What began as a sanctioned march commemorating a 1939 student martyr turned into a brutal police crackdown on Národní Street, injuring hundreds of demonstrators. Public outrage over the violence galvanized daily mass protests across the country, and within ten days Communist Party leadership resigned, leading to playwright Václav Havel's election as president—a stunningly swift and largely bloodless transition later called the Velvet Revolution.
Some 15,000 students set out that evening to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi killing of Czech student Jan Opletal, marching from a cemetery toward the city center. When they reached Národní Street, riot police blocked their path, then closed in from both ends, beating demonstrators with truncheons in what became known as 'Black Friday.' Rumors, later proven false, spread that a student had been killed, adding fuel to public fury.
The crackdown backfired spectacularly. Within days, theatres went dark as actors joined strikes, students occupied universities, and hundreds of thousands filled Wenceslas Square chanting for the resignation of the Communist government. Playwright and dissident Václav Havel, recently released from prison, emerged as the movement's voice, helping found the Civic Forum opposition group that negotiated with the crumbling regime.
By December 29, less than seven weeks after the beating on Národní Street, Havel—once a jailed playwright the regime considered a nuisance—was elected president of Czechoslovakia. The revolution took its 'velvet' name from its remarkable lack of bloodshed, a stark contrast to the crackdowns unfolding elsewhere in the Communist bloc that same extraordinary year.