site.btaToday's Observances: January 19

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1932: New DAR-6 trainer aircraft, designed by Tsvetan Lazarov, performs its first flight, taking off from Bozhourishte Airfield near Sofia.

1989: French President Francois Mitterrand meets with 12 Bulgarian dissident intellectuals in Sofia, most of them members of Discussion Club in Support of Glasnost and Perestroika. Famous "breakfast with Mitterrand" is key event ahead of fall of communist regime in Bulgaria in autumn of that year. Invited by Todor Zhivkov, Mitterrand is first French head of State to visit Bulgaria.

1992: Zhelyu Zhelev becomes the first directly elected President of Bulgaria. Remains on this post until January 22, 1997.

1997: Peter Stoyanov is sworn in as President of Bulgaria.

2002: Georgi Purvanov is sworn in as President of Bulgaria.

2007: X3, an integrated information product of Bulgarian Stock Exchange - Sofia, is launched officially.