Algimantas Kasparavičius EN

A commemorative plaque was unveiled in Vilnius on Friday on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Lithuania's first government.

Vytautas Bogušis, then a ninth-grade student, 43 years ago bought pieces of cloth for a hand-made yellow-green-red Lithuanian flag that his schoolmates raised in the Rasų Cemetery in Vilnius, the capital of the Soviet-occupied Lithuania, on the eve of Feb. 16, 1975.

Lithuania's residents and historians believe that the three figures with the main contribution to the country's statehood over the past century include Jonas Basanavičius, the father of national rebirth, Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis and interwar president Antanas Smetona.

Seventy-five years ago this week, people in Europe and most of the world woke up to ominous newspaper headlines: "German Army Attacks Poland; Cities Bombed, Port Blocked; Danzig is Accepted into Reich", "War! Nazi Bombs Rain on Polish Cities". This was the start of the Second World War.