History of the Czech Lands from Prehistory to the Present
Anchors that exam questions use
Hold the skeleton, then hang detail on it. Great Moravia (9th century, Cyril and Methodius 863) precedes the Přemyslid state centred on Prague; St Wenceslas is murdered around 935 and becomes the patron saint. The Luxembourg era peaks with Charles IV (1346–1378): Prague archbishopric 1344, Charles University and the New Town 1348, St Vitus continuation, the crown jewels.
The Hussite period begins with Jan Hus burned at Constance in 1415, the first Prague defenestration in 1419 and the wars that follow. The Battle of the White Mountain (1620) ends Bohemian estates' revolt and opens re-Catholicisation and Germanisation; the Thirty Years' War closes with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Habsburg reform era: Maria Theresa and Joseph II - Patent of Toleration and abolition of serfdom, both 1781. National Revival, 1848, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.
Czechoslovakia is declared 28 October 1918 (Masaryk, Beneš, Štefánik). Munich Agreement 30 September 1938; occupation 15 March 1939; Lidice destroyed 10 June 1942; liberation May 1945; communist coup February 1948; Prague Spring 1968 and the invasion of 21 August 1968; Charter 77 (1977); Velvet Revolution 17 November 1989; the state splits on 1 January 1993; NATO 1999; EU 1 May 2004.
Trap: 1938 vs 1939, 1948 vs 1968, 1918 vs 1993, and confusing the two defenestrations (1419, 1618).
Rule of thumb: recite dates as century-plus-year pairs (fourteen-fifteen, sixteen-twenty) so neighbouring years cannot slip.