site.btaToday's Observances: April 10

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1866: A Bulgarian chitalishte community centre set up in Constantinople by prominent representatives of the Bulgarian intelligentsia in the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The centre had its own printing house and printed five issues of an annual journal called Chitalishte in 1870-1875. The centre played an active part in the efforts for independent Bulgarian church.

1913: Slavia Football Club founded in Sofia.

1918: Faculty of Medicine opens at St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. 

1979: Soyuz 33 spacecraft, with the first Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov and Russian Nikolai Rukavishnikov onboard, lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

2001: Fifteen EU Member States waive Schengen visa requirements for Bulgarian citizens.