site.btaObservances: August 10-11

AUGUST 10

The world:

- National Day of Ecuador: Independence Day (1809).

On this date in Bulgarian history:

1882: Bulgaria's first organized kindergarten opens in Svishtov.

1888: Bulgarian State acquires 224 km-long Ruse-Varna railway (Bulgaria's first and only at that time, built by British company Gladstone & Berkeley Bros. in 1863-1865) for 2 million pounds (proceeds of this country's first government loan, contracted from Great Britain under protocol signed on same date).

1915: Pilot Radoul Milkov successfully test-flies an airplane designed by 19-year-old mechanic Assen Jordanoff. Beginning of aircraft engineering in Bulgaria.

1961: Diplomatic relations established with Ghana.

1971: Bishop Konstantin Preslavski University of Shumen, Northeastern Bulgaria, established.

1974: Diplomatic relations established with Thailand.

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.