site.btaObservances: August 16-17

August 16

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1878: First Edinstvo [Unity] Committee is established in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria) to organize drive for union of Principality of Bulgaria with Ottoman vassal Eastern Rumelia. Edinstvo Committees start Bulgaria's irredentist movement.

1902: Bulgarian Cycling Union established.

1947: Opposition Agrarian leader Nikola Petkov is sentenced to death on charges of plotting a coup d'etat (executed September 23, 1947, rehabilitated January 16, 1990).

1979: First Banner of Peace International Children's Assembly opens in Sofia (until August 25) under patronage of UNESCO Director-General Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, with participation of 1,100 children from Bulgaria and 1,094 children of 76 countries. Banner of Peace Monument unveiled in Sofia.

1982: Diplomatic relations established with Botswana.

2005: 40th National Assembly votes, 169-68, to elect Sergei Stanishev Prime Minister. Cabinet proposed by Stanishev is also approved and sworn in. 

August 17

The world:

- National Day of Gabon: Independence Day (1960);

- National Day of Indonesia: Independence Day (1945).

On this date in Bulgarian history:

986: Bulgarian army, led by Tsar Samuil, defeats invading Byzantine troops of Emperor Basil II in Battle of Trajan's Gates (mountain pass in Ihtiman Sredna Gora Range, 70 km east of Sofia). Byzantine army is routed, and emperor barely escapes. This is worst defeat suffered by Basil II during his campaign to conquer Bulgaria.

1891: Ground broken for Bulgaria's oldest and largest coal-mining operation, Pernik State Mines (closed down on October 26, 1997).

2001: First All-Bulgarian Convention in Mala Pereshchepina takes place. Mala Pereshchepina is a village in Poltava Oblast, Ukraine, where Khan Kubrat, who established confederation of Old Great Bulgaria ca. 635 AD, is believed to have been buried.