60 of 60 events · showing 41–60
Sovereign state in northeastern Europe
1940–1991
The Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and remained under its control until its dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltic states after it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
1940
The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed in August 1939. In 1989, the USSR condemned the 1939 secret protocol between Nazi Germany and itself that had led to the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries, including Latvia.
29 June 1941 – April 1942
The Liepāja massacres were a series of mass executions, many public or semi-public, in and near the city of Liepāja (German: Libau), on the west coast of Latvia in 1941 after the German occupation of Latvia. The main perpetrators were detachments of the Einsatzgruppen, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Ordnungspolizei (ORPO), and Latvian auxiliary police and militia forces.
July 1941 – 1944
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Baltic states were under military occupation by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. Initially, many Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians considered the Germans liberators from the Soviet Union.
9 July 1941
The Baltic strategic defensive operation (Russian: Прибалтийская стратегическая оборонительная операция, romanized: Pribaltiyskaya strategicheskaya oboronitel'naya operatsiya) encompassed the operations of the Red Army from 22 June to 9 July 1941 conducted over the territories of Soviet-occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in response to the offensive launched by the Wehrmacht in Operation Barbarossa.
August 1941
The Jelgava massacres were the killing of the Jewish population of the city of Jelgava, Latvia that occurred in the second half of July or in early August 1941. The murders were carried out by German police units under the command of Alfred Becu, with a significant contribution by Latvian auxiliary police organized by Mārtiņš Vagulāns.
9 October 1944 – 10 May 1945
The Courland Pocket was a pocket located on the Courland Peninsula in Latvia on the Eastern Front of World War II from 9 October 1944 to 22 May 1945. The last battle with a regular German army unit took place here on May 22, 1945.
24 October 1944
The Riga offensive (Russian: Рижская наступательная операция, lit. 'Riga offensive operation') was part of the larger Baltic offensive on the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place late in 1944, and drove German forces from the city of Riga.
1987–1991
The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union annexed the Baltics around 1940, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (a non-aggression agreement with Nazi Germany), though this annexation was not widely recognized.
January 1991 – 27 January 1991
The Barricades (Latvian: Barikādes), also the Time of the Barricades (Barikāžu laiks) or the Barricades of 1991 (1991. gada barikādes) were a series of confrontations between the Republic of Latvia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in January 1991 which took place mainly in Riga.
3 October 1998
A referendum on the citizenship law was held in Latvia on 3 October 1998. The Saeima had made amendments to the law in June that increased the opportunities for naturalisation and provided the additional option of obtaining Latvian citizenship for non-citizens (nepilsoņi) and stateless persons (bezvalstnieki) born in Latvia from August 1991 onwards.
13 November 1999
A referendum on state pensions was held in Latvia on 13 November 1999. A bill amending the state pension law had been passed by the Saeima on 5 August.
20 March 2003 – 15 December 2011
The Iraq War (Arabic: حرب العراق, romanized: ḥarb al-ʿirāq), also referred to as the Second Gulf War (Gulf War II), was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began in March 2003 with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein.
7 July 2007
A referendum on two proposed security laws was held in Latvia on 7 July 2007; the referendum had been called after the president refused to sign the laws, claiming possible influence of oligarchs on Latvia's national security, and after 212,000 signatures had been collected, meeting the requirement of about 150,000 signatures. Although the referendum failed to reach the quorum of 453,730 votes, the results showed massive disapproval of the amendments.
2 August 2008
A constitutional referendum to amend the constitution of Latvia in order to allow one-tenth of the total registered electorate to initiate a popular referendum to dissolve the Latvian parliament was held in Latvia on 2 August 2008. The referendum on this issue was triggered when the Government of Latvia voted against an opposition motion to adopt this change to the constitution, which resulted in a referendum in Latvia by law.
23 August 2008
A referendum on amendments in the pensions law was held in Latvia on 23 August 2008. It failed due to low turnout, as 453,730 votes (half of the votes cast in the previous parliamentary election) would have been necessary to make it valid.
23 July 2011
A referendum on whether the Saeima should be dissolved early was held in Latvia on 23 July 2011. President Valdis Zatlers used his parliamentary dissolution power for the first time in the history of Latvia.
21 November 2013
On 21 November 2013 the roof of a Maxima shopping centre in the Zolitūde neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia, collapsed at 17:44 local time, resulting in the deaths of 54 people, including three rescue workers, and injuries to another 41 people. An unknown number of people were able to leave the store on their own after the initial collapse.
1 December 2019
The global COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020.
24 January 2020
The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all have reported at least one death, with the exception of Vatican City.