Communist Poland bans trade union Solidarity
Communist Poland banned the trade union Solidarity on October 9, 1982, two years after the union started a large-scale strike in the Gdansk shipyard, where it was founded. Solidarity would later become instrumental in the fall of communism in Poland. The union's leader, Lech Wałęsa, was later elected the first president of post-communist Poland in 1990. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.