site.btaObservances: May 14

The world:

National Day of Paraguay: Independence Day (1811).

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1890: 110 km-long Yambol-Burgas railway is inaugurated.

1920: Higher School of Commerce opens in Varna, on the Black Sea (renamed Varna University of Economics in 1995). 

1936: Royal Military Symphony Orchestra (1936-1944), conducted by Sasha Popov, stages first concert at Sofia's Military Club.

1955: In Warsaw, Bulgaria, Albania, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania and USSR sign Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (Warsaw Pact).

1986: Prof. Alexander Tschirkov performs first heart transplant in Bulgaria, on a 13-year-old boy.

1986: Prof. Ivan Dujcev Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies is established.

1991: Thirty-nine right-wing MPs quit the National Assembly and go on a hunger strike to protest against tabled draft Constitution. They return to Parliament on July 23, 1991.