October 26, 1918
Speaking from the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia as head of the Mid-European Union, Tomáš Masaryk called for the independence of the Czechoslovaks and other oppressed peoples of Central Europe. On November 14 he was elected president of the newly-formed Czechoslovakia: a bringing together of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, all part of the Autrian-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I.
