This day in history

1648: Cossack troops, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, defeat the Poles in the Battle of Korsun.

1920: Red Army units start a counteroffensive on the Southwestern Front, meant to seize Kyiv.

1926: In Paris, an NKVD agent murders Symon Petliura, Ukrainian emigre leader and Chief Otaman of the Ukrainian National Republic.

1929: The Symon Petliura Library is founded in Paris.

1942: Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign an agreement providing for a joint military effort against Nazi Germany and its allies, as well as for postwar cooperation and mutual assistance.

1942: Soviet partisan units led by Fedir Kovpak seize the town of Putivl and hold the fort for almost 48 hours.

1947: The Soviet/Council of Ministers of the USSR adopts a decree reinstating the State Library Institute in Kharkiv.

1982: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopts a decree conferring the Friendship of Nations Order on Kyiv, for the 1,500th anniversary of its foundation.