May 16: 1648. Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky routed the Polish army of Stanislaw Potocki near Zhovti Vody.
1917. The anti-Ukrainian Democratic League of Russian Cultural Figures in Ukraine was founded in Kyiv.
May 17: 1924. The Ukrainian Siyach (The Sower) Publishing House, specializing in scientific literature and textbooks, was founded in Prague.
1936. The Antifascist Congress of Cultural Figures opened in Lviv.
May 18: 1876. The Ems Ukase was signed, which banned the publishing and import of Ukrainian-language literature, as well as theater productions in Ukrainian.
1944. The deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from the Crimea began.
May 19: 1861. Ukraine’s first Sunday school was opened in Sumy.
1922. The All-Union Pioneers’ Organization (named after Lenin in 1924) was formed.
May 20: 1929. The V Congress of Soviets of the USSR began its work; it approved the first Five Fear Plan of the USSR’s economic development.
1942. The Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet instituted the Order of the Patriotic War, first and second degrees.
May 21: 1918. The first All-Ukrainian Trade Union Conference formed an All-Ukrainian Council of Trade Unions.
1921. The Ukrainian SSR Council of People’s Commissars passed a resolution on combating illiteracy.
May 22: 1861. Taras Shevchenko’s remains were reburied on Chernecha Hill near Kaniv.
1940. The Hammer and Sickle gold medal was instituted as insignia of the Hero of Socialist Labor.
