This day in history

1900: Ivan Kozlovsky, future prominent Soviet lyrical tenor of Ukrainian ethnicity, is born in Marianivka, a village that will later become Kyiv oblast.

1918: The Ukrainian National Republic enacts a law making Ukrainian the official language.

1918: The Small Rada convenes in Kyiv and passes a bill increasing the tobacco excise.

1935: A monument to Taras Shevchenko, designed by the sculptor, Matvey Manizer, is unveiled in Kharkiv.

1944: Nikolai Gogol Ukrainian Drama Theater returns to Poltava from Ust-Kamenogorsk, the company’s retreat in Russia during WW II.

1989: A comprehensive Ukrainian national cultural development project is launched in Kyiv during a convention involving delegates from all creative societies and associations.

1989: Ukraine’s first political strike takes place in Lviv.

1989: Rukh’s first local organization is established in Ternopil.

2006: Poltava-Kyiv express train sets off.