This day in history

1849: Captain 1st Class G.I. Nevelsky’s expedition discovers the strait connecting the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.

1920: The All-Union Book Chamber is founded in the USSR.

1935: The Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR adopts a resolution on physical education at elementary and secondary schools.

1943: Troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts launch the Belgorod-Kharkiv offensive as part of the Battle of Kursk.

1943: Soviet partisan units launch a large-scale operation (to become known as the Railroad War) to destroy the enemy’s rail communications.

1957: The first Soviet ICBM R-7 is launched under Sergei Koroliov’s supervision. 1959: The First International Film Festival opens in Moscow.

1969: A memorial art museum is launched in Chuhuiv (then in Kharkiv Governorate, currently: Kharkiv oblast), the native town of the Russian painter Ilya Repin.