Havel at Columbia



This Day in The Velvet Revolution, 1989

November 17, 1989: Police violently suppress demonstration in Prague; the Velvet Revolution begins

A student demonstration in Prague is met with police violence, and the events that will come to be known as the Velvet Revolution are underway. Havel is at his country home in Hrádeček, but returns to Prague after receiving news of the violence. During the following days, hundreds of thousands gather in squares in Prague and other cities in Czechoslovakia to demand change in their country.