This day in history

1849: Wilhelm Kotarbinski, one of the organizers the Society of Kyiv Artists who took part in the decoration of St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv, is born.

1867: The Russian Empire’s first electric lighthouse starts functioning of in Odesa.

1917: The Radnarkom resolves to nationalize the Likinska Factory as the Soviet government’s first decree to expropriate big-time capitalists’ property.

1921: All-Ukrainian central Executive Committee decrees to pardon workers and peasants who have served in hostile armies and are currently abroad.

1968: The Republican House of Composers opens in Kyiv.

1996: President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine signs a decree establishing the State Customs Service of Ukraine.

2004: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder becomes the first head of an EU state to discuss the elections in Ukraine with President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation.