A leading article in the Szabad Nép (Free People), entitled ‘New, Spring Muster of Forces’, welcomes the young people’s demands.
The Hungarian party and government delegation returns from Yugoslavia in the early morning. An expanded meeting of the HWP Political Committee is held.
12.53 p.m.: Kossuth Radio reads out a statement by the interior ministry, banning the demonstration planned for later in the day. However, at 2.23 p.m., permission for the rally is granted after all.
3 p.m.: The student march leaves the Petőfi statue on the Pest embankment. The Pest students cross Margaret Bridge to the Bem statue, while the Buda students march to it along the Buda embankment.
About 5 p.m.: The first protestors arrive in Kossuth Lajos tér (5th District). An hour later the square is already filled with a crowd estimated at 200,000. At 9 p.m., Imre Nagy delivers a speech from a balcony of the Parliament building.
Demonstrators also appear about 5 p.m. before the Hungarian Radio building in Bródy Sándor utca (8th District), intending to read out the students’ 16 points. The force defending the building is strengthened, but some soldiers support the protesters. The siege of the Radio starts about 10 p.m. and lasts until dawn.
9.37 p.m.: Demonstrators in Dózsa György út (14th District) topple the giant statue of Stalin. There are attacks on telephone exchanges, printing presses and several arms factories in various parts of the city. Late that night, rebels also attack police stations and semi-military and military institutions. The offices of the Szabad Nép (Free People) are stormed as well.
About 8 p.m.: The HWP Central Committee begins an emergency session that continues until dawn the following day. Ernő Gerő requests Moscow to authorize the intervention of Soviet forces in Hungary. An order is given about 11 p.m. for the Soviet special corps stationed at Székesfehérvár to occupy Budapest.
Demonstrations take place in Székesfehérvár, Mosonmagyaróvár, Sopron and Veszprém. In Debrecen, ÁVH men open fire on the demonstrators. Three people lost their lives. Military government is introduced in Szeged to forestall the demonstrations.
The first Soviet armoured units enter the capital about 3 or 4 a.m. The Soviet special envoys Anastas Mikoyan and Mikhail Suslov arrive in Budapest during the day.
The rebels occupy the Radio. However, broadcasting is already going out from Parliament instead.
8.13 a.m.: The radio announces that the HWP Central Committee has confirmed Ernő Gerő in his post as first secretary. Imre Nagy is to be prime minister, with the incumbent András Hegedüs as his deputy.
8.45 a.m.: The radio announces a state of emergency. Production comes to a halt in Budapest and schools and colleges remain closed. The trains are still running. The water, electricity and gas supplies and telephone services operate more or less continuously during the coming weeks. The bakers ensure bread supplies.
Rebels occupy the Athenaeum Press about midday.
ÁVH men open fire on marchers in Roosevelt tér (5th District).
12.10 p.m.: Speaking on the radio, Nagy appeals for calm and an end to the fighting.
Fighting continues in the neighbourhood of the Radio. Fire breaks out in the natural history section of the National Museum during the afternoon, burning out part of it.
The first workers’ council in Budapest is formed at the United Incandescent Lamp Factory (Egyesült Izzó).
8.45 p.m.: János Kádár, speaking on the radio, terms the events a counter-revolution.
Groups of rebels form in Baross tér (7th and 8th districts), in the southern parts of the 8th and 9th districts, at the Corvin Cinema (8th District), and in Tompa utca (9th District) and Berzenczey utca (9th District).
Insurrectionists seize large quantities of arms from the Bem tér barracks (2nd District).
Soviet soldiers open fire on demonstrators outside Székesfehérvár Town Hall. Six lives are lost.
Extra Soviet troops are transferred to Hungary. Tass issues a statement in Moscow announcing the defeat of the ‘counter-revolutionary uprising’.
In Warsaw, it is announced at a mass meeting of several hundred thousand people that the Soviet troops deployed in Hungary will return to their barracks within 48 hours.
Soviet and Hungarian units reoccupy the Radio in the early morning hours. The first revolutionary newspaper appears under the title Igazság (Truth).
Rebels occupy the main police station in the 9th District.
Some 8000–10,000 people arrive in Kossuth tér between 10 and 11 a.m., where Soviet troops guarding Parliament fraternize with the protesters. At about 11.15 a.m., Soviet tanks arrive in the square and open fire on the crowd. The volley of firing takes 60 or 80 lives and leaves 100–150 injured.
12.32 p.m.: A communiqué from the HWP Political Committee is read out on the radio. Ernő Gerő has been dismissed and János Kádár appointed first secretary. Colonel Pál Maléter, in command at the Kilián Barracks (8th District), reaches a ceasefire agreement with the Corvin köz rebels.
The Abaturov Division arrives from Romania to reinforce the Soviet intervention troops.
The University Revolutionary Students’ Committee is established at the Arts Faculty of the Loránd Eötvös University.
Workers councils are formed at the Csepel Iron and Metal Works (21st District).
There is serious fighting at the junction of the grand boulevard (Nagykörút) and Üllői út, in Corvin köz (8th District).
A group of rebels forms in Amerikai út (14th District).
A demonstration of people carrying ‘bloody banners’ takes place in Budapest, to protest against the Soviet intervention and the bloodshed in front of Parliament.
Rebels fire a mortar at the radio transmitters at Lakihegy.
The Borsod County Workers’ Council forms in Miskolc.
There are protests in several towns, including Dunapentele (Sztálinváros, Dunaújváros), Esztergom, Nagykanizsa, Ózd, Pécs, Szeged and Vác. Shots are fired on protesters in Győr. Soviet lorries are attacked while passing through Nyíregyháza and Várpalota.
Fighting occurs about noon in the Jutadomb area of the 20th (now 23rd) district. In the afternoon, rebels occupy the Csepel police headquarters (21st District).
4.13 p.m. The radio broadcasts a statement by the HWP Central Committee promising a new, national government, Hungarian-Soviet negotiations to be conducted on a basis of equality, elections for factory workers’ councils, pay rises, and economic and political changes.
5.32 p.m.: An amnesty declaration by the Presidential Council is broadcast. It applies to all who lay down their arms by 10 p.m.
A consignment of blood and medicines sent from Warsaw arrives at Budapest Ferihegy Airport. This is the first aid to Hungary from abroad.
Rebel groups are formed in the Thököly út-Dózsa György út area (7th District) and at Széna tér (2nd District). Rebels occupy Móricz Zsigmond körtér (11th District), and the Danuvia Arms Factory.
Demonstrations begin in Kecskemét during the morning. A volley fired by soldiers claims three lives. By evening there is a battle being fought between the rebels and the military, which fires shots on the Gypsy quarter from two MIG 15 fighter planes.
A revolutionary committee is formed in Baja, and a national council in Győr. A curfew is imposed in Pécs after continued demonstrations. Fighting continues between the army and the rebels in Dunapentele (Sztálinváros, Dunaújváros)
A workers’ council is established at the Komló Colliery Trust and a socialist revolutionary committee in Debrecen.
There are demonstrations in several provincial towns. They include Békéscsaba, Eger, Esztergom, Gyöngyös, Győr, Gyula, Kaposvár, Komárom, Komló, Miskolc, Mohács, Nyíregyháza, Oroszlány, Pápa, Siófok, Sopron, Szeged, Székesfehérvár, Szekszárd, Szentes, Szigetvár, Szolnok, Tatabánya and Veszprém.
Border guards at Mosonmagyaróvár fire on demonstrators, killing 52 and wounding 86. Soldiers fire on demonstrators from a tunnel just below the basilica in Esztergom, causing 15 deaths and at least 50 injuries. At Zalaegerszeg, police and party functionaries fire on the crowd. There are fatalities and injuries in Nagykanizsa when volleys are fired from the party headquarters.
Convicts at the Oroszlány and Tatabánya labour camps are freed. Insurrectionists attack the barracks at Tata at dawn. In the evening, demonstrators take over the county police headquarters in Tatabánya and the Hunyadi Artillery Officers’ School, disarming the occupants.
Several workers’ councils are established in Kaposvár.
The Szabolcs-Szatmár County Revolutionary Workers’ Council is set up in Nyíregyháza. Soviet troops erect a pontoon bridge over the Tisza at Záhony.
The United States, Britain and France jointly propose that the UN Security Council convene to discuss the Hungarian question.
The first appeal for blood donations is made on Polish Radio.
Pope Pius XII in Rome issues an encyclical on the uprising and prays for its victory.
11.18 a.m.: The radio announces the composition of the new government.
Soviet troops marching through the 8th District of Budapest are attacked. The commanders of the Corvin köz group draw up nine points summarizing their demands.
The army occupies Liberty Bridge and Móricz Zsigmond körtér (11th District).
Rebels in Pesterzsébet (20th District), still hold the police station, local government and party headquarters, and market hall.
The army in Kecskemét carries out a large-scale mopping-up operation. Rebels in Dunapentele (Sztálinváros, Dunaújváros) attack the military headquarters. There are demonstrations in Kaposvár, Komló, Paks, Salgótarján and Szombathely.
Demonstrators are fired on in Baj, Berzence, Kalocsa, Kecel, Kiskunhalas, Örkény and Várpalota. Fighter planes attack marchers in Tiszakécske, killing 17 and wounding 110.
Members of the public in Lőkösháza and Battonya on the border with Romania help to lift railway lines, to impede further Soviet troops entering the country.
Local revolutionary bodies form in Békéscsaba, Debrecen, Esztergom, Gyula, Sopron, Székesfehérvár, Szekszárd, Szolnok, Tatabánya, Zalaegerszeg and other provincial towns. Organization of the national guard begins in Mosonmagyaróvár.
Free Győr Radio begins broadcasting.
Rebels in Eger occupy the ÁVH building.
Almost 800 convicts are freed from Vác Prison.
A curfew and a ban on public meetings are imposed in Keszthely, where the main buildings are taken over by the military.
The UN ambassadors of the United States, Britain and France hold secret discussions on the Hungarian uprising, lasting until November 3.
The US secretary of state, addressing the World Political Council, remarks that he does not see Hungary as a potential military ally of the United States.
The first shipment from the International Red Cross arrives in Budapest.