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In accordance with the provisions of the Law on Holidays, Memorial Days and Non-Working Days in the Republic of Croatia, the 5 August marks the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders. On this day Croatia remembers the 5 August 1995, when the town of Knin was liberated in the combined military and police operation “Storm”.
The operation was launched early in the morning on 4 August and in the course of the operation Sveti Rok and a number of other towns and settlements in the wider occupied area were liberated on that day. On 5 August, exactly at noon, a twenty-meter Croatian flag was hoisted at the Knin Fortress. On 6 August, Plaško, Lički Osik, Vrhovine, Obrovac, Korenica, Slunj and Plitvice Lakes were liberated. On 7 August operation “Storm” was declared completed. After 84 hours, Knin and additional 11,000 square kilometers of occupied territory were freed. The Croatian Army and Police forces liberated Gračac, Lovinac, Benkovac, Kijevo, Vrlika, Dubica, Primišlje near Slunj and a number of roads, reaching the internationally recognized border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
From 1996 till 2008 this day was marked as a public holiday called Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day. However, with the Amendments to the Law on Holidays, Memorial Days and Non-Working Days in the Republic of Croatia of 15 January 2008, the holiday was renamed Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders.