site.btaToday's Observances: September 5

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1881: Bulgarian Literary Society (today's Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) holds first meeting in Sofia.

1944: Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with, and declares war on, Bulgaria, which is German ally during part of World War II. Soviet troops enter Bulgaria on September 8, 1944.

1944: Workers' Party Central Committee Politburo and People's Liberation Insurgent Army General Headquarters plan uprising, whose principal strike is to be dealt in Sofia on night of September 8 to 9.

1953: Belene forced labour camp, Northwestern Bulgaria, opened on June 24, 1949, is closed. Reopened on November 17, 1956, closed in 1959.

1955: Lead and Zinc Works in Kardzhali, South Central Bulgaria, are inaugurated (Lead & Zinc Complex AD since 1998).

2001: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew starts one-week visit to Sofia and Plovdiv, confers with Patriarch Maksim, President Petar Stoyanov and Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

2009: Fifteen drown as tourist ship Ilinden, carrying 55 Bulgarian tourists, sinks in Lake Ohrid in Macedonia.