The Sejm of the Republic of Poland is the lower house of the Polish parliament. It consists of 460 deputies elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the "Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland". In the Kingdom of Poland, "Sejm" referred to the entire two-chamber parliament of Poland, comprising the Chamber of Envoys, the Senate and the King, it was thus a three-estate parliament. Since the Second Polish Republic, "Sejm" has referred only to the larger house of the parliament. "Sejm" stems from an Old Slavic word meaning "gathering". Its origin was the King's Councils; the 1180 Sejm in Łęczyca was the most notable of these councils, in that for the first time in Poland's history it established laws constraining the power of the ruler. It forbade arbitrary sequestration of supplies in the countryside and takeover of bishopric lands after the death of a bishop; these early Sejms were not a regular event, they convened at the King's behest. After the 1493 Sejm in Piotrków, it became a convening body, to which indirect elections were held every two years.

The bicameral system was established there. The Sejm comprised two chambers: the Senat of 81 bishops and other dignitaries. At the time, Poland's nobility, which accounted for around 10% of the state's population, was becoming influential, with the eventual development of the Golden Liberty, the Sejm's powers increased dramatically. Over time, the envoys in the lower chamber grew in number and power as they pressed the king for more privileges; the Sejm became more active in supporting the goals of the privileged classes when the King ordered that the landed nobility and their estates be drafted into military service. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Kingdom of Poland became, through personal union with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, thus the Sejm was supplemented with new envoys from among the Lithuanian nobility; this "Commonwealth of Both Nations" ensured that the state of affairs surrounding the three-estates system continued, with the Sejm and King forming the estates and supreme deliberating body of the state.

In the first few decades of the 16th century, the Senate had established its precedence over the Sejm. Its chambers reserved the final decisions in legislation, taxation and treasury matters, foreign policy, the confirment of nobility; the 1573 Warsaw Confederation saw the nobles of the Sejm sanction and guarantee religious tolerance in Commonwealth territory, ensuring a refuge for those fleeing the ongoing Reformation and Counter-Reformation wars in Europe. Until the end of the 16th century, unanimity was not required, the majority-voting process was the most used system for voting. With the rise of the Polish magnates and their increasing power, the unanimity principle was re-introduced with the institution of the nobility's right of liberum veto. Additionally, if the envoys were unable to reach a unanimous decision within six weeks, deliberations were declared void and all previous acts passed by that Sejm were annulled. From the mid-17th century onward, any objection to a Sejm resolution, by either an envoy or a senator, automatically caused the rejection of other approved resolutions.

This was because all resolutions passed by a given session of the Sejm formed a whole resolution, and, as such, was published as the annual "constituent act" of the Sejm, e.g. the "Anno Domini 1667" act. In the 16th century, no single person or small group dared to hold up proceedings, from the second half of the 17th century, the liberum veto was used to paralyze the Sejm, brought the Commonwealth to the brink of collapse; the liberum veto was abolished with the adoption of Poland's 3rd May Constitution in 1791, a piece of legislation, passed as the "Government Act", for which the Sejm required four years to propagate and adopt. The constitution's acceptance, the possible long-term consequences it may have had, is arguably the reason for which the powers of Austria-Hungary and Prussia decided to partition the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, thus putting an end to over 300 years of Polish parliamentary continuity, it is estimated that between 1493 and 1793, a Sejm was held 240 times, the total debate-time sum of, 44 years.

After the fall of the Duchy of Warsaw, which existed as a Napoleonic client state between 1807 and 1815, its short-lived Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw, the Sejm of Congress Poland was established in the Kongresówka of Russia. Overall, during the period from 1795 until the re-establishment of Poland's sovereignty in 1918, little power was held by any Polish legislative body and the occupying powers of Russia and Austria-Hungary propagated legislation for their own re

On 27 April 1974, an Aeroflot Il-18 airliner crashed while operating a charter flight from Leningrad to Zaporizhia, continuing to Krasnodar, Russia. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Pulkovo Airport in Leningrad. None of the 109 people on board survived; the aircraft had sustained 7,501 cycles at the time of the crash. The flight was led with 4 other pilots and two flight attendants. 102 passengers were on board. The aircraft number four engine caught fire two minutes after takeoff due to a faulty compressor disk; the crew elected to return to the airport. Upon extending the flaps for landing, an asymmetrical flap condition occurred, causing the aircraft to dive about two and a half kilometers from the runway. Strong vibrations in the number four engine had been reported on the flight before the crash

Clarence Zebras Football Club is an amateur soccer soccer club based in the City of Clarence, formed in September of 2019 as a result of the amalgamation of Clarence United FC and Hobart Zebras FC. They compete in the second tier of the sport in the country below the A-League; the club has women's teams, including in the highest division in Tasmania the Women's Super League, teams in all youth divisions. Founded in 1978 the club spent much of its early history competing in lower divisions, where it has been reasonably successful, winning several lower division titles and cups. Despite this, Clarence United had struggled for many years to attain success at the highest level within the state, although Clarence United was crowned state champions for the first time in 2009. Clarence United play their home games at Wentworth Park, an impressive multiple pitch venue located alongside Howrah Beach in the Clarence, Tasmania with good quality playing surfaces and club facilities. In the 1970s there was a lack of association football clubs in the Municipality of Clarence on Hobart's eastern shore, with most of the southern clubs located in Hobart.

A group of keen players, many of whom were from the Scottish Australian expatriate community held a meeting in October 1977 to discuss the possibility of forming a new club to enter the 1978 southern competition. The club was formed in 1978 as Phoenix Rovers Soccer Club, wore a Scotland International strip for home matches, a plain red T-shirt as an alternative away strip; the original committee was Syd Cairns, Mike Barter, Ken Ellison, Trevor Davey, Lloyd Davey, with Syd Cairns appointed as the first coach of the team. Cairns performed this role as an active player-coach; the club only had enough players to form one team in their first season, were entered into the Southern Division Two competition. The team finished 3rd in a 22 team Division Two competition in their first season. In 1979 the name was changed to Phoenix Lauderdale Rovers after amalgamating with Lauderdale Soccer Club which gave them enough players to form a reserve team, in that season the club won their first accolade, being crowned Division Two champions.

The club's colours were changed to the current red and black design. In 1982, they met with Clarence Soccer Club to discuss a merger, but it did not go ahead at that time; the Phoenix team of that season was quite strong, had on-field success by winning the Rothmans Division One league title and the Michael The Tailors Pre-Season Cup. At the time, Division One was the second tier of football behind the Statewide League, but victory in Division One did not mean promotion, as there were additional financial requirements for membership in the State League. Phoenix defended their Division One title the following year, added the Summer Cup, but were again not promoted to the State League. 1984 was less successful, with the only trophy going to the Division Four reserve side. The merger with Clarence went ahead that year, a meeting was held where it was agreed the name would change to "PCL United"; the following year the new PCL United Soccer Club again won the Michael The Tailors Pre-Season Cup Winners, but were unable to follow it up with any league success.

The late 1980s brought a barren period for the club, although they picked up a few minor lower division trophies, they were unable to secure any major successes. Phoenix won the Division Two title in 1989, backed it up with success in the Knock-out cup, giving them a'double'. In the early 1990s the club invested in building a new clubhouse and changing room complex in the middle of the Wentworth Park complex, it was the catalyst for a period of major improvement. Junior development teams were successful, dominated many of the age-groups of the Eastern Region Junior Soccer Association competitions. A new cohesion developed as players grew up playing together from a young age, by 1994 the club had won the Knock-out cup once more; that side, under coach Darren Grainger, led a barnstorming year the following season, as they were crowned Division One winners. It was the club's first senior league success in twelve years. Phoenix managed to claim the Division Two, Division Four titles, as well as back-to-back KO Cups.

1996 did not bring league success, but the KO Cup and reserve KO cup were secured, in 1997 they came second in Division One. At the start of the 1998 season, Soccer Tasmania led a move for clubs to distance themselves from their traditional ethnic associations on the initiative of Soccer Australia, it was felt that these associations were the cause of many of the problems and violence that plagued football in Australia. Although Phoenix did not have any obvious ethnic connotations, the club used the opportunity to rename itself as Clarence United Football Club. In their first season under their new identity, Clarence United again took the Division One title. After years of trying, Clarence United was able to secure entry into the Statewide League for the first time in the 1999 season, their first season in the Statewide league was an awakening, proved disastrous. Clarence finished last with only two wins out of sixteen matches, a goal difference of −55. Worse, after achieving promotion to the Statewide League after so many years of trying, the league was wound up at the end of the 1999 season because of financial troubles.

Clarence returned to the Southern Premier League for the 2000 season, but hey only fared better, finishing second last ahead of South Hobart. Clarence finished second last every season between 2000 and 2003.2004 saw a turn around in the club's fortunes, claiming fourth spot in the Southern Premier League. In the mid-2000s, Cl