July 23 is World Whale and Dolphin Day. This day unites centuries: in different years, peace treaties were adopted, political coups began, borders were opened, and interesting historical events took place.
World Whale and Dolphin Day
This day is dedicated to the protection of marine mammals that are under the constant pressure of human activity. The initiative arose after the International Whaling Commission decided to ban commercial whaling in 1982, and the moratorium officially came into force in 1986. This ban was supposed to be a turning point in global attitudes towards oceanic species, particularly cetaceans, which were not only being overfished, but also disappearing from entire marine areas.
The date is not associated with any specific disaster or event, it is a symbolic reminder of the vulnerability of these animals to the technological world. Although commercial hunting is considered to have stopped, it still continues in the practice of several countries. Whale and Dolphin Day draws attention not only to hunting, but also to other modern threats: water pollution, military activity, noise pollution, climate change, degradation of biodiversity.
Interesting facts
In whales, the heart beats only 5-10 times per minute. The heart of a blue whale — the largest known animal — weighs about 180 kg, and its sound can be heard from more than 3 km underwater.
Some species of whales have complex “dialects”—sound patterns that are unique to specific regions of the ocean. In 2022, researchers from the University of Oregon recorded a sound pattern of sperm whales that persists within the same group for more than 30 years.
Dolphins recognize themselves in the mirror. It is one of the few species that has passed the self-awareness test. Besides them, there are chimpanzees, elephants and crows.
With long-term noise exposure, damage to the echolocation sensory system occurs in dolphins. In some cases, it is irreversible. This effect is similar to the loss of hearing in a person after an explosion.
During the explosions of depth charges in the Black Sea during the hostilities of 2022-2023, Ukrainian biologists recorded cases when dolphins could not maintain coordination and swam ashore with obvious internal bleeding.
A population of bowhead whales has been discovered in the North Atlantic, which has survived since the 19th century. Genetic analysis has proven that some individuals are over 200 years old. These are some of the longest living mammals on the planet.
Among all species of dolphins, only the Amazonian dolphin (inya) has a pink color. Its population has decreased by almost 65% over the past two decades due to the disappearance of freshwater ecosystems.
Dolphins can “call” each other: each individual has a unique whistle, similar to a name. The other dolphins address her by imitating this sound code.
Echoes of military events in the seas are not an abstraction. In 2023, an international team of scientists proved the connection between the activity of fleets in the Eastern Mediterranean and the release of a pod of 37 whales on the coast of Turkey. All of them had signs of barotrauma typical of explosive or hydroacoustic impact.
The world’s only completely white albino dolphin lives off the coast of Louisiana. It has been recorded several times by fishermen and researchers with drones. Due to the lack of pigment, it is extremely vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation, and every summer becomes a period of risk for it.
Historical events on this day
971 — Kievan Rus concluded peace with the Byzantine Empire, ending Svyatoslav’s protracted war with Emperor Ioann Tzimischii. The agreement sealed the results of the Battle of Dorostol and temporarily fixed Russia’s position in the Balkans, but it also meant a curtailment of its influence in the region.
1093 — a clash took place on the Zhelyan River between the army of the Russian prince Svyatopolk and the Polovtsy, which ended in a crushing defeat for the Russian side. The battle became another episode of instability in the southeast of Russia and proved the vulnerability of princely troops to nomadic groups.
1711 — the Prut Peace Treaty was signed between the Muscovite Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire. Muscovy returned Azov, undertook to destroy the Taganrig fortress and destroy its Black Sea fleet, effectively losing access to the sea. The treaty was the result of an unsuccessful campaign by Peter I.
1840 — The British government granted Canada the status of a self-governing territory, which was the first step towards the gradual decentralization of the empire and the formation of a modern Canadian state with its own political system.
1840 — in the same year, at the other end of the continent, near the Valerik River, a fierce battle of the Caucasian War took place. Russian troops captured Mala Chechnya, and the battles were described by Lermontov, who took part in them and recorded the bloody reality in a poem that was repeatedly edited after censorship.
1864 — Novorossiysk University was founded in Odessa (now Odessa National University), which became the first higher education institution in the southern part of the empire and played a significant role in the development of science and civil society in the region.
1873 — the French artist Gustave Courbet fled to Switzerland to avoid a huge fine for dismantling the Vendome Column during the Paris Commune. His emigration was a political statement, as well as the actual end of the artist’s career in France.
1888 — in Kyiv, a monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky was solemnly opened on Sofia Square. Sculptor Mykhailo Mykeshin conceived the monument in a completely different form – with the Moscow tsar and Orthodox priests – but these figures were not approved, and the monument came out in a concise composition with one figure on a horse.
1901 — the German doctor Robert Koch, known as one of the fathers of bacteriology, put forward the theory that rats are carriers of the plague. His observations during epidemics became the basis of a sanitary approach to the fight against diseases in the urban environment.
1908 — the Young Turk revolution took place in the Ottoman Empire: the constitution of 1876 was restored. This led to a temporary weakening of the Sultan’s power and the beginning of a series of reforms that transformed the empire into a multi-party, albeit unstable, political system.
1918 — the provisional government in Omsk declared the independence of Siberia, abolished all Bolshevik laws and restored the landlord’s right to land. However, independence did not last long: within a year, the territory returned to the control of the Bolsheviks.
1936 — the Institute of the History of Ukraine under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was established. The institution played an important role in the formation of the official historiography of the Soviet period, and in the post-war period it became a field of struggle between scientists and censorship.
1951 — the NATO headquarters was opened in the French city of Roquencourt. Later, it will be transferred to Paris, and after the withdrawal of France from the military structure of the Alliance – to Brussels.
1965 — Leonid Gaidai’s comedy “Operation “Y” and Shurik’s other adventures” was released. The film became one of the most successful Soviet films of the decade, and the main character is an example of the official image of a “Soviet student”.
1966 — the first stage of the Kremenchug Oil Refinery was put into operation. It was a strategic enterprise, which in the Soviet period provided fuel to a significant part of the regions of the Ukrainian SSR.
1974 — the seven-year dictatorship of the so-called “black colonels” has ended in Greece. Its fall was the result of a foreign policy failure during the conflict in Cyprus and the loss of support from the army.
1975 — Canada has closed its Atlantic ports to foreign fishing vessels, tightening control over its exclusive economic zone and introducing new marine fisheries policies.
1979 — in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini banned the broadcasting of music on television and radio, saying that it was corrupting the youth. The ban lasted for several years and had a lasting impact on culture after the revolution.
1980 — the Soyuz-37 spacecraft took off with the first Asian cosmonaut, Vietnamese citizen Pham Tuan. The flight lasted seven days and became a symbolic gesture of the Soviet presence in the Asian space.
1982 — a decision was made to completely ban commercial whaling. Although some countries continued whaling within their own legal framework, the decision marked a turning point in the development of environmental thinking.
1990 — Leonid Kravchuk was elected chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR. This event became an important step towards the formation of Ukrainian statehood in a period of rapid changes against the background of the decline of the USSR.
2021 — the XXXII Olympic Games started in Tokyo, which were supposed to take place in 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first Olympics in history held without spectators, with strict quarantine restrictions and a changed format of events.
When the Army Rewrites Politics: The Experience of Egypt and Greece
In the history of the 20th century, it happened more than once that at critical moments it was the military who took upon themselves not only the protection of the state, but also the initiative in determining its future. In some places – as a reaction to the complete inactivity of civil authorities. In other cases, as a response to the threat of the collapse of the political system. The day of July 23 is one of those dates when the role of people in epaulettes became decisive and determined the course of events in two different states for years to come: Egypt and Greece.
On the night of July 23, 1952, units of the Egyptian army, ordered by the illegal association “Free Officers”, entered Cairo, blocked the royal palace and key government buildings. The organization was created back in 1949 by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser. At the time of the coup, it consisted of 264 officers. In the morning, General Muhammad Naguib spoke on the radio with a short address: the government has been overthrown, the monarchy has ceased to exist.
King Farouk already left the country on July 26 together with family members – they were sent to Malta. A republic was officially proclaimed in Egypt, and Nagib, a veteran of the war with Israel, became the first president. However, in two years, Nasser himself removed him from power, taking the post of the country’s second president.
The political program of the “Free Officers” consisted of only six points, but each of them was telling:
- Complete elimination of imperialist influence and its local agents,
- Dismantling the feudal structure,
- Stopping the dominance of capital over politics,
- Building a system of social justice,
- Creation of a strong national army,
- Restoration of the true democratic process.
The first steps of the new government were the reorganization of the political field. This did not mean the creation of open competition: a significant part of the leaders of the previous parties were removed, some were arrested. In fact, it was about “cleansing” of the former elites and the gradual formation of a new authoritarian vertical. At that time, such a format was perceived as a necessary evil against the background of a devastating political crisis, weak royal power and the country’s external dependence.
Exactly 22 years later, on July 23, 1974, the military regime ceased to exist in another part of the world — in Greece. The so-called “black colonel” junta, which ruled the country since 1967, was overthrown after the defeat in the Cyprus crisis. The reason was foreign policy adventures: supporting the attempted coup in Cyprus provoked the Turkish invasion, which undermined the junta’s authority inside the country.
The ideological basis of the regime was strict anti-communism, control over universities, mass media, repression against the opposition, mass arrests. But at the same time – and this is a paradox – in the economic dimension, the junta demonstrated high rates of development. Scholars still debate: during the dictatorship, Greece’s GDP growth rate was the highest in Europe and second in the world after Japan. This period is sometimes called the “Greek economic miracle”.
The regime called itself “the revolution that saved the nation.” The “Free Officers” in Egypt defined themselves in the same way. In both cases, the military came to power in conditions of political imbalance, tension between elites, destruction of trust in parliamentary institutions and threats to statehood.
There is a practice established in many states: to provide a mechanism by which power structures can temporarily stabilize the situation in the event of a political collapse. The army as a safeguard, as the last guarantor of sovereignty and territorial integrity — this model is repeated regularly in history. However, there is always a risk: such intervention, even if it starts with declared neutrality, sooner or later turns into an independent political project. A democracy without stability is dangerous, but a democracy under total control is not a democracy either.
Hot Dog Day: History, Controversy, and Rules Not Everyone Knows About
On July 23, 1953, the US Chamber of Commerce officially established an informal holiday — Hot Dog Day. The history of the dish is much older than the date itself: it began as far back as the 19th century, when Johann Georg Lahner, a butcher from Frankfurt am Main, while working in Vienna, prepared a long, soft sausage that would later become the basis of what is now known as a hot dog sausage.
Eventually, the product made its way to the United States—along with the migrants—and became a classic working-class street food. It was sold from carts and stalls at fairs, near factories, during sports matches. The name “hot dog” – literally “hot dog” – caused controversy from the very beginning. One of the oldest versions of its origin is related to rumors that the sausages allegedly contained dog meat – sometimes these rumors did have a basis, especially in the conditions of cheap, low-quality meat processing in the 19th century.
Another popular version is journalistic: during a baseball game in 1901, a sportscaster or cartoonist, seeing hot dog buns for sale, decided to label them simply as “hot dogs” because he wasn’t sure how to properly spell the word “Dachshund” (also “dachshund”, the breed to which the hot dogs were compared). In this way, the name could appear as a joke that caught on.
As for the very idea of wrapping a sausage in a bun, it is associated with street vendor Harry M. Stevens. He simply didn’t have wax paper on hand, so he started wrapping the sausages in French buns to make it easier for customers to hold the hot product. An eyewitness to this impromptu decision — an illustrator named Dargan — later allegedly created a drawing and called it “hot dog.” This story also remains one of several possible ones, and it is difficult to establish the final truth.
Germans and Austrians, in particular, insist that the hot dog is not an American, but a European invention. In 1987, Austria officially celebrated the 100th anniversary of this dish, referring to the Viennese roots of sausages and the tradition of their combination with bread.
Although the hot dog looks simple on the outside, in the United States there are unwritten rules for it, which enthusiasts take seriously:
- Adults should not eat hot dogs with ketchup. In culinary circles, this is considered unacceptable. Actor Clint Eastwood once said with a smile: “Nobody, you know, nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog.”
- A hot dog is not eaten from a plate – it should be held in the hands. Otherwise, it loses its essence as street food.
- The seasoning left on the fingers is not washed off – it is licked off. This is part of the experience, not manifestations of ill-manneredness.
- A hot dog should be eaten in a maximum of five bites. If it is a long dog (more than 30 cm), seven are allowed. Those who count assure: more is already unaesthetic.
Every state in the US has its own variation of the hot dog. For example, in Chicago, it is necessarily a bun with poppy seeds, pickled cucumber, celery salt and pepper. In New York, there is a more minimalistic version: a sausage, a bun, a little mustard or onion. In Arizona, “Sonoran dogs” are popular – with bacon, beans, mayonnaise and jalapeños.
Every year, the average American eats more than 60 hot dogs. There is an entire industry in the country, the volume of which exceeds 1.7 billion US dollars. Demand increases during the summer, especially during baseball season, where hot dogs are considered a permanent part of ballpark culture.
Several unexpected historical episodes are connected with the hot dog. For example, in 1939, during a picnic at Roosevelt’s residence, the US president treated the King of Great Britain, George VI, and his wife to hot dogs — for the British court, it was a real culinary exotic.
In 1959, Nikita Khrushchev, visiting the USA for the first time, tasted a hot dog and ironically declared: “We beat you in space, and you beat us in hot dogs.” Interestingly, during the Apollo 11 mission, several hot dogs were delivered to the moon as a symbolic part of the American astronauts’ diet.
The first character to use the word “hot dog” in cinema was Mickey Mouse. In his cartoon debut, he sells hot dogs at a fair and shouts, “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!” — these words became the beginning of the popularization of this dish in mass culture.
Miners’ strikes: catalysts for change in the political and economic system
On July 23, 1989, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mykhailo Gorbachev, addressed the striking Ukrainian miners on television. A wave of protests then swept across the entire territory of the Soviet Union, but it hit Donbass the hardest. As of July 22, 90,000 miners from 109 mines were already on strike in the region. Other regions also joined the action: 12 coal enterprises of the Lviv region, almost all mines of the Luhansk region, 11 enterprises of “Pavlogradvugil” in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The demands of the protesters went far beyond purely economic ones. Among them were political ones: consolidation of Ukraine’s independence, demand for recognition of the Declaration on State Sovereignty at the level of the Constitution, expressions of no confidence in the President of the USSR and the Verkhovna Rada. The wording was harsh: “…the leadership of the state brought the people to the fatal limit with empty promises.” A total of 43 points of requirements.
There were many reasons for the strike, in particular, a sharp deterioration in the financial situation. At that time, they were really afraid of the “knock of miner’s helmets”. By the end of July, the government commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the USSR was forced to consider the demands of the strike committees of Donetsk region and Voroshilovgrad region and sign protocols of agreed actions.
The strikes continued in 1990 and 1991 and became one of the catalysts for the change in the political and economic system in 1991. In 1993, the mining movement became active again. The so-called miners’ march to Kyiv began. Although the list of demands was reduced to nine points, the action again had consequences, this time it contributed to the change of the president of already independent Ukraine.
