August 11, 1933: Blast Furnace #1 begins operation at the Mariupol Metallurgical Combine. August 12, 1956: the unique Continuous Rolling Mill 250 is made operational at the Kryvy Rih Metallurgical Combine. August 12, 1962: the first Ukrainian astronaut, Pavlo Popovych, is launched into outer space onboard Vostok-4. August 12, 1990: the Mound of Sorrow is dedicated in Poltava Region to commemorate victims of the 1932-33 Holodomor man-made famine. August 13, 1677: Chyhyryn's first siege by Turkish troops begins. August 13, 1914: the Russian tsarist government institutes military censorship, banning printed matter in Ukrainian. August 14, 988: Rus'-Ukraine is baptized. August 14, 1775: the Russian Tsar declares the "unlawfulness" of liquidating the Zaporizhzhia Sich Cossack encampment. August 15, 1649: Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks defeat the Poles in the Battle of Zboriv. August 15, 1945: a boxcar arrives from the German city of Zedenick to Kharkiv, carrying valuables stolen by the Nazis from the city museums. August 16, 1820: a gymnasium (high school) is opened in Nizhyn, sponsored by Prince Ivan Bezborodko. August 16, 1945: the USSR and Poland sign a treaty on Ukrainian-Belarus-Polish frontiers. August 17, 1245: Prince Danylo of Halych defeats Polish-Hungarian forces in the Battle of Yaroslavka. August 17, 1772: Poland undergoes its first partition, surrendering Galicia (Halychyna) to Austria and Right bank Ukraine to Russia.






