* 1943 – World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.

* 1241 – Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeat the Polish and German armies.

In Poland, fast moving armies encircled Polish forces ( blue circles ), but the blitzkrieg idea never really took hold – artillery and infantry forces acted in time-honoured fashion to crush these pockets.

Panzer forces were dispersed among the three German concentrations without strong emphasis on independent use, being used to create or destroy close pockets of Polish forces and seize operational-depth terrain in support of the largely un-motorized infantry which followed.

While early German tanks, Stuka dive-bombers and concentrated forces were used in the Polish campaign, the majority of the battle was conventional infantry and artillery based warfare and most Luftwaffe action was independent of the ground campaign.

Auxiliary forces sent by duke Eric II of Pomerania, ally of the Polish king, did not enter the battle.

The Polish forces consisted of the mercenaries hired by the Polish king, Casimir IV the Jagiellon and the Hanseatic city of Danzig ( Gdańsk ).

The psychological significance was that this was the first open field battle won by the royal forces, so it increased the morale of the Polish forces and lowered the morale of the Teutonic Knights.

The Polish forces attacked the panicked Cossacks and the battle turned into a slaughter.

Cavalry or mounted gendarmerie units continue to be maintained for purely or primarily ceremonial purposes by the United States, British, French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Chilean, Portuguese, Moroccan, Nepalese, Nigerian, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Peruvian, Paraguayan, Polish, Argentine, Senegalese, Jordanian, Pakistani, Indian, Spanish and Bulgarian armed forces.

By September the Imperial forces under the Duke of Lorraine, together with a powerful Polish army under King John III Sobieski, were poised to strike the Sultan's army investing Vienna.

After a particularly sound defeat by Prussian forces in 1223, Polish forces in Chełmno, the seat of Christian of Oliva and Duchy of Masovia would go on the defensive.

The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.

The HRE army was half Polish / Lithuanian Commonwealth forces, mostly cavalry, and half Holy Roman Empire forces ( German / Austrian ), mostly infantry.

The Duchy's military forces, led by Józef Poniatowski, participated in numerous campaigns, including the Polish – Austrian War of 1809, the French invasion of Russia in 1812, and the German campaign of 1813.

Piłsudski had entertained far-reaching anti-Russian cooperative designs for Eastern Europe, and in 1919 the Polish forces pushed eastward into Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine ( previously a theater of the Polish – Ukrainian War ), taking advantage of the Russian preoccupation with the civil war.

During the Polish – Muscovite War ( 1605 – 1618 ), Polish – Lithuanian forces reached Moscow and installed the impostor False Dmitriy I in 1605, then supported False Dmitry II in 1607.

On the other hand the Galicia region in western Ukraine and southern Poland, economically and socially backward, but under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy rule increasingly allowed limited autonomy, experienced gradual relaxation of authoritarian policies and even a Polish cultural revival.

After the outbreak of World War I, which confronted the partitioning powers against each other, Piłsudski's paramilitary units stationed in Galicia were turned into the Polish Legions, and as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Army fought on the Russian front.

* 1918 – A new Polish government in Western Galicia is established.

After this, in the mid to late 19th century, only in autonomous Galicia ( 1861 – 1914 ) was there a unicameral, functioning National Sejm ; it is recognised today as having played a major, and overwhelming positive role in the development of Polish national institutions.

The western regions of Ukraine, west of Zbruch river, until 1939 for most of time were part of the Kingdom Galicia and later the Polish Republic.

** A new Polish government is declared in Western Galicia ( Central Europe ).

At this time, Galicia was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but in 1918, it became part of the Second Polish Republic, and the city took its Polish name, Lwów.

The Polish army captured West Galicia following its earlier success.

John Sobieski was born 1629 in Olesko, a small town near Lwów in Galicia, then part of the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth ( now Lviv, Ukraine ) to a notable noble family de Sobieszyn Sobieski of Clan Janina.

His family, members of the nobility ( or " szlachta " in Polish ), bore the Trąby coat of arms and hailed from Brzeżany in Galicia.

In 1941, the German leadership decided that in ten to 20 years, the Polish territories under German occupation were to be cleared entirely of ethnic Poles and resettled by German-speaking colonists from Bukovina, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia.

Some time between 11th and 13th century, the town was annexed by the Ruthenians, and Polish princes of the Piast dynasty confirmed it in 1264, when in Tarnów, there was a meeting of Prince Bolesław V the Chaste, and Prince Daniel of Galicia, during which both sides agreed that the border would go between Rzeszów and Czudec ( Rzeszów belonged to Red Ruthenia, while Czudec and Strzyżów to Lesser Poland ).

The southern territories of ancient Rus, including principalities of Galicia – Volhynia, Kiev and others, in the 14th century became a part of Lithuania, which, in 15th century, united with Catholic Poland to form Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Two prominent Polish Talmudists from Lwów, Galicia, who were among Sabbatai's visitors in Abydos, apprised him that in their native country a prophet, Nehemiah ha-Kohen, had announced the coming of the Messiah.

In 1846 there had been an uprising of Polish nobility in Austrian Galicia, which was only countered when peasants, in turn, rose up against the nobles.

Provisional governments in Venice and Milan quickly expressed desire to be part of a united Italian state, a new Hungarian government in Pest announced its intentions to break away from the Empire and elect Ferdinand its King, and a Polish National Committee announced the same for the province of Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.

However more recent Ukrainian sources state that it was taken by Władysław Opolski from the Castle of Belz, when the town was incorporated into the Polish kingdom and that earlier in its history it was brought to Belz with much ceremony and honors by Knyaz Lev I of Galicia.

During a visit to Galicia ( presently, a region divided between Poland and Ukraine ) in 1887, Stéphanie fell in love with a Polish Count.

Jan Łukasiewicz () ( 21 December 1878 – 13 February 1956 ) was a Polish logician and philosopher born in Lwów ( Lemberg in German ), Galicia, then Austria – Hungary.

* Lipinski, K.: Muzyka do piesni polskich i russkikh ludu galitsyskiego to the songs of the Polish and Russian people of Galicia ( Lemberg, 1833 )

In 1916 another Russian offensive in Galicia exacerbated the already desperate situation of civilians in the war zone ; about 1 million Polish refugees fled eastward behind Russian lines during the war.

After the last Russian advance into Galicia failed in mid-1917, the Germans went on the offensive again ; the army of revolutionary Russia ceased to be a factor, and Russia was forced to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in which she ceded all formerly Polish lands to the Central Powers.

In October 1918, Polish authorities took over Galicia and Cieszyn Silesia.

Poland reluctantly granted local autonomy to the Ukrainian population of Galicia, many of whom were embittered by their incorporation into a Polish state.