site.btaObservances: January 4-5

January 4

The world:

- National Day of Myanmar: Independence Day (1948).

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1878: Sofia Liberation Day (marks anniversary of Sofia's Liberation from Ottoman rule by General Yosif V. Gurko's Russian troops in 1878).

1915: Military Academy, Bulgaria's oldest military school, is inaugurated in Sofia.

1924: State Protection Act is passed, enters into force on January 23, 1924. Invoked to outlaw five parties and public organizations and to confiscate their properties on April 2, 1924; amended and supplemented four times; repealed on October 16, 1944.

1969: Diplomatic relations are established with Malaysia at embassy level.

1990: Movement for Rights and Freedoms is established in the coastal city of Varna.

January 5

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1873: National hero Vassil Levski goes on trial in Sofia.

1889: Higher Teachers' Course, established on October 1, 1888, is renamed Higher School (now Sofia University), with Alexander Teodorov-Balan as first rector and enrolment of 43, all male.

1920: National Assembly ratifies Treaty of Neuilly, imposed on Bulgaria after its defeat in World War I (1914-1918).

1999: Boundaries and capitals of Bulgaria's 28 administrative regions fixed by presidential decree (regions created in December 1998).