July 26 is the Paratrooper’s Day in Ukraine, and the International Day of Decor and the International Day of Preservation of Mangrove Ecosystems is celebrated in the world. In different years, military defeats and state acts of independence, scientific discoveries, political maneuvers, cultural premieres and terrorist attacks took place on this day.
Paratrooper’s Day in Ukraine
Every year on July 26, parachutists, skydivers and veterans of airborne training celebrate the day that is considered the beginning of the national parachute history. This is an unofficial professional holiday that dates back to 1930, when a series of training jumps with a parachute from an airplane was performed for the first time in the USSR. The history of Ukrainian parachuting sports originates from there, although it has its own stages of formation, dramatic and heroic.
On the territory of Ukraine, the first training parachute jumps were held in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa in the 1930s. Both instructors for the army and enthusiastic athletes grew up from there. After the war, the parachuting business spread rapidly: in the 1950s and 1960s, almost every major city had flying clubs where you could get training. These were state programs of DOSAAF — a voluntary society for the assistance of the army.
In the Armed Forces of Ukraine, parachute training is mandatory for many categories: paratroopers, special forces, attack aircraft, flight technicians. It all started with training jumps from An-2, then at night, with weapons and cargo. The first five jumps are the threshold for qualification. The system remained unchanged until the 2010s.
Parachuting in Ukraine today is not only the army. Dozens of private flying clubs operate in the country: Zhytomyr, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Cherkasy, Boryspil. They offer both solo tandem jumps and a full USPA (United States Parachute Association) certification course. This opens access to world competitions and clubs.
Interesting facts
In 2021, Ukrainian Lyudmila Kushnir set a national record, making 560 jumps in one year. In Khmelnytskyi, experimental jumps with a parachute with a load, which simulated the evacuation of a wounded person, were carried out. Ukrainian paratroopers regularly perform jumps in combat conditions — into the rear of the enemy, during the delivery of equipment or during reconnaissance. A parachute is not an attraction here, but a survival tool.
In 2021, in the village of Maiske, Dnipropetrovsk region, a unique air show was held for the first time in Ukraine: a tandem of 14 professional parachutists performed a hopak-style synchronized dance during free fall.
The first children’s parachutist training program in Ukraine, “Winged Youth”, was launched in Kharkiv in 1998 – it existed until 2014, when it was discontinued for security reasons.
In the 1940s, Ukrainian Zinaida Kornieva jumped from a height of 7,800 meters without oxygen equipment, despite the fact that hypoxia and a sharp drop in temperature already occur at such a height. She lost consciousness during the descent, but the parachute opened automatically and she survived. This jump is still considered one of the riskiest experiments in the history of the parachute business.
In the 1960s, Ukrainian paratroopers were among those who developed and tested landing systems for spacecraft. In particular, in the Zhytomyr region, prototypes of capsules with parachute braking for the evacuation of cosmonauts were tested. During one of the tests, the jump was performed by an instructor in a spacesuit weighing more than 40 kg, and this became the basis for simulating future landings of space crews.
In 1989, on the territory of the then Ukrainian SSR, a team of parachutists from Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv first performed the “eight” – a figure of group acrobatics, when a ring of eight people is formed in the air, holding hands and feet, changing formations on the move. This was a breakthrough for the participation of Ukrainian athletes in international competitions. Training was conducted on old AN-2 aircraft without special equipment.
In 2015, an experimental parachute jump was carried out near Kryvyi Rih into the territory of a completely flooded quarry. The participant – a veteran of the airborne forces – performed a jump from an extremely low height (less than 800 meters) in a special wetsuit. Its purpose was to practice emergency water evacuation from the air in the conditions of an urbanized landscape. The experiment was considered a success, although it took more than 12 minutes to get out of the water due to the strong current.
In 2023, during the exercises of the Ukrainian special forces, a nighttime jump in the wind speed over 18 m/s was recorded – flights are usually canceled in such conditions. But then it was necessary to urgently transfer a group of scouts to the rear of the conditional enemy. The jumps were made from a helicopter, at an altitude of about 1,200 meters, with full combat equipment. After landing, the group disappeared from the radar and after 36 hours went to the evacuation point at the other end of the range.
In 2008, during the aviation festival in Odesa, one of the instructors made a jump without a spare parachute for the first time in Ukraine, using an experimental parachute system activated by an electronic timer. It was a risky test — in case the main opening system failed. The jump was successful, after which the system was refined and included in the instructors’ training programs.
International Decor Day
This day is dedicated to the Japanese Decora subculture, which was formed in the late 1990s in Tokyo, in the Harajuku district. The initiative of the celebration appeared among the participants of the movement themselves, without the involvement of official institutions or design organizations. The date is not fixed in any state or professional calendar. This is not a day of fashion or design, but rather a day of self-determination for a separate visual community. He is recognized mainly in the circles of alternative fashion, independent bloggers, photographers and style fans themselves. Every year on this day, Decora participants share their images on social networks, hold photo sessions, exchange accessories or archival materials. The basis is not a show, but a repetition of the gesture of belonging to the style.
Interesting facts
In 2021, American artist and photographer May Mido archived more than 300 images of Decora participants from 17 countries and created an online exhibition where each photo was accompanied by a caption “what this person is wearing and why.” The project exists only in closed access upon request.
In 2004, in Shibuya (Tokyo), 212 members of Decora gathered at a central train station and sat silently on the floor for an hour without making any movement or sound. They did not express any demands, did not hold placards. The action ended as quietly as it began. The video was distributed by independent Japanese filmmakers.
In South Korea in 2019, the bride had an entirely Decora-style wedding. She had more than 300 plastic accessories on her dress, including candy boxes, pharmacy stickers, laces from children’s shoes. The image was covered in Japanese and French magazines, but without the authorization of the bride herself.
In the US in the early 2010s, some support groups for people with post-traumatic stress disorder used Decora-style imagery as a stabilizing tool—because of a sense of control over the body and color. The experience has not been formally documented, but is mentioned in articles by clinical psychologists who have worked with youth.
In Japan, until 2011, there was a practice among Decora communities to leave small toys or key chains in each other’s pockets after meeting without warning. It was a joke, a sign of trust or memory. At the same time, it was never discussed publicly – only on forums or in private messages.
In 2023, a Ukrainian blogger from Kharkiv held an online marathon on TikTok dedicated to Decora Day. Users from more than 15 countries participated in it. It has become one of the biggest unofficial celebrations of the day since the pandemic. The video received hundreds of thousands of views, but was not picked up by the Ukrainian mass media.
International Day for the Conservation of Mangrove Ecosystems
This day was established by UNESCO in 2015 in memory of Ecuadorian environmentalist Ramon Ungui, who died on July 26, 1998 while protecting mangrove forests. This day is informative and aimed at spreading knowledge about the ecological value of mangrove systems, their protection and rational use. Formally, this date does not involve individual environmental protection measures or state reporting, but it is supported by environmental protection structures, local communities in coastal zones, scientists, UNEP, UNESCO and other relevant organizations.
Mangrove ecosystems are forests that grow in salt water along the coasts of tropical and subtropical seas. Their feature is adaptation to mixed conditions: variable salinity, tides, lack of oxygen in the soil. They are key to maintaining biodiversity, act as a natural storm barrier and maintain shorelines, and play a prominent role in carbon sequestration.
Interesting facts
Mangrove forests absorb up to 5 times more carbon than tropical rainforests. One hectare of mangrove forest annually keeps about 1,000 tons of CO₂-equivalent in the atmosphere.
In 2020, in India, a group of schoolchildren from the West Bengal region conducted an independent mangrove inventory after Cyclone Amphan, as no government agency had collected the data. Their results were used in the formation of a local forest restoration plan.
In Ecuador, in some mangrove areas, only those who have proven that they do not cut down trees have the right to collect crabs or shellfish. There is a tradition – during the first harvest of the season, the family plants a young tree near the shore as a “thank you” for the harvest.
In Vietnam, some local communities use the fruits of mangrove trees to make a natural dye that lasts up to 20 washes and does not cause allergies. The dye has a deep gray shade with a faint blue undertone.
The world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, the Sundarbans, located between India and Bangladesh, is home to more than 260 species of birds, 120 species of fish, 42 species of mammals and 8 species of amphibians. In 2007, its territory decreased by almost 25% due to the rise of the sea level, but thanks to artificial planting, it was possible to stabilize part of the area.
In 2022, a new species of mangrove crab was discovered in Kenya, which lives only between tides, does not enter the water, and has the ability to retain moisture in its shell for more than 8 hours. It was named Perisesarma nairobii after the Kenyan capital.
Historical events on this day
811 – the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I Phocas died during the hostilities with the Bulgarians. His army was defeated in the battle in the Vyrbitsky gorge. The Bulgarians, led by Khan Krum, defeated the empire’s troops, and the emperor himself died on the battlefield – this became one of the greatest defeats of Byzantium in the 9th century.
1309 – Pope Clement V officially recognized Henry VII as the king of the Holy Roman Empire. This happened during the period of increasing influence of the French clergy on the Vatican and growing disputes between the imperial power and the church.
1611 – the Swedish army entered Novgorod. The local nobility concluded an agreement with the command, according to which Novgorod recognized the son of the Swedish king as a claimant to the throne of the Moscow kingdom. The temporary removal of the Novgorod land from Moscow’s jurisdiction was also foreseen.
1648 – near Starokostyantynov, Cossack troops led by Maksym Kryvonos defeated the Polish army of Yaremy Vyshnevetskyi. This episode became part of the uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, which at that time had already turned into a large-scale war.
1657 – at the Cossack council in Chhyryn, Ivan Vyhovskyi was elected the new hetman for the period of Yuriy Khmelnytskyi’s minor. This decision was a compromise and temporary, but actually handed Vyhovsky the full power of the hetman.
1708 – General judge and colonel Vasyl Kochubey was executed near Bila Tserkva. He was accused of treason and providing secret information to the Moscow court. The execution was carried out by order of Hetman Ivan Mazepa.
1709 – after the victory over the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava, Peter I arrived in Kyiv. His visit had both symbolic and practical significance: on the one hand – a triumph, on the other – a demonstration of the presence of royal power on the Left Bank.
1788 – New York became the eleventh state to ratify the US Constitution. This gave a new dynamic to the political design of the union states into a federal state.
1847 – the independent Republic of Liberia was proclaimed. It was the first African state created by former slaves from America. Its independence was recognized by the USA, but it remained an object of distrust in Europe for a long time.
1866 – a peace agreement between Austria and Prussia was signed in Nikolsburg. The agreement ended the Austro-Prussian War, which had lasted several weeks and shifted the balance of power in Central Europe in favor of Prussia.
1887 – the first Esperanto textbook, created by Ludwik Zamenhof, was published in Warsaw. The language was to become a universal means of communication between peoples, devoid of political or cultural superiority.
1914 – Austria-Hungary announced general mobilization. The troops began to withdraw to the Russian border. This was one of the last steps before the start of the First World War.
1925 – the first flight of the Soviet passenger plane “K-1” took place. It was designed by the designer Konstantin Kalinin. It was one of the first steps in the creation of civil aviation in the USSR.
1929 – the premiere of Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s film “Arsenal”. The film had a complex structure and combined elements of expressionism and revolutionary montage, differing from the officially approved Soviet film narrative schemes.
1945 – the first blast furnace was rebuilt at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol after the Second World War. The enterprise began to restore capacity as part of Stalin’s industrialization program after the occupation.
1948 – Great Britain and the USA agreed on the conditions for the implementation of the “Marshall Plan”. The program was aimed at economic support for Europe after the war and containment of Soviet influence.
1951 – the first birch letters were found in Novgorod. The discovery gave impetus to large-scale archaeological research, which radically changed the perception of the level of literacy in medieval Russia.
1956 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal. This provoked an immediate military response from Great Britain, France and Israel, which resulted in a short-lived war.
1957 – The USSR launched a multi-stage intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in history. This significantly changed the perception of the capabilities of military forces in the nuclear age.
1965 – The Maldivian Islands declared independence. Formally, they left the British protectorate and became a sovereign state.
1995 – representatives of 15 EU countries signed the Convention on the establishment of Europol. The organization was supposed to coordinate police services in the fight against transnational crime.
2016 – in the Japanese city of Sagamihara, an armed man broke into a boarding house for people with disabilities and attacked the residents. 19 people died. The attacker explained his actions with a belief in the “uselessness of the weak”.
2016 – in the French city of Rouen, radicals attacked a church during mass. Priest Jacques Amel was killed. The attackers were destroyed by the police.
2016 – Hillary Clinton is officially nominated as the candidate for the presidency of the United States from the Democratic Party. For the first time in the country’s history, a woman received a nomination from one of the two leading parties.
The execution of Vasyl Kochubey
On July 26, 1708, Vasyl Kochubey, general scribe and general judge of the Zaporizhzhya Army, was executed on charges of slandering Hetman Ivan Mazepa. As early as 1706, Hetman Mazepa himself shared with Kochubey his plans for the separation of Little Russia from the Russian Empire. They were connected not only by military cooperation and personal friendship, but also by family ties: Vasyl Kochubey’s eldest daughter Anna was the wife of Mazepa’s nephew Ivan Obidovsky, and Kochubey’s younger daughter was baptized by the hetman himself.
At the same time, some historians believe that the relationship between Kochubey and Mazepa was tense. Perhaps Kochubey himself was hoping for a mace, or perhaps everything was complicated by the loud and unsuccessful romance of 65-year-old Mazepa with Kochubey’s 16-year-old daughter. Be that as it may, Kochubei submitted three reports to Tsar Peter I, in which he claimed that Mazepa was conducting secret negotiations with the Polish and Swedish sides. However, the king trusted Mazepa so much, considering him his friend and political ally, that he ordered to arrest Kochubey as a liar and “make a search.”
After severe torture, Kochubey was forced to confess that he had slandered the hetman out of personal enmity. He was sentenced to death. To carry out the sentence, Kochubey was brought to the village of Borshchagivka near Bila Tserkva, where Mazepa’s camp was then located. Philip Orlyk reinterrogated him there.
On July 26, 1708, Vasyl Kochubey was beheaded. Shortly after his execution, Mazepa’s betrayal occurred, which Kochubey had warned about. Peter I, realizing his mistake, recognized Kochubey as an “honest man of glorious memory” and ordered to return not only the confiscated properties to the widow and children of the executed man, but also to add new villages to them. By order of the tsar, Kochubey’s body was transferred to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and buried near the Tabernacle Church. A new motto appeared on the Kochubey family coat of arms – Elevor ubi consumor (“I rise when I die”) – and an image of a burning heart with two golden crosses.
The history of the creation of the FBI
On July 26, 1908, US Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, the nephew of French Emperor Napoleon I, created a new government unit without an official name. It was supposed to be the office of special agents responsible for investigating violations of federal law. Stanley Vincent Finch, a lawyer by education who previously worked in the Ministry of Justice, became the first head of the structure.
A year later, the unit was named the Bureau of Investigation of the United States. And from July 1, 1935, the official name became “Federal Bureau of Investigation” – FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Its first director was John Edgar Hoover, who headed the bureau for 37 consecutive years. During this time, several American presidents considered removing him from office, but refused due to fear of possible reprisals from Hoover himself. After his death, lawmakers changed the rules: since then, the director of the FBI is appointed by the US president for a term of 10 years with the consent of the Senate. The headquarters of the FBI is located in Washington in a building named after J. Edgar Hoover. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared July 26 the official “FBI Day” — a professional holiday for employees of this agency.
The FBI is not just political or criminal intelligence. The agency has broad powers in the field of fighting corruption. Over the years, the FBI has prosecuted high-ranking officials, including vice presidents and presidential advisers. Not a single person managed to “shut up” criminal cases – the agency maintains the reputation of an independent body, despite the political scandals surrounding its leadership in certain years.
Although the FBI is a domestic intelligence agency, it has more than 60 offices outside the United States. The agency also performs counterintelligence functions, maintaining contact with foreign partners. FBI contact points officially operate at US embassies in 34 countries around the world. Its peculiarity is that FBI agents are required to be armed at all times, but at the same time do not have the right to use state-issued weapons – all their equipment is personal and belongs to the agent himself.
In 1950 J. Edgar Hoover initiated the creation of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. It also laid down rules regarding the publication of photographs and the manner of submitting information. The list is published in public places – at post offices, in the press and online – to encourage the public to search. The reward for information can range from 100 thousand to several million dollars.
It is not easy to get on the list: the candidacy must be approved by all units of the FBI, the criminal division and the communications service. The director makes the final decision. The list is intended to inform the public and to quickly apprehend particularly dangerous suspects. Today, the FBI is considered one of the most effective counterintelligence agencies in the world.
The beginning of the official elimination of racial restrictions in the US Armed Forces
On July 26, 1948, US President Harry Truman signed Executive Order No. 9981, which officially established “equal treatment and equal opportunity” for all citizens in the United States Armed Forces, regardless of race, color, national origin, or religion. It is from this day that historians mark the beginning of the official elimination of racial restrictions in the US Armed Forces.
Prior to this decision, the practice of forming separate units based on ethnicity existed in the US Army. African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and other minorities served separately from white Americans, received poorer living conditions, limited career opportunities, and often served in non-combat or support roles. Separate battalions were maintained until the mid-1950s.
Truman’s order not only announced the abolition of segregation, but also initiated a long-term process of changes in the structure of the Armed Forces. In subsequent years, this led to the actual disbanding of “ethnic” units, changes in personnel policy, and an increase in the number of minority representatives in command positions. As early as the 1960s, officer careers became possible for African-Americans and Hispanics, and later for Asians, Middle Easterners, and women.
One of the solutions, which is still valid, is that the new recruit is not required to have a perfect knowledge of the English language. The requirement is limited to basic understanding. This made it possible to attract migrants with minimal experience in the United States. In addition, there was provision for accelerated acquisition of US citizenship for aliens who had demonstrated initiative or meritorious service – regardless of the normal naturalization timelines.
Today, the US army is not only the most expensive in the world in terms of technical equipment, but also the most expensive in the social dimension. The system of medical care for servicemen, veterans and members of their families is financed at a level that in some years was equal to the total military budget of large countries.
