March 28 marks World Historian’s Day and International Women’s Day in Music. Significant historical events took place on this day in different years.
World Historian Day
This is an unofficial but symbolically important holiday. This day is designed to honor the work of historians – scientists, researchers, teachers, journalists, archivists, museum workers and all those who, professionally or on their own initiative, are engaged in the study, preservation and popularization of history.
Although the World Historian’s Day does not have an official international status, it is increasingly celebrated in various countries, in particular in Ukraine, where interest in history has especially increased after the start of a full-scale war. In the conditions of aggression against Ukraine, history has become not only a science of the past, but also a field of modern struggle — for truth, memory, identity and resistance to falsifications. This date of celebration was chosen symbolically: it was on this day in 2005 that the International Committee of Historical Sciences was established, an authoritative organization uniting national historical societies and academies from around the world. Its purpose is to promote international dialogue between historians, exchange of experience and development of global research.
World Historian Day is not only an opportunity to thank researchers of the past, but also a reminder to society that history is not just a chronology of events, but the key to understanding the present. Historians do not simply reconstruct the past, they form the basis for critical thinking, the development of national memory and democracy.
Interesting facts
The first person in history who is considered the “father of history” was Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC. there are. It was he who first tried to systematically describe the past based on stories, observations and analysis of the causes of events. At the same time, other ancient authors called him… “the father of lies” – because of the excess of fantastic stories in his writings.
Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” is considered the first historical book in the world – it appeared about 2.5 thousand years ago and even then contained an attempt to critically analyze the sources, politics, strategies and manipulations.
The profession of historian as such was formed in the Middle Ages – monks in European monasteries began to write chronicles about the events of their time. The most famous medieval chronicles were kept at the courts of kings and bishops.
Nestor the chronicler is considered the first historian in Kyivan Rus. His “Tale of Time” began to be written at the beginning of the 12th century, and it is the first attempt to compile the history of the Eastern Slavs.
The word “historian” as a professional designation of a person appeared in the 18th century – it was then that history departments began to be formed in universities and the idea of academic historical science arose.
In the 19th century in Germany, the principle of “historical criticism of sources” was introduced for the first time – this means that the historian does not just describe events, but must find out how reliable the source is, who created it and for what purpose.
The first world organization of historians – the International Committee of Historical Sciences – was created in 1926 in Geneva. Its formal registration in 2005 is now considered a symbolic date for World Historian Day (March 1).
The oldest professional association of historians in the world — the American Historical Association (AHA) — was founded in 1884. And in Ukraine, the first official historical society — the Historical Society of Nestor the chronicler — began to operate in 1873.
In 2023, UNESCO considered giving history the official status of a “critical science for the protection of human rights” because of the rise of fakes, propaganda and manipulation in the public space.
In Ukraine, after 2014, the role of historians in the state policy of memory increased. In particular, participation in decommunization, creation of the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity, projects about the Holodomor, and human rights initiatives based on KGB archives.
Modern historians are actively working in the field of digital history — creating interactive maps, virtual museums, historical reconstructions in 3D and even investigative podcasts. In the 21st century, a historian is no longer only books and archives, but also digital technologies.
Some historians joke that their “professional day” is every day, because they are constantly living in the past.
One of the most famous sayings about the role of the historian belongs to the British philosopher R.G. Collingwood: “The historian is not one who studies the past, but one who thinks of the past in the light of the present.”
Among the more unusual specializations of historians are historians of scents, historians of weather, historians of shadows, and even historians of silence (who examine the silenced themes in history).
International Women in Music Day
This is a relatively new but symbolically powerful annual celebration designed to honor the contributions of women to the world of music: as composers, performers, conductors, producers, musicologists, educators and activists. Although the exact date of the celebration may vary depending on the organizers, most often this day is timed on March 8 to emphasize the inextricable connection between women’s creativity, equality and the struggle for rights.
International Women in Music Day arose in response to the systemic silencing and underestimation of the role of women in music history. For centuries, the names of outstanding female composers, instrumentalists or innovators in the field of sound recording remained in the shadows or were attributed to men. Only in the 20th century, thanks to the development of feminist musicology, the gradual return of these names to the musical canon became possible.
Today, this day is celebrated with concerts, lectures, podcasts, exhibitions, publications about women in music – from Monteverdi to Billie Eilish. Special attention is given to forgotten female composers of the past, contemporary representatives of the independent scene, as well as the challenges faced by women in the industry: sexism, biased production, imbalance in royalties and media attention.
International Women’s Day in Music is not only a holiday, but also an occasion to rethink musical history, give a voice to those who have not been heard for a long time, and support new female names that shape the sound of the 21st century.
Interesting facts
The first female composer in history whose name has survived was Enkheduan, a priestess from Mesopotamia who lived more than 4,000 years ago. She wrote hymns to the goddess Inanna — and these are the oldest recorded examples of the author’s poetry and music.
The medieval nun Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) is considered one of the first composers in Western Europe who created oratorios and spiritual songs. Her music has been revived and performed at festivals to this day.
In the Viennese classical era, women were forbidden to publish music under their own names – Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, was a virtuoso pianist and composer, but her works survived only in part and were long attributed to her brother.
The first symphony written by a woman and officially performed by a large orchestra was created by Louise Farrank in France in 1849. However, after her death, the notes disappeared for more than 100 years.
In the 1980s, the term “invisible female composer” was coined in the USA – musicologists began to systematically identify cases where women wrote music, and men published it under their own names or without authorship at all.
In 2020, at the prestigious BBC Proms festival, 78% of works were performed by male composers. This became the impetus for the campaign for equal representation of women in symphonic music.
The first feminist school of musicology was founded in the 1970s in the United States — its members not only studied the history of women in music, but also conducted “musical excavations”, discovering names that had been omitted from textbooks.
Ukrainian composer Hanna Havrylets, who died in 2022, was considered one of the most important figures of contemporary academic music in Ukraine, and was among the first wave of women whose music became part of the philharmonic repertoire.
In 2021, only 2% of Spotify’s top charting producers were women. That’s why International Women in Music Day has also become a day to fight for access to technical, studio and management roles in the music industry.
Some countries have separate holidays dedicated to female musicians: in France it is Journée des femmes compositrices, in Spain it is Día de la Mujer en la Música. But it was the idea of a global day that was born as part of a broader movement for gender justice in culture.
Historical events on this day
37 – After the death of the Roman emperor Tiberius, his successor, Caligula, arrived in the capital of the empire. The Senate of Rome, without delay, officially recognized his authority and gave him full control over the state. The beginning of Caligula’s reign will later go down in history as an example of extreme despotism and eccentric tyranny.
1566 – Grand Master of the Hospitaller Order Jean Parisot de la Vallette laid the foundation of the new capital of Malta – the city of Valletta. It was to become not only a fortification center, but also a symbol of resistance to the Ottoman invasion. The city still bears the name of its founder and is considered one of the most fortified fortresses in early modern Europe.
1842 – The Philharmonic Orchestra under the leadership of conductor Otto Nikolai performed for the first time in Vienna. It was this concert that started the history of one of the most famous symphonic ensembles in the world – the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, which later became a musical symbol of Austria.
1842 – In the same year, in Lviv, the Stanislav Skarbek theater was inaugurated. At the time of its opening, it was the third largest theater space in Europe. The theater was built with Skarbek’s private funds, and he played a huge role in the development of the culture of Galicia, in particular the Ukrainian theater.
1876 – In Japan, the government officially banned samurai from wearing swords, a symbol of their social status. This decree marked the end of an entire era: the samurai state was losing its privileges, and Japan was moving faster and faster along the path of modernization and Meiji reform.
1910 – French aviator Henri Fabre made the first successful take-off and landing of a hydroplane, an aircraft capable of taking off from water. The flight took place in the Etan-de-Barre bay in the south of France and became a breakthrough in the development of naval aviation.
1930 – Turkey officially abandoned the old Greek names of Constantinople and Angora, approving the modern forms – Istanbul and Ankara. This became part of a wider policy of modernization and Turkish identity pursued by the government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
1939 – After a long siege lasting more than two and a half years, General Francisco Franco’s troops entered Madrid. This event effectively ended the Spanish Civil War and cemented Franco’s authoritarian regime, which lasted until his death in 1975.
1942 – British commandos conducted a large-scale operation to blow up a dry dock in the French port of Saint-Nazaire, which was under the control of Nazi Germany. The raid is considered one of the most daring acts of sabotage of the Second World War, which seriously damaged an object strategically important to the German fleet.
1979 – An accident occurred at the Three Mile Island NPP in Pennsylvania – a partial meltdown of the reactor core. It was the most serious man-made disaster in the history of US atomic energy, which caused a wave of public concern and a review of the country’s nuclear policy.
2004 – On the night of March 28-29, at the same time as the transition to summer time, the civil campaign “It’s time!” was launched. It became one of the most visible youth initiatives on the eve of the Orange Revolution, uniting students, activists and artists in a protest movement for fair elections.
2008 – Ukrainian Wikipedia has reached the mark of 100,000 articles. This breakthrough made the Ukrainian-language section of Wikipedia one of the most dynamic in the world and showed a growing interest in the creation and popularization of Ukrainian-language content on the Internet.
