This week in history

November 30: 1867. Tsarist Russia’s first electric lighthouse was commissioned in Odesa. 1996. The State Customs Service of Ukraine was set up by decree of the President Kuchma.

December 1: 1853. A Russian naval squadron commanded by Admiral Nakhimov defeated a Turkish squadron near the Cape of Sinope.

1991. An all-Ukrainian referendum confirmed Ukrainian independence and elected Leonid Kravchuk President.

December 2: 1015. Prince Yaroslav the Wise ascended the princely throne in Kyiv.

1864. Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s opera Zaporizhzhian Cossack Beyond the Danube premiered in St. Petersburg.

December 3: 1805. Anti-French No coalition troops suffered a defeat in the battle against Napoleon’s army near Austerlitz.

1966. The remains of the Unknown Soldier were solemnly buried by the Kremlin wall in Moscow.

December 4: 1925. The first issue of the Ukrainian national newspaper Komsomolets Ukrayiny came out in Kharkiv.

1941. The evacuated Kyiv Ivan Franko Drama Theater began to work in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

December 5: 1917. The Ukrainian State Academy of Arts was opened in Kyiv.

1994. A memorandum was signed in Budapest on extending to Ukraine security guarantees by the three nuclear powers: the US, Great Britain, and Russia.

December 6: Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

1240. Batu Khan’s troops seized and sacked Kyiv after a long siege.

1991. A treaty on good-neighborly relations and cooperation was signed between Ukraine and Hungary.