CALENDAR

DATES. EVENTS. PEOPLE.

  On August 25th, 1932, Petrus Makal (Peter Mikhailovich) was born, a Belarusian poet, playwright. He is the author of The First Track, To Meet the Winds, Window collections of poetry and others. He wrote the plays Beyond the Dense Forests, Well, Give Me Some Water! Laureate of the State Prize of Belarus. Died in 1996.


On August 25th, 2007, the Buda-Koshelevo Art Gallery named after Yevsey Moiseyenko, an outstanding People’s Artist of the USSR, a native of the Buda-Koshelevo District, was opened. The gallery exhibits a sketch painted by Yevsey Moiseyenko in 1946 (the only one of his paintings on the territory of Belarus), paintings by Moiseyenko’s students and other artists.



On August 25th, 1930, an expedition of polar explorers to explore the Kara Sea, led by Otto Schmidt and Vladimir Wiese, on the icebreaker Georgy Sedov discovered the western shores of Severnaya Zemlya.



 August 27th is International Boxing Day. It is generally accepted that boxing became a martial art in 688 BC, when fisticuffs were first included in the programme of the ancient Olympic Games.


On August 27th, 1922, Ales Makhnach (Aleksandr Ivanovich) was born, a Belarusian playwright, prose writer, publicist, Honoured Worker of Culture of Belarus. During the Great Patriotic War, he took part in the defence of the Brest Fortress. Author of collections: Plays, Dramatic Miniatures, etc. Died in 2001.



On August 27th, 1955, the first copy of the Guinness Book of Records was published. It was named after the ancient Guinness family name of the Sir Hugh family, who, after a joking argument, decided to collect information about all sorts of non-standard records.


August 28th is the I Have a Dream Day. Martin Luther King’s speech on August 28th, 1963, which went down in history under the title ‘I Have a Dream’ and was named after a quote from the speech, prompted a number of public figures to establish a holiday dedicated to the dream. Martin Luther King was a public figure and a fighter for the freedom and equality of citizens before the law, regardless of race, nationality, religion or any other affiliation.


August 28th is the Miner’s Day in the Republic of Belarus. It has been counting its history since the days of the USSR. Belarus has a developed mining, oil-producing and oil-refining industry, an industry for the production of potash and carbonate fertilisers, building materials, etc.


On August 28th, 2004, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, one of the main shrines of Orthodox Christians, was returned to Russia. It was revealed in 1579. One of the copies of the icon, created in the 18th century and decorated with a precious framework and stones, was sold abroad and was kept by Pope John Paul II. On August 28th, 2004, it was returned to Russia.


On August 29th, 1885, the German inventor Gottlieb Daimler patented the first motorcycle, a bicycle with a wooden frame and a belt drive, with a single-cylinder gasoline engine, a displacement of 264 cubic centimetres, and a power of 0.5 hp. The new mode of transport turned out to be quite successful and it was very similar to a modern motorcycle already in its first version.


On August 30th, 1877, the self-taught French inventor Émile Reynaud received a patent for the praxinoscope apparatus he had designed. This day is considered the birth of world animation.


August 31st, 1920, is the day of the birth of the first Russian tank. On this day, a light tank Freedom Fighter Comrade Lenin left the gates of the Krasnoye Sormovo plant in Nizhny Novgorod, and it became the first mass-produced tank in Russia. This creation was the beginning of the formation of the Russian school of tank building.