A police beating of students toppled 41 years of communist rule without a shot fired

On 17 November 1989, Czechoslovak riot police violently broke up a peaceful student march in Prague, and the public anger that followed snowballed into mass protests across the country within days. By 29 December, playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel, who had been imprisoned under the old regime, was sworn in as president. The entire transfer of power happened without a single recorded death, which is why it's remembered as the Velvet Revolution.

— Historical event, Velvet Revolution — 17 November - 29 December 1989