This day in history

1888: A monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky is unveiled on St. Sophia Square in Kyiv.

1917: The Central Rada adopts the First Universal [declaration] proclaiming Ukraine’s sovereignty and autonomy.

1919: The Soviet of People’s Commissars [Ukr. abbr., Radnarkom] of the Ukrainian SSR adopts a decree nationalizing the Kyiv City Museum and the Khanenko and Hansen museum collections.

1934: Stanislav (currently Ivano-Frankivsk) hosts a Ukrainian Women’s Congress.

1944: Soviet forces launch Operation Bagration during WW II, the code name of a strategic offensive ending in the clearing of Belarus, eastern Poland, and part of what would become known as the Baltic States of the Wehrmacht.

1989: Anna Akhmatova Memorial is unveiled in Odesa, in commemoration of this distinguished poet’s 100th anniversary of birth.

1990: Former Crimean Tatar deportees start settling in a village in the Soviet Crimea, their historical homeland.