On July 20, Metallurgists’ Day and Chess Day are celebrated in Ukraine, which coincides with International Chess Day, and the world also celebrates International Moon Day. On this day, in different years, events took place that had a significant impact on science, technology, geopolitics, and even humanity’s view of the very concept of the possible.
Metallurgist’s Day in Ukraine
This is a professional holiday of workers in the metallurgical and mining industry – those who work every day in extreme conditions, producing metal without which it is impossible to imagine any modern infrastructure: bridges, power plants, machinery, transport, military armor.
In Ukraine, this sphere is one of the key ones in the economy. By the end of 2023, the share of metallurgy in Ukraine’s exports exceeded 15%. The industry constantly suffers from the war — Russian shelling destroys production facilities, supply chains are broken, and some enterprises are located in the occupied territories. Despite this, many factories continue to work, evacuate production, move to new markets, adapt products to EU standards.
Interesting facts
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, one of the largest steel plants in Europe, produces more than 6 million tons of steel per year. Even during the war, the company did not stop completely and in 2023 launched an export program in the direction of Romania and Turkey.
Ukraine is one of the few suppliers of ferroalloys with unique characteristics, in particular ferronickel and ferromanganese, which are used in the production of high-quality steel.
Before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine was one of the world’s top ten iron ore exporters.
Ukrainian metallurgists were the first in Eastern Europe to start producing “green” metal, using hydrogen instead of natural gas, as they did at an experimental level at the plant in Kamiansk back in 2021.
In 2022–2024, some Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises relocated part of their capacities to the western regions or restored old locations, in particular the Drohobytsky and Kalusky plants, which were considered unprofitable even 10 years ago.
Chess Day in Ukraine and International Chess Day
The International Chess Day was founded on July 20, 1924, when FIDE, the International Chess Federation, was founded in Paris. In 1966, UNESCO officially declared this date as the day of commemoration of chess throughout the world. Since 2011, it has also been a national holiday in Ukraine.
Chess has a special significance in Ukrainian history. Even in pre-Soviet times, this game was considered an intellectual marker — a sign of high education and analytical thinking. During the Soviet period, chess became a mass phenomenon: it was taught in circles at the palaces of pioneers, problems were printed in newspapers, and films were made about them. Ukrainian chess players, such as Isaak Boleslavskyi, Lev Alburt, Vasyl Ivanchuk, played an important role in the development of the world chess movement.
After the restoration of independence, Ukraine did not lose its chess weight. In 2001, the Ukrainian national team won gold at the European Championship for the first time. In 2004, the men’s team won the Olympics in Calvia. In 2006 and 2010, women became Olympic champions. In 2022, during a full-scale war, Ukraine again became a leader on the world stage: Anna Muzychuk and Vasyl Ivanchuk continue to steadily enter the chess elite, despite the restrictions and conditions of war.
Interesting facts
The word “chess” comes from the Persian “shah mat”, which means “the king is dead.”
The number of unique chess games exceeds 10¹²⁰, which is more than the number of atoms in the universe.
After the first 4 moves (two from each player), over 288 million different positions are possible.
The longest theoretically allowed game is 5949 moves.
The shortest checkmate is possible in two moves – the so-called “stupid checkmate”.
The longest real tournament game lasted 269 moves (Ivan Nikolsky – Gavril Kasparian, 1981, ended in a draw).
The Deep Blue computer defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in a 1997 match — the first time a machine had beaten a human in classical games.
In 1985, the first official zero-gravity chess match was held in New York between the crews of Soyuz T-13 and Houston.
The largest chess piece in the world is a queen over 6 m high, made in Canada.
There is an officially recognized chess match that lasted more than 20 years – a correspondence between two players from Italy and the United States from 1950 to 1970.
The longest checkmate without a tie or stalemate is between Magnus Carlsen and Jan Niepomniaszcz in 2021: 136 moves.
In the USSR, in the 1960s, chess was planned to be made a compulsory subject at school, but it was only partially implemented.
In some countries (in particular, Spain, Armenia), chess is included in the compulsory school curriculum as a way of developing critical thinking.
Famous chess players like Bobby Fischer used “random chess,” a variation where the pieces on the first line are randomly placed.
More than 600 million people in the world regularly play chess.
In 1991, Ukrainian grandmaster Vasyl Ivanchuk became the youngest winner of the super tournament in Linares, ahead of Kasparov and Karpov. He was only 21.
In 2022, more than 180 chess schools were operating in Ukraine, more than half of them in online format due to the war. The number of children playing chess remotely has almost doubled.
One of the strongest Ukrainian chess players of the 20th century, Isaak Boleslavskyi, in the post-war years lost the title of contender for the title of world champion only because of one lost match — and this was the first system of contender matches in history.
In the 2000s, Ukraine became the first country in Europe to introduce chess as an optional subject in primary school in several regions — an initiative that lasted over 10 years.
In 2023, Ukrainian programmer and chess player Oleksandr Lugin created an open platform for learning chess in Ukrainian, which at the beginning of 2024 had more than 70,000 active users.
International Day of the Moon
On this day in 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong took the first step on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. This is not just a reference to a historical event, but a way to draw attention to current research, new missions, the use of lunar resources, the role of the satellite in life on Earth, and even potential scenarios of lunar colonization.
The role of the moon in the functioning of our planet is critical. It stabilizes the tilt of the Earth’s axis, thanks to which we have more or less constant seasons. Without it, fluctuations could be so drastic that the climate would not allow the development of complex life forms. The moon is also responsible for the tides, affecting marine ecosystems and the hydrosphere in general.
Today, the Moon is back in focus — after a decades-long hiatus, the space powers have resumed the competition to study it. NASA, ESA, China and India have active programs. A new phase began with the Artemis mission: the US plans to return humans to the moon in the coming years. It’s not just about science, it’s about resources, too—including ice, which can be used for water and fuel, and helium-3, a potential energy source of the future.
The Moon is the closest celestial body that allows us to study the early history of the Solar System. It does not have an atmosphere, so it has retained the “scars” of impacts that were worn away on Earth by wind, water, and volcanoes.
Interesting facts
The Moon is gradually moving away from the Earth – by 3.8 cm every year. In a few hundred million years, total solar eclipses will become impossible.
The Moon has “eternal shadows” – craters near the poles where light never reaches. Deposits of water ice are concentrated there.
Moon dust is extremely abrasive. Astronauts complained that it rubs joints, damages spacesuits, and has a burning smell.
In 2002, Buzz Aldrin punched a man who called the moon landing a hoax. The court recognized the astronaut’s actions as legitimate.
More than 100 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty (1967), which prohibits any national claim to the Moon.
In 2019, China’s Chang’e-4 mission was the first to land on the far side of the moon – there had never been a spacecraft there before.
Soil samples from the Moon continue to be studied: they reveal traces of isotopes that can explain the formation of planets.
Historical events on this day
1534 — the world’s first university publishing house was officially registered in Cambridge. This is how Cambridge University Press appeared, which is still considered one of the most authoritative academic publishing houses in the world.
1585 — the British navigator John Davis reached the southern coast of Greenland during the exploration of the North Atlantic. He called the area the Land of Desolation because of the glaciers, wind and lack of life. It was one of the first attempts to map this part of the Arctic.
1917 — the German company Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) received official trademark registration. Initially, the company was engaged in the production of aircraft engines, and only later became one of the flagships of the automotive industry.
1917 — on the same day, but in another part of Europe, the Corfu Declaration was signed. This is a joint statement by representatives of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes about the intention to create a single state. Later, this document became the political basis for the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – the future Yugoslavia.
1924 — the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in Paris, which still determines the rules, titles and holds major tournaments. From that date, chess received a world institutional structure, and later – the official status of a sport.
1944 — a group of German officers led by Klaus von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by planting explosives under the table in the Wolf’s Den. The attempt failed, but became the most famous attempt at internal resistance in Nazi Germany.
1969 — the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the surface of the Moon. For the first time, man set foot on another celestial body: Neil Armstrong took his historic step, and Buzz Aldrin joined him 20 minutes later. It was the culmination of a technological breakthrough of the 20th century.
1976 — the module of the American apparatus “Viking-1” successfully landed on the surface of Mars, becoming the first apparatus in history to transmit a photo from the surface of the Red Planet. This opens a new stage of interplanetary research, no longer in theory, but in real time.
