Lech Walesa, Founder of the Solidarity Trade Union, is Sworn in as Poland’s 1st Popularly Elected President. December 22, 1990.

On this day in history, December 22, 1990, Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity trade union, is sworn in as Poland’s 1^st popularly elected president. Walesa was a labor activist who helped form and lead (1980-1990) communist Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity. He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1983 for his efforts.