site.btaObservances: February 8-9

February 8

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1913: Battle of Bulair begins between Bulgarian and Ottoman troops during First Balkan War (1912-1913).

1950: Diplomatic relations are established with Vietnam.

1980: Petar Popangelov becomes Bulgaria's first winner of Alpine Ski World Cup event (a slalom in Lenggries, Germany).

1989: Podkrepa Independent Trade Union is established (renamed Podkrepa Confederation of Labour on March 18, 1990).

1996: Mass privatization starts officially.

2015: Mountaineers Doychin Boyanov, Nikolai Petkov and Alexander Shopov are the first to scale Great Needle Peak (1,679.48 m) on Livingston Island, Antarctica's second-highest peak.

February 9

On this date in Bulgarian history: 

1923: Alexander Stamboliyski forms second government (in office until June 9, 1923, when brought down by military coup).

1949: Bulgaria becomes member of UNICEF.

1996: Supreme Court repeals sentence against former communist leader Todor Zhivkov and his former aide Milko Balev.

1998: Biathlete Ekaterina Dafovska wins Bulgaria's first Winter Olympics gold medal (in individual women's 15 km event in Nagano, Japan).

1999: Twenty-one Bulgarian doctors and nurses are arrested in Libya in connection with infection of 393 children with AIDS in Benghazi in 1998. 

2003: Bulgarian scientific base's chapel on Livingston Island, Antarctica, is consecrated.