This week in history

March 18 1848: The Hungarian parliament passes a bill annulling serfdom in Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia).

1913: A military organization known as the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen is created in Lviv, the nucleus of which is the Sich organization.

March 19 1917: Ukraine’s first freedom celebration is held on the Central Rada’s initiative, during which the first Ukrainian popular assembly is formed.

1996: Ukraine’s agrarian stock exchange begins trading in oil products.

March 20 1669: A council of Cossack officers resolves to recognize Turkey’s protectorate of Right-Bank Ukraine.

1944: Soviet forces liberate Vinnytsia from the Nazis.

March 21 1927: The first issue of Literaturna hazeta (renamed Literaturna Ukraina in 1962) comes off the presses.

March 22 1978: The Information Bulletin of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group begins publication.

1994: The Banknote Factory of the National Bank of Ukraine goes into operation in Kyiv.

March 23 1993: Ukraine and the European Union sign a partnership and cooperation agreement in Brussels.

March 24 1935: A monument to Ukraine’s national poet Taras Shevchenko, designed by Matvii Manizer, is unveiled in Kharkiv.

1980: The Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church convenes in Rome and elects Myroslav Liubachivsky as the successor to Metropolitan Josyf Cardinal Slipyj.