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APRIL FOOL’S DAY
Prima Aprilis is marked in Poland by people playing pranks on one another. The media join in and intersperse their news reports with various tall tales and tongue-in-cheek misinformation intended to confuse and amuse.
1939. Birth of Phil Niekro (†2020), Major League Baseball pitcher. With 318 career victories, he was one of the most successful knuckleball pitchers of all time. Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.
1967. Death of three-time world wrestling champ Zbyszko Cyganiewicz.
1548. Death of King Zygmunt I the Old, at age 81.
1938. Territorial changes of Polish Voivodeships
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HOLY THURSDAY (2026)
Wielki Czwartek, commemorating the institution of the Holy Eucharist and Catholic priesthood, attracts overflow congregations to evening masses. Priests wash the feet of 12 older men at the altar to symbolize the Church’s service to the faithful. Wooden clappers replace bells in anticipation of Good Friday’s somber mood.
2005. Death of Saint John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland, 84. He is considered the most influential person of the 20th century, credited with bringing an end to Communism.
1880. Broadway Market, famed Buffalo Polonia fresh produce and meat market, established.
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GOOD FRIDAY (2026)
1919. Polish Army captured Vilno (Vilnius), Lithuania from Soviet Army.
1679. English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist Edmund Halley (Halley’s Comet) meets Johannes Hevelius (Jan Heweliusz) in Danzig. Hevelius is councillor and mayor of Danzig (Gdańsk), then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As an astronomer, he gained a reputation as “the founder of lunar topography,” and described ten new constellations, seven of which are still recognized by astronomers.
1981. First issue of Tygodnik Solidarność, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, editor-in-chief ¶ Mazowiecki († 28 October 2013) author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, was one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and Poland's first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, having held the post from 1989 to 1991.
1849. Death of Polish poet and dramatist Julius Slowacki, in Paris.
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HOLY SATURDAY (2026)
Wielka Sobota is associated by most Poles with the traditional blessing of Easter food. After the blessing, it is customary to stop and say a prayer at the tableau of Christ’s Tomb. New fire and fresh Holy Water are also blessed on this day.
1794. Polish forces under Tadeusz Kościuszko victorious in Battle of Raclawice.
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EASTER SUNDAY
Wielkanoc, the most important celebration in the Catholic calendar, commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Things commence with an early-morning Resurrection Procession which thrice encircles the church before Holy Mass begins. After Mass, families head home for a festive Easter breakfast known as święcone featuring the hallow fare blessed on Holy Saturday.
1804. Birth of Vincent S. Dziewanowski († 1883), Wisconsin pioneer credited with establishing the city of Pułaski.
1782. Birth of Wincenty Krasiński († 24 Nov. 1858) Polish nobleman, political activist, and military leader.
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SMIGUS – DYNGUS (2026)
Easter Monday / Lany Poniedziałek (Wet Easter Monday) is celebrated with an old folk custom called śmigus-dyngus, in which boys try to catch girls off guard and drench them with water. The girls respond in kind and things often turn into a very wet free-for-all. Schools and workplaces have the day off in Poland. In American Polonia, it is celebrated with day-long dancing and celebrating.
1953. Birth of champion figure skater Janet Nowicki Lynn.
1939. Great Britain and Poland signed a military pact.
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1884. Birth of Polish ethnographer and anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski († 1942), considered the founder of the Science of Social Anthropology.
1890. Birth of painter Adam Styka († Sept. 23, 1959). His exquisite ability of captivating and conveying to his paintings faithfully the vibrating strong colors full of contrast of the hot Sahara Desert of Northern Africa, colors harmoniously blended together, made him a master without compare and earned him the appellation, “The Master of Sunlight.” Adam’s Western paintings of the American Wild West were regarded by art critics such as Dick Owens, as the best Western paintings whenever painted by any artist. Later years of his life he spent on creating religious painting such as “The Assumption of Virgin Mary” and “The Ascension of Jesus”; all of them are located in the churches of Europe and the United States.
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1858. Birth of panorama painter Jan Styka († April 11, 1925) whose works include “The Battle of Raclawice,” and the largest religious painting in the United States depicting the crucifixion of Jesus. It hangs at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif. He was also an illustrator and poet, and known as a great patriotic speaker - his speeches were printed in 1915 under the French title L’ame de la Pologne (The Soul of Poland).
1525. Signing of the Treaty of Kraków, officially ending the Polish–Teutonic War.
1909. Death of international actress Helena (Modrzejewska) Modjeska, in Newport, California (b. 1840).
1943. Mass graves of Polish officers murdered by Soviet security forces are discovered at Katyń. The discovery was announced five days later.
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BLESSED KATARAZYNA CELESTYNA
Catherine Celestine Faron was born in Zabrzez, Poland in 1913. At the age of five she was orphaned and raised by pious, childless relatives. Desiring the religious life, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1930. She served in the community as a kindergarten teacher and catechist. After the breakout of World War II she became the leader of her religious house, ran an orphanage, and helped the poor. She was eventually arrested by the Gestapo, charged with conspiracy against the Nazis and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on the feast of Epiphany in 1943, where she was assigned to manual labor digging ditches. She praised God in all her suffering and resigned herself to following his will. Due to the poor conditions, she developed typhoid fever and tuberculosis. Because she completed the nine First Fridays devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she trusted that she wouldn’t die without Holy Communion as Our Lord promised. On December 8, 1943, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, she received Holy Communion as viaticum which was secretly brought to the camp by a prisoner priest. While on her deathbed she prayed intensely for various intentions on a rosary made of bread. According to witnesses she offered her sufferings for the conversion of a priest who had fallen away from the Church, who later did return to the true Faith. Bl. Katarzyn finally died from her illness on Easter morning. She is one of the 108 beatified Polish Catholic martyrs killed (1944) during World War II by Nazi Germany.
1241. Death of Henry II the Pious, Duke of Silesia and High Duke of Poland, as well as Duke of South-Greater Poland from 1238. ¶ Henryk II died in the Battle of Liegnitz, a fight between the Mongol Empire and a combined defending force of Poles, Moravians, and Germans, supported by feudal nobility and a few knights from military orders sent by the Pope. The action attempted to halt the Mongol invasion of Europe. The battle came two days before the Mongol victory over the Hungarians at the much larger Battle of Mohi.
1941. In Częstochowa, Nazis create a ghetto for Jews. By the end of World War II some 45,000 of Częstochowa’s Jews were murdered by the Germans, almost the entire Jewish community living there.
1921. Russo-Polish conflict ended with the signing of the Riga Treaty.
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2010. A plane carrying a contingent of Polish leaders, including President Lech Kaczynski, crashes out Smolensk, Russia, on route memorial services marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyń Massacre. Kaczynski and 95 others are all killed in the crash.
1525. Prussian Homage, the formal investment of Albert of Prussia as duke of the Polish fief of Ducal Prussia.
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1942. Nazi Germany starts the deportation of Jews from Zamosc, Poland to the Belzec death camp. The deportations continued until the ghetto was liquidated in October 1942.
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1943. The Nazi regime announces that the bodies of 4,150 Polish officers, bound and shot in the back of their heads, has been discovered in a mass grave in the Katyń Forest, near Smolensk, USSR. It blames the killings on the Soviet Union. The 4,150 dead were among 15,000 Polish officers and leaders shot by Soviet police in 1940.
1012. Duke Oldřich of Bohemia deposed and blinded his brother Jaromír, who fled to Poland
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1909. Birth of Stanislaw Ulan, Polish American mathematician who assisted in the development of the hydrogen bomb.
1986. Pope John Paul II meets with Rabbi Elio Toaff, chief rabbi of Rome, at the Synagogue of Rome, the first pope to do so.
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966. Baptism of Poland. The baptism of Poland refers to the ceremony when the first ruler of the Polish state, Mieszko I and much of his court, converted to the Christian religion. Mieszko’s wife Dobrawa of Bohemia, a zealous Christian, played a significant role in promoting Christianity in Poland, and might have had significant influence on converting Mieszko himself. ¶ The exact place of Mieszko’s baptism is disputed; historians, however, argue that Gniezno or Poznań are the most likely sites. Some historians have suggested less likely alternative locations, such as Ostrów Lednicki, or even in German Regensburg.The date of Mieszko’s baptism was on the Holy Saturday of 14 April 966.
1430. A band of Hussites raided the monastery at Częstochowa, Poland, and robbed it of its precious artifacts.
1570. The Czech Brethren, Calvinists, Hernhutters, and the Lutheran churches in Poland agreed to the Confession of Sandomir (Konfesja Sandomierska), which was an irenic translation of the Second Helvetic Confession and in theory formed one, united, Protestant church. It was considered an act of unity against growing Jesuit power.
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1786. Birth of Walerian Łukasiński († Jan. 27, 1868) Polish officer and political activist sentenced by Russian Imperial authorities to 14 years' imprisonment. He was never released and died after 46 years of solitary incarceration, becoming a symbol of the Polish struggle for independence.
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1935. Birth of Polish American singer Bobby Vinton (“Red Roses,” “Blue Velvet,” “Melody of Love.”)
1897. First issue of Straz (The Guard), official publication of the Polish National Union of America, Scranton, Pa.
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1794. The Warsaw Uprising or Warsaw Insurrection begins. The armed insurrection by the people of Warsaw early in the Kościuszko Uprising was supported by the Polish Army, aimed to throw off control by the Russian Empire in the Polish capital.
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1793. The Battle of Warsaw, incited when the Russians attempt to arrest those suspected of supporting the insurrection and to disarm the Polish garrison of Warsaw. Poles, in turn, led an uprising against the Russian garrison of Warsaw.
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1791. Free Royal Cities Act. Miasta Nasze Królewskie wolne w państwach Rzeczypospolitej was adopted by the Four-Year Sejm (1788–92) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which granted townspeople of the royal cities personal security, the right to acquire landed property, and eligibility for military officers' commissions, and public offices. It did not give them the rights of szlachta (nobles), but gave the right for ennoblement, and provided townspeople right for representation in Sejm as advisers in the cities' affairs.
1518. Bona Sforza (1494-1558) was crowned Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania in Wawel Cathedral, Krakow. The Italian niece of Bianca Maria Sforza, who in 1493 married Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, became the 3rd consort of Lithuania’s Grand Duke Sigismund the Old (1467-1548).
1025. Coronation of Bolesław I Chrobry
1985. Birth of Polish soccer legend Lukasz Fabianski.
1993. Beatification of Mother Mary Truszkowska, founder of the Felician Sisters.
1882. Birth of conductor and composer Leopold Stokowski († 1977).
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1794. Kosciuszko’s forces rout last Russian troops out of Warsaw.
1943. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. Mordechai Anielewicz directed the 1st urban uprising against the Nazis. During World War II, tens of thousands of Jews living in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but futile battle against Nazi forces. SS-Gen Jurgen Stroop led the destruction of the ghetto of Warsaw: “The Warsaw Ghetto is no more!” he wrote proudly to Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler. Stroop was hanged on the site of the Warsaw ghetto after the war. Jacek Zlatka (Jack Eisner, 1925-2003) smuggled arms for the revolt. Eisner made a fortune in the import-export business after the war and in 1980 authored the autobiography “The Survivor.”
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1943. Fighting continues as part of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the largest act of armed Jewish resistance during World War II. The German forces launched an all-out attack after being met with initial resistance the day before, intending to clear the ghetto as a "gift" for Adolf Hitler's birthday.
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1920. Signing of Treaty of Warsaw, a military-economical alliance between the Second Polish Republic, represented by Józef Piłsudski, and the Ukrainian People's Republic, represented by Symon Petliura, against Bolshevik Russia. The treaty was signed on April 21, 1920, with a military addendum on April 24.
1978. Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz, born in Warsaw, becomes the first woman to sail around the world alone. The trip took two years and 24 days to complete
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1982. Establishment of the TKK, a key milestone in Poland's fight for freedom. President Ronald Reagan called on the United States to stand in solidarity with Poland, stating that the Polish cause was the United States' cause.
1909. Birth of Jan Sehn, Polish lawyer who helped prepare charges against several German war criminals.
1943. German SS commander Jürgen Stroop reports there was no longer a Jewish residential district in Warsaw
1947. Birth of Massachusetts musician, DJ and vocalist Billy Belina.
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ST. ADALBERT
1989. Beatification of Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd (Frances Siedliska), founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
1935. Adoption of April Constitution.
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ST. MARK
1333. Casimir the Great crowned King of Poland.
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1919. Death of Norwid (Napoleon) Cybulski (v. Cybelski) (b. 1854), discoverer of adrenaline.
1941. No. 307 Polish Squadron of the Royal Air Force arrives in Exeter, England and defends that region for almost two years.
1902. Birth of pianist, composer and Dana record company founder Walter Dana († March 4, 2000).
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2014. Nine years after his death in 2005, Blessed John Paul II (John Paul the Great, nee Karol Józef Wojtyła) is canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in a ceremony at the Vatican presided over by Pope Francis. Vatican officials attributed two healing miracles to him.
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1939. Hitler unilaterally withdrew from both the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935. Talks over Danzig and the Corridor broke down and months passed without diplomatic interaction between Germany and Poland.
1947. Operation Vistula, codename for the 1947 forced resettlement of Ukrainian minority from the south-eastern provinces of post-war Poland, to the Recovered Territories in the west of the country, aimed at removing material support and assistance to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army’s terror operations in both Subcarpathian and Lublin Voivodeships.
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1648. Beginning of 18-day battle of Zhovti Vody in Ukraine, part of a Ukrainian uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1863. Birth of Maria Teresa Ledochowski, foundress of the Sisters of St. Peter Claver, an order dedicated to missionary work in Africa.
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1309. Birth of Kazimierz III, King of Poland (1333-70).
1632. Death of Sigismund III Waza.
1980. President Jimmy Carter appoints Sen. Edmund Muskie as U.S. Secretary of State.
