JANUARY 9 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JANUARY 9

1797

Creation of the Polish Legions: Napoleon officially signed an agreement which he drafted authorizing Jan Henryk Dąbrowski to form the famous Polish Legions. The Polish Legions were formed after the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Dabrowski was a former high-ranking officer of the army of the Commonwealth and sought Napoleons military assistance. Since Poland had ceased to exist, Dabrowski actively promoted the cause of Polish independence. He participated in the Napoleonic Wars, the Polish-Austrian war and the French invasion of Russia.  Napoleon was reputed to have spoken about the Polish Legion, and praised them saying that 800 Poles were more powerful than 8,000 enemy soldiers.  Jan Dabrowski is a national hero, in Poland, and in France. The lyrics of the Polish national anthem praises Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and the Polish Legions for their fight to liberate Poland, and mentions "the return of the Polish army from Italy to Poland" and that "Poland is not lost as long as we live" .

1942

Jerzy Rozicki perished in the Mediterranean sea on this day in 1942 when the Lamorciere, a passenger ship he was traveling on sank in uncertain circumstances. All 222 passengers drowned. He was en route to return to the Cadix center. In 1932, Marian Rejewski had reconstructed the German military Enigma machine and was joined by his colleagues Jerzy Rozicki and Henryk Zygalski who developed methods of decryption as a source of intelligence. Cadix was a secret intelligence center located at Uzès, southern France, The Polish team of cryptologists, which included Rozicki worked on deciphering German messages during the period from September 1940 to November 1942. Cadix was shut down when Germany occupied southern France.

1944

The Council of National Unity (KRN), a quasi- Parliamentary body, was created by the Polish Underground in response to the rising power of Soviet-controlled governmental institutions in Poland. The KRN was an amalgamation of previous organizations comprising the major Polish political parties.

1966

Polish government denied exit visa to Cardinal Wyszynski. Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (Primate of the Millennium) was the unquestionable leader of Polish nation (the uncrowned king of Poland), in opposition to the totalitarian regime. He is also credited for the survival of Polish Christianity in the face of its repression and persecution during the reign of the 1945–1989 Communist regime. He had been imprisoned for three years, and is considered by many to be a Polish national hero. When the Solidarity trade union emerged in Poland, he appealed to both sides, the government as well as the striking workers, to be responsible for their actions. The case for his beatification and canonization opened in 1989 (he now has the title of Servant of God) and has many proponents in the Vatican and in his native Poland, where he is well known for his heroic and principled stand against Nazism and Communism.