Get the latest tech news

Czech founding father Masaryk's message revealed in long-sealed envelope

The words of first Czech President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk were unveiled in a live broadcast Friday.

The letter being read for the first time at an event in Lány, Czech Republic, on Friday.Český rozhlas Radiožurnál / via YouTubeJan’s former secretary handed the envelope to the National Archives in 2005 on the condition that it not be opened for another 20 years. Masaryk, left, and Prime Minister Antonin Svehla, right, in Prague in November 1927.AP fileMasaryk became the first president of Czechoslovakia in 1918 after it declared independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was defeated in World War I. “It was a very turbulent period in Europe about what was going to happen,” said Cornwall, nodding to the Nazis' subsequent annexation of the Sudetenland, a Czech region that had a significant German-speaking population, and the later outbreak of World War II.

Get the Android app