On this day, 27 years ago, the 8th of October 1991 the Croatian parliament decided to end all state relations with the former state, Yugoslavia and declared that Croatia was an independent and sovereign country.

The government session on that date was not held in the parliament buildings but in the basement of the INA oil company in Zagreb for fear of a bombings from the Yugoslav National army.

Independence Day was implemented as a state holiday by Ivica Račan's government in 2001 and was celebrated for the first time in 2008.

Croatian independence was internationally recognized in January 1992, when both the European Economic Community and the United Nations granted Croatia diplomatic recognition, and the country was accepted into the United Nations shortly thereafter.