site.btaObservances: January 18-19

January 18

The world:

- Beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25)

The Orthodox Church marks the Feast Day of St Athanasios and St Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria, and St Joachim, Patriarch of Tarnovo.

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1885: Parliament passes an Act Establishing the Bulgarian National Bank.

1992: Diplomatic relations established with Armenia at embassy level.

2007:  The European Parliament passes a resolution in support of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to death on December 19, 2006 on charges of intentionally infecting some 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

January 19

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1932: New DAR-6 trainer aircraft, designed by Tsvetan Lazarov, performs its first flight, taking off from Bozhourishte Airfield near Sofia.

1989: French President Francois Mitterrand meets with 12 Bulgarian dissident intellectuals in Sofia, most of them members of Discussion Club in Support of Glasnost and Perestroika. Famous "breakfast with Mitterrand" is key event ahead of fall of communist regime in Bulgaria in autumn of that year. Invited by Todor Zhivkov, Mitterrand is first French head of State to visit Bulgaria.

1992: Zhelyu Zhelev becomes the first directly elected President of Bulgaria. Remains on this post until January 22, 1997.

1997: Peter Stoyanov is sworn in as President of Bulgaria.

2002: Georgi Purvanov is sworn in as President of Bulgaria.

2007: X3, an integrated information product of Bulgarian Stock Exchange - Sofia, is launched officially.