This week in history

April 22, 1922: the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy is opened in Podebrady (Czechoslovakia). April 22, 1990: Earth Day is instituted to help unite people on the planet to protect the environment. April 22, 1990: the Green Party of Ukraine proclaims its Manifesto. April 23, 1918: Ukraine, Germany, and Austria-Hungary sign an agreement on Ukrainian supplies of food and industrial products. April 23, 1975: the Museum of Books and Printing of the Ukrainian SSR opens in Kyiv as the first such institution in the USSR. April 24, 1949: the Taras Shevchenko State Literary-Art Museum opens in Kyiv. April 24, 1967: Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov dies as his Soyuz-1 spacecraft crashes to the ground after a faulty test flight, starting the space exploration death toll. April 25, 1945: at the close of World War II, American and Soviet forces meet at Torgau, Germany, on the Elbe River. April 25, 1994: the President of Ukraine signs an edict instituting the National Council for Television and Radio. April 26, 1918: German forces disarm a Ukrainian division in Kyiv. April 26, 1986: the world’s greatest nuclear disaster occurs at Chernobyl. April 27: International Twin Cities Day. April 27, 1957: USSR Council of Ministers and Communist Party Central Committee resolve to institute reduced working hours. April 27, 1915: Ukrainian Riflemen of the Sich engage the enemy on Mt. Makovka (WW I). April 27, 1943: formation of the Galician Waffen SS Division begins in Lviv.