Memel

From GenWiki

Memel is today known as Klaipeda, Lithuania. Klaipeda, Lithuania's port city on the Baltic Sea, is the third largest town in the country. It is located on the very southern seashore of the Baltic Sea, at a strait connecting the Kursiu Marios lagoon with the sea.

Timeline

1 A.D.	Historians maintain that a settlement of ancient Balts, the ancestors of modern Lithuanians stood on the coats of the Kursiu Marios lagoon at the estuary of the Dane river.
1230	The first Lithuanian state was established by the Grand Duke Mindaugas
1252	Klaipeda was founded. The Livonian Order of Germany built a wooden castle at the mouth of the Danges River and called it Memelburg.
1254	A town grew around the castle, Klaipeda was granted the L\ufffdbeck rights; a port, as well as shipping and commerce, expanded.
1328	The first Livonan Order granted from Livonia.
1410	Even after the victory at Zalgiris, Klaipeda remained under Germans.
1422	Area north of the Memel River given to Lithuania.
1540	Fire in Klaipeda. After this, the fortress in Memel was built.
1541	The first time ships are built in Memel
1567	The first time Jews were mentioned in Memel.
1593	commercial shipbuilding started.
1629-35	Klaipeda occupied by Swedes.
1678	Klaipeda devastated by fire set by the Swedes. The renovation of the city takes decades.
1709	Big loss of population due to the Plague in northern Prussia. The loss is made up by the religious emigrants (hugenots, salzburg emigrants).
1723	Memel is constructed with the department Gumbinnen. The first mayor is mentioned. Friedrich Wilhelm I forces the building of the fortress in Memel.
1757-62	Klaipeda occupied by Tsarist Russia
1807	Klaipeda became the residence of Prussian Kings after the French army occupied Berlin (fleeing from Napoleon).
January 1, 1817	Friedrich Wilhelm Horch published his paper "Memelschen Wochenblatt"
1818 -78	Klaipeda belongs to the city district K\ufffdnigsberg.
1849	The first edition of the Memler Dampfboot (a popular Memel Newspaper) is printed.
October 4 & 5, 1854	the town was devastated by fire.
1863	The building of the King Wilhelm Canal started
1871	The establishment of the Second Reich gave an impetus for a speedy Germanization of all national minorities living on the territory.
1873	The King Wilhelm Canal finished
1893	Memel receives a new Post Office. Telephone line Memel-Berlin available
1909	The Wannagger Church in Wannaggen (outskirts of Memel) was finished
June 28, 1919	Treaty of Versaille was signed. After the defeat of Germany in World War I, the town and the whole region of Klaipeda was placed under the protectorate of the Entente states.
February 13, 1920	Klaipeda was administrated by the French occupation forces until 1923.
December 1923	Big uprising was organized, with the assistance of Lithuanian government. The uprising determined the future of the Klaipeda region. All the territory and the sea-port were returned to Lithuania with the right of self-government
March 23, 1939	Klaipeda, the only sea-port of Lithuania, was seized by Nazi Germany.
1940	Soviets occupy Lithuania
1941	Lithuania overrun by Nazi Germany. The republic was briefly re-established in the interval between the two calamities, which saw tens of thousands deported to Siberia and the near disappearance of the Jewich community in Hitler's "final solution".
January 28, 1945	Klaipeda was liberated.
March 11, 1990	Republic was again proclaimed.
Feb. 14, 1993	Lithuanians turned out to vote for Algirdas Brazauskas, making him the first directly elected president of Lithuania.