This week in history

May 15: 1905. The Defense of Sevastopol Panorama by Franz Rubeau was opened at the Malakhov Mound in Sevastopol.

1990. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine first began its work under a parliamentary regime.

May 16: 1648. Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s Cossacks won a victory over a Polish army headed by Stanislaw Potocki at Zhovti Vody.

1917. An anti-Ukrainian Union of Russian Culture Workers in Ukraine was founded in Kyiv.

May 17: 1936. The Anti-Nazi Congress of Cultural Workers opened in Lviv.

1991. The founding meeting of the Democratic Press Association of Ukraine was held.

May 18: 1876. Russian Tsar Alexander II signed the Ems Ukase prohibiting publishing and importing literature in the Ukrainian language.

1920. The All-Ukrainian Orthodox Church Council proclaimed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephalous.

May 19: 1861. The first Ukrainian Sunday school was opened in Sumy.

1908. Sergei Diaghilev staged Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov with Chaliapin singing the lead at the Grand Opera in Paris.

May 20: 1961. The Ukrainian SSR Shevchenko Prize was established to recognize outstanding works in literature, the fine arts, music, theater, and cinema.

1994. The Supreme Council of the Crimea renewed the Constitution of Crimea in its May 6, 1992 version.

May 21: 1918. The First All-Ukrainian Conference of Trade Unions opened in Kyiv, creating the All-Ukrainian Council of Trade Unions.

1921. The Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR ratified a decision on fighting illiteracy and created an All-Ukrainian Commission headed by Hryhory Petrovsky.