This day in history

1765: The tsar signs an edict allowing the Russian landlords to condemn their peasants to penal servitude.

1918: The People’s Secretariat of [Soviet] Ukraine resolves to institute the People’s Court.

1919: The Central Military-Revolutionary [pro-Soviet] Committee of the Donbas is formed.

1921: The Ukrainian Free University opens in Vienna, to be transferred to Prague in the fall, and to Munich after the end of the World War II.

1945: The Soviet Union takes census, effective as of January 17, 1939, coming up with 170,557,000.

1945: Soviet troops, jointly with the Polish Armed Forces, enter Warsaw. 2005: The Supreme Court of Ukraine is hearing the presidential election case, with Yanukovych supporters picketing outside the building.