as those of
Nicolaus Copernicus were ceremoniously reburied in the same place.
In May, at least 15 people were killed and 23,000 evacuated after the
worst flooding to strike
Central Europe in 160 years.
On 13 May, Prime Minister
Donald Tusk received the
Charlemagne Prize in
Aachen , Germany.
On 9 May, Polish troops, along with American, British and French, marched in the
Moscow Victory Day Parade for the first time in the event's history.
On 8 May,
Józef Kowalczyk succeeded
Henryk Muszyński as
Archbishop of Gniezno and
Primate of Poland .
On 18 April, the late President
Lech Kaczyński and his wife
Maria Kaczyńska were given
a state funeral in the
Wawel Cathedral in
Kraków .
On 10 April, 96 people, including President
Lech Kaczyński , aged 60, and
other high-ranking Polish officials , died in a
plane crash near
Smolensk , Russia.
On 7 April, Polish and Russian prime ministers,
Donald Tusk and
Vladimir Putin , jointly commemorated the
Katyn massacre at the
Katyn war cemetery in Russia.
Poland at the 2010 Winter Olympics :
Poland won six medals
in the 2010 Winter Olympics , the nation's best result
in any winter Olympics , including the first gold (by
Justyna Kowalczyk ) since 1972.
On 27 February,
Justyna Kowalczyk won a gold medal in
women's 30 km classical cross-country skiing , Poland's second gold in any winter Olympics.
On 20 February,
Adam Małysz won a silver medal in
large hill individual ski jumping , his second Olympic silver in 2010.
On 19 February,
Justyna Kowalczyk won a bronze medal in
women's 15 km pursuit , her second Olympic medal in 2010.
On 17 February,
Justyna Kowalczyk won a silver medal in
women's cross-country skiing sprint .
On 13 February,
Adam Małysz won a silver medal in
normal hill individual ski jumping .
On 22 February, the
Helsinki Federation for Human Rights published flight logs provided by the
Polish Air Navigation Services Agency , indicating that
CIA
rendition flights landed at the
Szymany Airport in 2002–2003.
On 19 February,
IUPAC officially named the
element with
atomic number 112 as
copernicium in honor of
Nicolaus Copernicus .
On 8 February,
Krzysztof Skubiszewski , Poland's first post-Communist
foreign minister and president of the
Iran–U.S. Claims Tribunal , died at the age of 83.
On 12 January,
Polish police recovered
Beach in Pourville , a painting by
Claude Monet , which had been stolen from the
Poznań National Museum in 2000.
On 7 January, Polish and Swedish
paleontologists announced the discovery of the oldest known
tetrapod tracks, found in a quarry at
Zachełmie in the
Holy Cross Mountaints and dated to about 395 million years ago.
The
harsh winter of 2009–2010 disrupted traffic and claimed at least 122 (update: at least 139) lives in Poland.
2009
Late 2000s recession in Europe : Poland recorded a
real GDP growth rate of 1.2 percent (
Eurostat forecast; update: actual GDP growth was 1.7 percent ) and was the only
EU member to avoid
recession in 2009.
On 21 December,
Polish police recovered the
Arbeit macht frei sign which had been stolen from the gate of the former
Auschwitz concentration camp and hacked into three pieces three days earlier.
On 18 December,
Henryk Muszyński ,
Archbishop of Gniezno , succeeded Cardinal
Józef Glemp ,
Archbishop Emeritus of Warsaw , as
Primate of Poland.
On 11 December, Poland and the United States signed a
Status of Forces Agreement specifying the terms of the planned deployment of
US troops and a
Patriot missile battery on Polish soil.
On 5 November, Finland and Sweden gave a permit to build the
Nord Stream , a
natural gas
pipeline linking Russia and Germany, opposed by Poland and the
Baltic states for
energy security concerns, in their
exclusive economic zones .
On 10 October, President
Lech Kaczyński signed the
Treaty of Lisbon , making Poland the 26th
EU nation to ratify the agreement.
On 4 October,
Poland , the host team of the
2009 Women's European Volleyball Championship , won the championship's bronze medal.
On 2 October,
Marek Edelman , cardiologist and the last surviving leader of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , died at the age of about 90.
From 7 to 20 September, Poland hosted the
FIBA European Basketball Championship .
On 17 September, the United States abandoned the plan to install a
missile defense complex in Poland .
On 13 September,
Poland won
Men's European Volleyball Championship for the first time.
On 1 September, leaders of Poland, Germany, Russia and about 20 other countries gathered at the
Westerplatte in
Gdańsk to mark the 70th anniversary of the
German invasion of Poland that triggered
World War II in Europe .
Poland at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics :
On 17 July,
Leszek Kołakowski , a distinguished philosopher and critic of
Marxism , died at the age of 82.
On 14 July, former
Polish Prime Minister
Jerzy Buzek (
Civic Platform ,
European People's Party ) was elected
president of the
European Parliament .
On 14 July,
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz , a prominent theater and film actor associated with the
Cinema of Moral Anxiety , died at the age of 74.
On 7 June, the ruling
Civic Platform party won the
European Parliament
election in Poland .
On 4 June, Poland marked the 20th anniversary of
Solidarity 's victory in the nation's
first partly free parliamentary election since 1928.
On 13 April, a
fire destroyed a homeless hostel and killed at least 22 people in
Kamień Pomorski .