site.btaToday's Observances: August 11

The world:

1960: National Day of Chad: Independence Day.

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1846: A school play in Shumen (Northeastern Bulgaria) marks the birth of amateur performing arts in Bulgaria. 

1877: On the decisive third day of the Battle of Shipka in the Russo-Turkish War, the Turkish troops are beaten off.

1970: Bulgaria's first synthetic rubber is manufactured at the Petrochemical Combined Works near Burgas (on the Black Sea).

1984: The Balkan's only dolphinarium is inaugurated in Varna on the Black Sea. 

1995: Fourteen soldiers die in a crash on Sofia's ring road. 

2003: The first group of 145 Bulgarian servicemen of the main body of a Bulgarian battalion leaves for Iraq.