VILNIUS - In Your Pocket

10 history
1991 January 13 Soviet forces try unsuccessfully to storm
the parliamentary building in Vilnius. A large crowd ensures the
delegates are safe inside. However, during the Soviet bid to
reclaim the media by storming the Television Tower, 14 people
are killed. February 12 Iceland becomes the first country to
recognise an independent Lithuania. July 31 Seven border
guards and policemen are killed at the Medininkai border
checkpoint by Soviet Special Forces. August 21The Moscow
putsch collapses. Soviet troops leave the buildings they’ve
occupied since January. Lenin’s statue is removed from
Vilnius’ Lukiškių Aikštė (Lukiškės Square). A photograph of
the event appears on the cover of Issue N°1 ofVilnius In Your
Pocket, published on May 1, 1992.August 29 Sweden
becomes the first Western country to open an embassy in
Vilnius. September 2 The USA recognises Lithuania, Latvia
and Estonia. September 17 All three Baltic countries are
re-admitted into the UN.
1992 February 8 Lithuanians participate under their own
flag at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1928.
1993 June 25 Lithuania’s pre-war currency, the litas, is
re-introduced. August 31 The last Russian soldier leaves
Lithuania. September 4-8 Pope John Paul II visits.
1994 December Vilnius’ Old Town joins the list of Unesco
World Heritage sites.
1998 January 4 Valdas Adamkus is elected president.
Adamkus, who fled Lithuania in 1944, was a senior official
at the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago before
returning to Lithuania to run for president. December
21 Seimas abolishes the death penalty in response to
international pressure from the EU.
21st century
2001 June 23-27 The Dalai Lama visits Lithuania, visiting
various sites in Vilnius and Kaunas.
2002 February 2 The litas switches pegging from the US
dollar to the euro in readiness for EU accession, into which
the country is invited to join on October 9. November 22
Lithuania is invited to become a member of Nato. George
Bush visits Vilnius the following day, becoming the first US
president to visit the city.
2003 In the January 5 run-off election, president Valdas
Adamkus is voted out of office by the 46-year-old right wing
underdog Rolandas Paksas. May 10-11 A staggering 91%
of the 64% of the population who turned out to vote give a
resounding Yes to EU membership.
2004 Jan-April Impeachment hearings take place as
president Rolandas Paksas is found guilty of violating the
Lithuanian constitution and his oath as president in his
dealings with unsavoury Russian business partners. April
2 Lithuania becomes a fully-fledged member of Nato and
the EU on May 1. June 27 A 77-year-old Valdas Adamkus
is re-elected president. July Virgilijus Alekna, whose day
job is protecting the president, wins a gold medal at the
Athens Olympics in the discus. December 31 The Ignalina
Nuclear Power Plant says farewell to the first of its two
RBMK reactors.
2007 December 21 Lithuania joins the Schengen zone,
allowing borderless travel to and from other Schengen
countries. December 22 The Lithuanian Television and
Radio Commission bans broadcasting of the Voice of Russia
radio station.
Historical names
The national poem of Poland
Pan Tadeusz (Lithuanian,
Ponas Tadas) by
the 19th-century Romantic
poet Adam Mickiewicz
(Lithuanian, Adomas
Mickevičius, pictured)
opens somewhat confusingly
with the words ‘Oh
Lithuania, my fatherland!’
The fact that the Polish
Mickiewicz referred to
Lithuania as his fatherland serves as a good example as
to just how linguistically — and ethnically — complicated
and bewildering things are in this corner of the world. Consequently
it should therefore come as no great surprise
to learn that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was ruled by
somebody known as both Vytautas (Lithuanian) and Witold
(Polish) whose capital was known as Trakai (Lithuanian),
Troki (Polish) and Trok (Yiddish) and who spoke… Ruthenian.
Vytautas/Witold quite possibly had kugel (Yiddish)
and kugelis (Lithuanian) for lunch occasionally, and when
he died was he buried in Vilnius (Lithuanian) and Wilno (Polish).
A cause for much heated debate in Lithuania, not least
among its more patriotic citizens, Vilnius In Your Pocket
apologises for any bad feeling caused by what some may
consider a misuse of some of the words used in this guide.
There’s not a lot we can do about it. Adam Mickiewicz
incidentally was born in what’s now Belarus.
2008 June Lithuania outlaws the public display of Nazi and
Soviet symbols. August While most public attention is on
basketball, Edvinas Krungolcas and Andrejus Zadneprovskis
win silver and bronze respectively in the modern pentathlon
at the Beijing Olympics. The Lithuanian basketball team reach
the semi-finals but eventually come home empty handed.
2009 Lithuania celebrates 1,000 years since its name was
first mentioned in written texts. January 17 With 90Lt million
of mounting debts, the national airline, flyLAL, suspends
all services. Dalia Grybauskaitė, the so-called Iron Lady, is
inaugurated as Lithuania’s first female president on July
12. December 31 Vilnius bows out of a disastrous year as
European Capital of Culture on the same day as the Ignalina
Nuclear Power Plant closes for good.
2010 Lithuania celebrates 20 years of independence from
the Soviet Union on March 11. In a sinister U-turn, on May 19
a court in Klaipėda approves the public display of swastikas
arguing that they represent Lithuania’s historical heritage, not
Nazi Germany. On June 26, at the age of 77, Lithuania’s final First
Secretary under the Communists and its first post-independence
president dies after a short battle with cancer. Lithuania take
bronze medal in the World Basketball Championship in Turkey
after defeating Serbia 99-88 on September 12.
2011 Lithuania commemorates the centenary of the death of
the painter and composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
The country hosts the EuroBasket 2011 competition in
cities nationwide between August 31 and September 18.
Lithuania is defeated 67-65 by FYR Macedonia in the quarter
finals in Kaunas on September 15.
2012 The Lithuania Under-21 basketball team become the
European champions on July 22, narrowly beating France
50-49 in Ljubljana.
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