Untitled Document

Born Warsaw, 24 September. His father is an engineer, his mother a violinist, a former student of Carl Flesch. He has one elder brother, Mirek.

Enters Warsaw State Conservatory, where he completes the course in half the usual time

After periods in Paris and London, studies conducting in Vienna with Felix von Weingartner.

Witnesses arrival of Hitler

Appointed music director of Polish Army Film Unit and chief conductor of Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra

Awarded title of State Laureate of Poland. Marries Scarlett O'Mahoney Rudnicka

As head of Polish cultural delegation to China, meets Chairman Mao. Death of Panufnik's father and of his six-month-old daughter

Defects to the west and settles in Britain

First marriage ends. Stokowski gives world premiere of Sinfonia Elegiaca. Panufnik appointed musical director of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Sinfonia Sacra wins Prix de Composition Prince Pierre de Monaco. Panufnik marries Camilla Jessel

Universal Prayer performed in Warsaw, the first time Panufnik's music has been heard there since his defection

70th birthday concert with London Symphony Orchestra. Premiere of Arbor Cosmica in New York

Premiere of Harmony, New York. Series of recordings begins on Conifer

Returns to Poland for the first time: eleven works are performed at Warsaw Autumn Festival. Premiere of Symphony No. 10 given by Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Knighted in New Year Honours. Rostropovich commissions Cello Concerto. Death of Panufnik on 27 October

Lenin gives strong criticism of young rival Stalin in the USSR. Collapse of German currency. Adolf Hitler leads failed putsch in Munich

Hindenburg is narrowly elected in Germany ahead of Hitler. Stalin purges Lenin supporters in USSR. In London, BBC opens its new Portland Place headquarters, Broadcasting house, and Thomas Beecham founds London Philharmonic Orchestra

Hitler takes over as chancellor of Germany. Persecution of Jews begins. Arnold Schoenberg, Otto Klemperer and Kurt Weill are among artists who flee. Roosevelt elected USA president.

Anschluss. Hitler welcomed to Vienna by cheering crowds. Persecution of Austian Jews begins

German bombardment of Warsaw begins. Outbreak of World War II

Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. End of World War II. Poland is taken over by Soviet Communist administration. Formation of the United Nations

President Truman declares that USA must intervene throughout the world to oppose Communism. Food rations cut in UK. British rule in India comes to an end

The Royal Festival Hall is built for London's Festival of Britain.

Death of Stalin and appointment of Krushchev in his place. Workers' uprising in East Berlin is crushed. Edmund Hillary climbs Mount Everest. Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. USSR claims to have developed H-bomb

Rationing ends in UK. Britain pulls out of Suez. Toscanini conducts his final concert

Treaty of Rome creates Common Market. Krushchev beats off Soviet leadership challenge. Death of Sibelius. Russia launches the first man-made satellite.

Profumo scandal rocks Britain. Kim Philby exposed as Third Man. Kennedy declares 'Ich bin ein Berliner'; Martin Luther King declares 'I have a dream'. Beatlemania takes over pop music. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.

Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Martin Luther King is assassinated. Students riot in Paris. Soviets troops crush the Prague Spring. Neil Armstrong becomes first man on the moon

Britain joins EEC. President Nixon visits China. Nixon and Brezhnev sign Moscow Pact. US troops withdraw from Vietnam. Dissident Russian writer Alexander Solzhentisyn appeals to writers and artists to expose the suppression of human rights and literature everywhere. Watergate scandal in America

Pompidou Centre erected in Paris. Elvis Presley and Maria Callas both die.

Konstantin Chernenko becomes Communist Party chief in USSR following death of Yuri Andropov. Soviets boycott Olympic Games. IRA bombs Conservative Party conference hotel. Ronald Reagan wins American presidential election with massive majority.

Eight-year ban on Polish Solidarity party is lifted. China brutally crushes demonstration in Tiananmen Square. Hungary declares a new republic. Communist leaders resign in Prague. Ceausescu is executed in Romania. The Berlin Wall is pulled down. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declares a 'fatwa' against the author Salman Rushdie.

Nelson Mandela is freed in South Africa. Poll tax riots in London. Mikhail Gorbachev given sweeping new powers to reform Russia. Germany is reunified. Iraq invades Kuwait. Margaret Thatcher is forced out of office.

Kuwait is liberated after Gulf War. Civil war looms in Yugoslavia. Boris Yeltsin is elected Russian president. A coup against Gorbachev is foiled but Communist rule comes to an end.

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