July 27 is celebrated in Ukraine as the Day of the Medical Worker and the Day of Trade Workers, and in the world – the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, as well as the Day of Transatlantic Communication. On this day, in different years, events took place that influenced the political, cultural and scientific history of Ukraine and the world.
Day of the medical worker in Ukraine
For the first time, the Day of the Medical Worker began to be celebrated in 1980 and was celebrated every year on the third Sunday of June. After Ukraine gained independence, the tradition was preserved: in 1994, the professional holiday of doctors was officially approved by decree, but the date was left unchanged. However, in 2023, a change took place – the President of Ukraine signed a new decree, which moved the Day of the Doctor to July 27. In this way, Ukraine abandoned the Russian calendar and took a step towards establishing its own, independent tradition.
The chosen date has a deep meaning: on July 27 in the church calendar, the memory of the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon is commemorated. In the Christian tradition, this saint is considered the patron saint of doctors, healers and all those who alleviate human suffering. According to legend, Panteleimon helped everyone who needed treatment free of charge, so he is revered as a symbol of mercy, compassion and self-sacrificing service to one’s neighbor.
After February 24, 2022, the role of doctors in Ukraine has radically changed. Providing medical aid in combat conditions, evacuating the wounded, working in front-line hospitals, sorting centers, stabilization centers, basements, villages without electricity and water were added to the usual duties. The number of doctors who suffered psychological exhaustion or lost their jobs due to the destruction of medical facilities has increased. Some medical workers died during shelling, others were kidnapped or tortured in temporarily occupied areas. Over 1,400 medical institutions in Ukraine were damaged or completely destroyed in the first two years of the war. In some regions, the number of doctors has tripled. Those who remain work in critical conditions and at the same time document crimes against the civilian population.
The medical profession in Ukraine is one of the most regulated, with a high level of responsibility. The war exacerbated the inequality between specialties: surgeons, anesthesiologists, traumatologists and emergency physicians were in short supply, while some therapeutic areas were narrowed or reduced. Some specialists have moved abroad, leaving vacancies in places that often have no replacement due to certification requirements.
Interesting facts
For the first time in the world, a Ukrainian military medic performed an amputation in the field using a new generation tourniquet made from civilian materials. It happened in the summer of 2022 near Liman. The operation was carried out just in the dugout. The patient survived and later received a prosthesis in Germany. This case became the basis for a training protocol in one of the American medical centers.
In 2023, in Dnipro, for the first time in Ukraine, a thoracotomy — an opening of the chest — was performed at a field stabilization point during mass shelling. The team consisted of three doctors, one of whom previously worked in a rural hospital. The patient was saved. This case was published in a specialized medical journal in Israel.
Ukrainian doctors became the first in the world to develop and test an algorithm for stabilizing hyperbaric trauma victims in the absence of pressure chambers. This was the result of the evacuation from Mariupol, where divers who survived underwater collapses were among those rescued. The technique was officially adopted in several medical battalions.
In 2022, the doctors of Okhmatdyt, for the first time in the history of Ukraine, performed a full-fledged complex neurosurgical operation on a child who was in a shelter during an air raid. The operating room was moved to the basement and equipped with a backup power supply. The child survived and was successfully rehabilitated.
During the war in Ukraine, for the first time, the specialization “combat paramedic” with accreditation began to be officially used. This direction was previously formally absent. Military medics, who have been working as volunteers since 2014, have now received official status and the right to certification within the state system.
In Odesa, during a blackout, doctors performed a 7-hour skin transplant operation on a child injured in a fire. All actions were performed manually, without electronics, using mechanical tools, flashlights and heating solutions in alcohol bottles.
In Lviv, a team of surgeons restored the face of a wounded soldier in 4 stages of surgical intervention using 3D printing of bone fragments. This was the first application of individual 3D prosthetics in a military hospital in Ukraine.
In Khmelnytskyi, in one of the shelters, a veteran paramedic created a free mobile clinic that serves displaced people with reduced mobility using a converted ambulance. In the first year, he personally examined more than 1,200 people in remote areas of the region.
A Ukrainian traumatologist from Kharkiv, who remained to work in the destroyed hospital, carried out more than 200 reductions of fractures without X-rays – just by palpation and the clinical picture. This was confirmed by the following pictures taken already after the evacuation of the wounded. None of the cases required reoperation.
In Kyiv, the first electronic database of hearing loss among military personnel after concussions was created, which was initiated by ENT doctors themselves. The database helps generate requests for hearing aids and rehabilitation protocols. Previously, such statistics were not officially kept.
Day of trade workers in Ukraine
This day is celebrated every year on the last Sunday of July as a way to draw attention to one of the most numerous professional fields, without which the daily life of society is impossible. Regardless of whether it is a salesperson in a small village store, a cashier in a supermarket, or an operations manager in the logistics center of a large retail chain, each of these professionals is an element of a common chain that ensures the constant circulation of goods and access to the most necessary.
The holiday was introduced by the decree of the President of Ukraine in 1995. The choice of the date for the last Sunday of July was symbolic – it is the period of the greatest seasonal trading activity in the country. During the last decades, the sphere of trade in Ukraine has been significantly transformed. From the bazaars of the 1990s and the first commercial kiosks to automated logistics systems, digital sales analytics, e-commerce platforms, contactless payment systems, mobile customer support and algorithmic demand forecasting.
Work in the field of trade is, first of all, contact with people. It requires patience, attentiveness, the ability to resolve conflicts, work under stress and at the same time adhere to internal standards that regulate everything from product presentation to the tone of the conversation with the customer. At the same time, for many Ukrainians, trade became the starting point — the first official place of work, a source of stable income during the crisis, or a way to integrate into a new city after moving.
During the full-scale war, the role of trade workers took on new importance. In the first months of the invasion, the availability of food, medicine, and household goods in the front-line areas and in panic-stricken regions depended on them. Many shops and pharmacies worked 24/7 in bomb shelters, risking their lives to provide the residents with the most necessary. National chains quickly built new logistics chains, switching to Western warehouses or alternative sources of supply. In the villages near the front, the work of shops was replaced by volunteer points of distribution of essential goods – often also under the auspices of entrepreneurs or former trade workers.
A separate topic is the role of small businesses working in the field of trade. It was he who became the basis for the survival of the economy in regions where larger enterprises were destroyed or evacuated. Against the background of the active development of online trade, accelerated by the war and the migration of millions of Ukrainians, workers in this industry began to master new formats — from remote service to logistics for delivery abroad. Online stores, social commerce platforms, local marketplaces – all this creates a new field for employment, which often does not require special education, but requires high adaptability and digital skills.
International Day of Grandparents and Elderly People
This holiday was established at the initiative of Pope Francis in 2021 as a reaction to the devaluation of the role of older people in modern society. Francis himself has spoken more than once about the fact that old age is not a collapse, but a privilege – a time when experience can serve others. In his understanding, grandparents are not just family members, but “people’s memory” that conveys not only stories, but also ethical guidelines.
For Ukraine, this topic has a special resonance. It was the older generation who most often became those who stayed at home during the war. In many families, pensioners became the only ones who maintained housing, took care of livestock, and cultivated the garden while the younger ones left or went to the front. Tens of thousands of grandparents, despite their age and illness, did not leave their homes under fire — not out of patriotism, but out of deep attachment, responsibility, and fear of leaving the land on which they lived all their lives. The holiday is not meant for charity events or formal recognition, but for presence: to let older people understand that they are still a part of society.
Facts you should know
In Ukraine, more than 6 million citizens are over 65 years old. This is almost 16% of the population, but most of them do not have stable access to medical or social care.
According to UNICEF, during the full-scale war, more than 40% of single elderly people in Ukraine remained in front-line areas without evacuation — not because of conviction, but because of a physical or psychological inability to relocate.
In some Ukrainian communities during the war, pensioners became the only representatives of local authorities: they were elected village heads, were responsible for the distribution of humanitarian aid, and organized aid for displaced persons and the military.
In 2023, an 87-year-old resident of Kharkiv region grew vegetables herself and donated them to the medical center in the de-occupied village. She was not evacuated because she refused to leave the livestock and the garden.
In Ukraine, there is no separate state program for the systematic support of lonely elderly people – care, food, social support, transport – everything depends on volunteers or relatives, if they are available.
Historically, it was the elderly who were the bearers of dialects, traditions and folklore. At the beginning of the 20th century, ethnographers worked specifically with grandparents – because they remembered how they sang songs even before the First World War.
Transatlantic Communication Day
On July 27, the world commemorates the date that marks one of the most significant technical breakthroughs of the 19th century — the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable that connected Europe and North America. It was on this day in 1866 that a telegraph signal first passed steadily under the Atlantic Ocean — from the Irish island of Valentia to Newfoundland in Canada. It took more than 20 years of attempts, tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of kilometers of cable to implement the idea. After that, the date July 27 became a symbol of a new era of communication, in which the speed of information transfer was measured not in weeks, but in minutes.
The laying of the submarine cable made real what was considered a miracle until recently: the exchange of official dispatches, stock exchange news, war messages between London and Washington became possible within a few minutes. This event forever changed the dynamics of diplomacy, international trade and intelligence.
Interesting facts
The first successful telegram across the Atlantic was sent by Queen Victoria to US President Andrew Johnson on July 27, 1866. The text of the message weighed more than $200 in modern money due to the high value of each word transmitted.
The cable was laid with the help of the ship “Great Eastern” – at that time the largest ship in the world. It was originally built as a passenger liner, but later converted for maritime telecommunications.
The first attempt to lay a cable took place in 1858, but the connection disappeared in less than a month. The reason turned out to be a technical defect — the wires burned out due to excessive voltage.
The telegraph cable was not only a symbol of a technical breakthrough, but also a subject of espionage interests. Already in the 19th century, states tried to intercept telegrams or establish control over the cable route.
From 1927, the transition to transatlantic radiotelephone communication began, and in 1956, the first transatlantic telephone cable (TAT-1) was laid, capable of transmitting 36 simultaneous conversations.
Today, more than 20 active fiber optic communication lines have been laid under the Atlantic Ocean. Up to 95% of all Internet traffic between Europe and America passes through them.
Nowadays, big IT corporations like Google and Meta build their own cables across the Atlantic. For example, the “Grace Hopper” cable, laid in 2022, provides high-speed data exchange between Spain, Great Britain and the United States.
Historical events on this day
971 – Prince Svyatoslav Ihorevich of Kyiv signs a peace treaty with the Byzantine emperor John Tzimischii. This was the result of a difficult campaign in Bulgaria, where Svyatoslav was defeated near Dorostol. The peace agreement provided for the withdrawal of Russian troops and established the status quo in Kyiv’s relations with Byzantium.
1147 – Klymentii Smolyatich is elected Metropolitan of the Russian Church. His ordination, carried out without coordination with Constantinople, was an unprecedented step by Kyiv in asserting the independence of church life. This was one of the first steps in the direction of the autonomy of the Ukrainian church tradition.
1586 – the Englishman Walter Raleigh brings tobacco to England from the colony of Virginia for the first time. Over time, tobacco will become one of the foundations of colonial trade and will change the economy and lifestyle of Europe. Raleigh himself will go down in history as an adventurer and favorite of Queen Elizabeth I.
1606 – the French establish Port Royal, the first permanent colonial settlement in Canada. This marks the beginning of a long period of French presence in North America, which left a deep mark on the country’s culture, language and legal system.
1672 – near the village of Chetvertynivka, the troops of hetman Petro Doroshenko defeat the Polish army. This victory was part of a large-scale struggle for Ukrainian autonomy against the background of conflicts with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire.
1694 – the Bank of England was established by the decision of the English Parliament. It became not only the central financial institution of the country, but also a model for further banking systems in other countries.
1890 – the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh hangs himself in Auvergne, France. His life is a tragedy of loneliness, poverty and misunderstanding, but at the same time he became a symbol of post-impressionism and artistic innovation.
1900 – Louis Lessing sells the first hamburger in New Haven. The invention will quickly spread and turn into one of the main gastronomic business cards of the USA.
1921 – Frederick Bunting gives the first public presentation of the discovery of insulin, a drug that has revolutionized the lives of millions of people with diabetes. His work will later be recognized by the Nobel Prize.
1936 – the Institute of the History of Ukraine is created in the Ukrainian SSR, which will become one of the key centers of historical research, although it will be under the pressure of Soviet ideology for a long time.
1974 – US President Richard Nixon is officially charged with obstruction of justice due to the Watergate scandal. This is the first time that an American president was under real threat of impeachment and was forced to resign.
1991 – the Union of Officers of Ukraine was founded in Kyiv, an organization that played a significant role in the creation of the independent armed forces of Ukraine on the eve of the collapse of the USSR.
2002 – an Su-27 crashes at the Sknyliv airport near Lviv during an air show. 77 people died, more than 400 were injured. This is the largest public air show disaster in history by the number of victims.
2006 – a national round table is held in the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, designed to find a way out of the parliamentary crisis. This became a significant manifestation of the conflictual development of political culture in the post-Orange period.
2006 – Intel officially presents the new generation of Core 2 processors, which will define the technological paradigm for years to come. The line provided a breakthrough in the performance of personal computers.
2012 – the XXX Summer Olympic Games are officially opened in London. For Ukraine, these competitions will become one of the most successful: Ukrainian athletes will win 20 medals, including two gold ones.
