June 19 is Farmer’s Day in Ukraine, World Children’s Football Day and the International Day for Combating Sexual Violence in Conflict. In history, this day combines events that changed the perception of the Earth, outlined geopolitical shifts, launched new types of transport, launched security services, traditions of family honoring and even rescue mechanisms for air passengers.
Farmer’s Day in Ukraine
This is an official professional holiday, introduced by the Decree of the President of Ukraine dated June 18, 2020. The initiative appeared to recognize the role of farms in the development of agriculture, food security and the country’s economy. It was on June 19, 2003 that the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law “On Farming”, which legally established the status of farmers as a separate subject of agricultural production.
The lion’s share of vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and grain is grown on farms in Ukraine. After the start of the full-scale war in 2022, many small farmers also became volunteers, humanitarian aid providers and rear lines for the Armed Forces.
Today, the Ukrainian farmer works under conditions of risk: due to mined fields, shelling, destroyed equipment, rising prices for fuel and fertilizers. But despite this, many continue to sow, harvest, supply the market and communities with food.
Interesting facts
Ivan Martyniuk from Vinnytsia is considered to be the first legal farmer of independent Ukraine. In 1991, he was one of the first to register a farm based on the land of the former collective farm.
Before the war, more than 47,000 farms were registered in Ukraine, but about 32,000 were actually working. At the same time, they cultivate less than 10% of agricultural land, but provide up to a third of gross production in certain segments.
More than 20% of farms in Ukraine are headed by women, which is one of the highest indicators in Europe.
After 2022, more than 300 farming initiatives created by displaced people appeared. Some of them are micro-farms in safe regions that grow greens, vegetables and are engaged in processing.
Ukrainian farmers were the first in the world to use ordinary civilian drones not only for spraying fertilizers, but also for detecting Russian mines in the fields. Some farmers’ associations have even created joint funds for the purchase of thermal imaging equipment.
There is a farm in the Chernihiv region that has completely switched to electricity generation from biogas obtained from cattle manure. It provides electricity not only for itself, but also for the neighboring school.
World Children’s Football Day
This day emphasizes the child’s rights to play, development and safe leisure. The idea to celebrate the World Children’s Football Day appeared in 1994 during the World Cup in the USA – then for the first time publicly announced the intention to make football accessible to every child on the planet. The initiators of this holiday were FIFA and UNICEF, and its main goal is to draw attention to the importance of physical and social education of children through football. This is especially important in regions where children live in areas of conflict, crisis or poverty. In such conditions, football performs not only the role of a game, but also a means of psychological adaptation, unification, education, and peace.
World Children’s Football Day also emphasizes the role of adults – parents, coaches, government structures – in creating conditions where sport becomes not a privilege, but a norm of childhood. He reminds us that the ball can be a powerful tool for education, inclusion and overcoming barriers.
Interesting facts
The world’s largest children’s soccer tournament is the Gothia Cup in Sweden. More than 1,700 teams from more than 80 countries gather there every year. The tournament was founded in 1975 and is often called the “children’s world championship”.
Fortaleza’s children’s team from Brazil is played by children from the favelas, and anyone who wants to train must bring proof of school attendance to the club. Otherwise, no ball.
In Cambodia, soccer academies operate as part of programs to combat child trafficking. In regions with a high risk of exploitation, football has become an element of protection: children are lured into training instead of being involved in criminal networks.
In Iraq, a football team of disabled children after the war won an international tournament in Qatar. Most of the players lost their limbs due to the explosions, but were able to win bronze at the Prospects Cup.
In 2019, a 10-14-year-old girls soccer team in Afghanistan received threats from the Taliban, but still went to a tournament in Italy. There they won and became a symbol of resistance.
In 2023, during the war in Ukraine, children from the Mykolaiv Oblast won an international children’s tournament in Poland. They practiced in the basement of the school due to constant shelling, and the balls were brought in destroyed, sewn together by hand.
There is a football school in Ghana where children play barefoot, not because of tradition, but because of a lack of shoes. Such a school produced several players who later made it to the English Premier League.
When Maradona was a child, he played with an orange because they didn’t have a ball. His first real ball appeared at the age of 9, and even then he could kick it more than 1000 times without stopping.
UNICEF uses football in its rehabilitation programs for children affected by war, violence or displacement. For example, in refugee camps in Syria or Sudan, children regularly participate in soccer games under the supervision of psychologists.
International Day Against Sexual Violence in Conflict
Every year on June 19, the world community focuses attention on those forms of violence that are usually silent: rape, torture, humiliation, forced abortions, sexual slavery. All these are not random crimes, but systemic weapons during wars aimed at demoralization, revenge, ethnic “cleansing” or the disintegration of communities.
This day was declared by the UN General Assembly in 2015 in honor of the speech at the Security Council by a Congolese woman victim who spoke about mass rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The idea has been supported by many countries and human rights organizations, as sexual violence is often silenced or legalized by those who commit it.
The topic became particularly acute after 2014 and even more so after 2022, when mass incidents of sexual violence were recorded in Ukraine in the occupied territories. Such crimes are investigated by the International Criminal Court and are grounds for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
This day is designed not only to remember the victims, but also to emphasize the duty of states and international organizations: to record crimes, ensure punishment, provide assistance to victims and remove the taboo on this topic.
Interesting facts
In 2016, for the first time in the history of the UN, sexual violence in conflict was recognized as an instrument of genocide. It was about the campaign of Islamists against the Yazidis in Iraq.
In Sierra Leone, during the civil war of the 1990s, more than 60,000 women and girls were sexually abused. Most of the rapes were public, with the forced involvement of relatives as witnesses.
In Rwanda, during the 1994 genocide, sexual violence was a weapon of terror: at least 250,000 women were raped, many of whom were intentionally infected with HIV.
In the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the first ever international tribunals were established to recognize rape as a weapon of war. It was then that the court officially recognized sexual slavery for the first time.
In 2023, the UN recorded at least 3,300 cases of sexual violence in conflict settings in 21 countries. The most messages came from Myanmar, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Reports on sexual violence in Ukraine describe in detail cases of public rapes, rapes with torture and death, rapes of elderly women, men and children. Some of them are already being studied at the International Criminal Court.
In the 2020s, global databases of testimonies and algorithms to help victims have been created, in particular in the form of mobile applications with anonymous collection of evidence. This allows collecting material even in areas where the presence of human rights defenders is impossible.
In some countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are mobile clinics that provide emergency care to victims of sexual violence simply in refugee camps or in the jungle. Often this is the only chance for salvation.
Historical events on this day
240 BC is. – the Greek mathematician and astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene, observing shadows in Alexandria and Siena (modern Aswan), first calculated the radius of the Earth with impressive accuracy. His method was based on differences in the angle of incidence of sunlight and became a breakthrough for ancient science.
1657 – the expeditionary corps of the Zaporizhzhya Army under the command of Antin Zhdanovych together with the Swedes and the troops of Prince Rakotsi captured Warsaw. The Ukrainian corps included five regiments, including a volunteer regiment from Uman. This was one of the key events of the Ukrainian-Swedish military alliance.
1819 – the steamship “Savannah” arrived in Liverpool, which became the first ship in the world to cross the Atlantic Ocean using steam traction. Despite the skepticism of sailors at the time, the journey lasted 27 days and opened a new era in sea transportation.
1829 – in London, Robert Peel created the first professional police. It was this structure that gave rise to the modern British police system: its employees are still informally called “bobies” in honor of the founder.
1846 – the first official baseball game was held in Hoboken, New Jersey. This started one of the most popular American sports, which later became part of the national identity.
1862 – slavery was completely abolished in the entire territory of the United States. This became an important stage in the process of the Civil War and the subsequent struggle for the civil rights of black Americans.
1885 France handed over the Statue of Liberty to the United States. The huge structure was brought to New York in parts and assembled later on Bedlow Island (now Freedom Island), becoming a symbol of emigration, freedom and new beginnings.
1910 – in Spokane, Washington, Mrs. Sonura Smart Dodd initiated the first Father’s Day celebration. Her own father raised six children on his own, and this event later spread around the world as a gesture of recognition of the role of fathers in the family.
1948 – the Geneva Convention was adopted, which defined the legal status of passengers on board airplanes. This document normalized the international recognition of property rights in cases of incidents in the air.
1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the USA, accused of passing information on the American nuclear program to the USSR. It became one of the most notorious espionage trials of the Cold War.
1968 – The UN Security Council adopted a resolution that was supposed to guarantee the security of countries that have abandoned the development of nuclear weapons. The move was part of a broader architecture of non-proliferation based on the principle of trust and international control.
1974 – Canadian engineer Don Bateman applied for a patent for the GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System), which warns the pilot of a dangerous approach to the ground. Thanks to this innovation, it was possible to avoid thousands of plane crashes in the following decades.
1996 – the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation was signed between Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. It was one of the first international agreements of modern Ukraine aimed at strengthening relations with the states of the post-Soviet space.
Adoption of the main decisions of the First Ecumenical Council
On June 19, 325, the main decisions of the First Ecumenical Council, which was held in the city of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey), on the initiative of Emperor Constantine the Great, were adopted. The Council lasted from May 20 to August 25 and brought together 318 bishops from all corners of the Roman Empire. The main goal was to settle the theological dispute, which could cause a split not only in the Church, but also threatened the stability of the empire itself.
The center of the dispute was the teaching of the Alexandrian priest Arius, who maintained that Christ as the Logos is a created, not an eternal being, inferior to God the Father. His opponent was Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and those who insisted on the equality of all Persons of the Trinity. The emperor, interested in preserving unity, paid for the participants’ travel, provided accommodation and personally presided as an honorary patron, although he himself was not baptized and did not even belong to the official listeners of the church meetings.
The Council of Nicea went down in history not only with the approval of the Creed, which became the basis of Christian theology, but also with the adoption of 20 canons — rules related to church discipline, the behavior of the clergy, and the order of ordinations. The decision regarding the date of the Easter celebration was especially significant.
At the Council, it was decided that Easter should be celebrated by all Christians on the same day and not coincide with the Jewish Easter. The text of the decree stated: “It is recognized as unworthy that we should observe the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy celebration.” The basic rules are also established:
- Easter should be celebrated after the vernal equinox.
- It should not fall on the same day as the Jewish day.
- Passover must be celebrated after the first full moon after the equinox.
- Passover must be celebrated only on Sunday as the first day of the week.
This is how a complex algorithm for calculating the date of Easter appeared, which combines the solar calendar (the Earth’s orbit), the lunar calendar (the phases of the Moon) and the weekly calendar (Sunday is a mandatory day of celebration).
After the Council, Christianity received official imperial status for the first time: the church was exempted from taxes, ordinary state duties and received the right to own real estate. This marked a new era — the transition from a persecuted church to an influential institution that became part of the state model of the Roman Empire.
Creation of a female “death battalion”
On June 19, 1917, a women’s “death battalion” was formed at the initiative of military servicewoman Maria Bochkareva. Its main purpose was not only in combat operations, but above all in moral influence: female volunteers who went to the trenches with rifles were supposed to shame deserters by their example and return to the ranks of men who had lost their fighting spirit after three years of war.
There were about 2,000 women in the battalion, mostly aged 18–24. Among them were older people, including married ones. According to the testimony of contemporaries, women were noted for their conviction in their own choice, high discipline, internal composure and a noble attitude. Up to 30% of female students had secondary education or completed courses, more than 40% had complete secondary education. The team consisted of 8-9 Estonian and Latvian women, 6 Jewish women and one English woman, the rest were Russian women. They were united by one faith – in the rightness of their cause and sincere love for their homeland.
The women’s battalion was distinguished by exceptional discipline. According to legend, when the battalion arrived in Kyiv, they were greeted with sneers by male soldiers at the train station. The female commanders, ignoring the protests, arrested several scofflaws, locked them in wagons and declared that they were taking them to the front – and they really did.
The irony of fate lies in the fact that women from this unit were among the last defenders of the Provisional Government during the October Revolution in Petrograd. What happened to them next is not known for sure. After the Bolshevik coup, the battalion was disbanded.
The battalion commander, Maria Leontiivna Bochkaryova, was a typical “man of war.” She was born in a poor peasant family, escaping from poverty, got married unsuccessfully, and later accompanied her husband to prison after he was convicted of robbery. When the First World War began, Maria joined the active army. She served under the name “Yasha” – after her husband’s nickname. She excelled in fearlessness in bayonet attacks, for which she received the St. George’s Cross and three combat medals, and was repeatedly wounded. Sincerely accepted the ideas of the February Revolution, and after it – created the only full-fledged female combat unit in the world.
Bochkaryova visited the USA, where she was received by the president, and had an audience with the British King George V. In the USA, her autobiography titled “Yashka” was published, which captivated Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the leader of the Spanish Communists, Dolores Ibarruri. After the October Revolution, she fought in Kolchak’s army. After the defeat, she was arrested by the Cheka and shot on May 16, 1920. She was called the “Russian Joan of Arc”, and she died when she was only thirty-one years old.
