On May 12, World Nurses Day and International Plant Health Day are celebrated, and on this day Ukraine became a full member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). May 12 in different years has left a deep mark in history — from the founding of the first churches and universities to technical breakthroughs and cultural upheavals.
World Nurses Day
This is a professional holiday of those whose care, endurance and humanity save lives. It is a day to stop and realize the role of nurses in the medical system, in the daily fight for health, in crises, wars, epidemics and in the happy moments of recovery. The motto of the first international honorary nursing society sounds concise and dignified:
“Love. Courage. Honor”. These words still remain a moral guide for millions of nurses around the world.
The holiday has more than a century of history. Its origins are connected with the Englishwoman Florence Nightingale, who was born on May 12, 1820 in an aristocratic English family. It was she who entered history as the world’s first professional nurse and reformer of the patient care system. She is considered the founder of the independent nursing profession. Later, her contribution was recognized as so important that the International Organization of the Red Cross decided to establish a professional holiday on her birthday – World Nurses Day.
During the Crimean War, she led the care of wounded British soldiers, introduced sanitary standards that saved thousands of lives, and proved that nursing is not a sideline, but a full-fledged professional activity that requires knowledge, discipline and dedication. Thanks to her efforts, the care of the wounded became systematic, not random.
Florence Nightingale devoted her whole life not only to caring for the wounded, but also to building a system of training nurses, creating work standards, reforming hospitals, and statistically justifying changes in medicine. She became a symbol of mercy, intelligence and strength.
Although the tradition of celebration began in the first half of the 20th century, Nurse’s Day was officially recognized in 1971. This was preceded by the unification of sisters of mercy from 141 countries of the world into a single professional organization — the International Council of Nurses.
In the context of World Nurses Day, the contribution of Ukrainian nurses cannot be overlooked, especially those who, from the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, went to the front lines not with weapons, but with bandages, drips and faith in the salvation of every wounded person.
Since February 24, 2022, thousands of Ukrainian nurses have found themselves in conditions far from safe hospitals: under fire, in field hospitals, basements, evacuation trains and mobile hospitals. They work in stabilization points on the front line, where minutes count. Next to the military medics are civilian nurses who did not leave patients in frontline hospitals, even when the windows were shaking from the artillery.
Many Ukrainian nurses received state awards – orders “For Courage”, medals “For Saved Life”, honorary awards of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Defense. But the biggest thanks are the eyes of the saved. Because it is often the nurse who is the first person a fighter sees after being wounded. On this date, it is worth remembering those nurses who died in the war. They did not hold a machine gun, but they were a target because they were saving lives. There were also those who died during the evacuation of patients, in hospitals destroyed by Russian shelling, or on the road between the headquarters and the hospital.
From the beginning of the existence of the profession, the image of a nurse was formed as an assistant, an orderly who carries the wounded from the battlefield or stands silently at the operating table. But over time, this image underwent profound changes. A modern nurse is a qualified specialist who is responsible not only for the fulfillment of medical prescriptions, but also for the psychological support of patients, the organization of care, condition monitoring, and assistance in critical situations. This is a person who often spends much more time with the patient than the doctor.
Interesting facts
Finland is the leader in the number of nurses. There are 2,162 nurses per 100,000 people. This high rate is the result of investment in the health care system, which recognizes nurses as key players.
In Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, there are only 5 nurses for the same population. This is one of the most striking examples of global inequality in access to basic health care.
Nursing is one of the most popular professions in the world. According to WHO, there are more than 27 million nurses in the world. Despite this, there is an acute shortage of personnel in many countries, particularly in rural areas, war zones, and poor regions.
International Plant Health Day
This holiday was established by the UN General Assembly in 2021 at the initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to draw attention to the problems that threaten plants: diseases, pests, climate change.
This day is designed to emphasize: plants are the basis of life. They supply us with oxygen, food, fuel, medicine, cloth, wood. And at the same time, they are the first to be hit – from pests, fungal and viral infections to drought, soil destruction and climate change. Every year up to 40% of agricultural crops in the world are destroyed due to diseases and pests, which means hunger, economic losses, impoverishment of millions of people.
The world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Increasing volumes of international trade and transportation, climate change and degradation of ecosystems lead to the rapid spread of new threats to plants. Infections that used to be localized now spread across continents in a matter of weeks.
Interesting facts
The health of plants directly affects the health of people. Malnutrition, rising food prices, and declining biodiversity are all consequences of unhealthy plants. Protecting agriculture is protecting global stability.
Plants provide 80% of the food consumed by mankind and 98% of the oxygen on the planet. Every year, up to 40% of the world’s crops are lost to pests and diseases, leading to famine and economic losses.
40% of agricultural products are destroyed every year in the world due to diseases and pests. That’s almost half the meal — gone before it even gets to the plate.
A billion dollars a year – such losses from just one species of pest, Tuta absoluta, which attacks tomatoes. It came from South America to Africa and spread across Europe.
Olive plague in Italy (bacterium Xylella fastidiosa) destroyed more than 21 million trees. Tourists come, but there are no more olive groves.
In Colombia, Fusarium TR4 destroys Cavendish bananas, which account for 95% of exports — and this variety is not immune. Bananas may disappear from stores.
Due to climate change, new pests are “migrating” to the north. Scandinavia is already struggling with beetles that were never found there before.
1 dollar invested in the prevention of plant diseases saves up to 100 dollars, which would have to be spent on eliminating the consequences.
In 2020, a locust infestation covered nearly 1 million hectares in Kenya, destroying food for 40 million people in East Africa.
In Asia, rice stem powdery mildew destroys up to 30% of rice crops each year.
Ukraine became a full member of UNESCO
On May 12, 1954, Ukraine became a full member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This became possible due to the fact that the Ukrainian SSR, despite being part of the USSR, was a separate founder of the UN and had separate representation in international organizations. Thanks to this, even before 1991, Ukrainian scientists, educators, and artists participated in international projects, conferences, and UNESCO initiatives — on their own behalf.
Since then, Ukraine has been participating in the work of UNESCO as a separate state, and since 1991 as an independent country. Thanks to this, World Heritage sites are protected in Ukraine, the National Commission for UNESCO operates, and Ukrainian scientists, artists, educators, and activists participate in global programs in the field of culture, protection of intangible heritage, freedom of speech, and digital education.
Interesting facts
Sophia Cathedral and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra were included in the UNESCO World Heritage in 1990, a year before Independence. Thus, Ukraine, even as a part of the USSR, became the owner of objects of world importance.
In 2023, Ukrainian borscht became part of UNESCO’s intangible heritage, which is protected due to the threat of destruction during the war. This is the first culinary tradition in the world that was recognized as affected by aggression.
Lviv is officially protected by UNESCO as a “living medieval city”, where there are more than 200 monuments on one area of 120 hectares. This is one of the largest protected areas in Eastern Europe.
Beech primeval forests in the Carpathians, included in the UNESCO list, are the oldest natural forests in Europe, where the trees are over 500 years old. The ax did not touch them.
The residence of the Orthodox metropolitans in Chernivtsi, included in the UNESCO list, was built in a style that combines Byzantine, Gothic and Moorish art – this happens only in a few countries in the world.
During the full-scale invasion of Russia, UNESCO recorded damage to more than 300 Ukrainian cultural sites, including theaters, museums, cathedrals and libraries.
Historical events on this day
996 year – In Kyiv, the first stone church of Kyivan Rus – Desyatynna – was consecrated. It became a symbol of the state’s adoption of Christianity and the beginning of Kyiv temple construction, becoming the spiritual and cultural center of Russia.
1311 year – A mass public execution took place in France: the Inquisition burned 54 Knights Templar. They were accused of heresy, which became part of a large-scale liquidation of the order ordered by King Philip IV, who sought to obtain their riches.
1364 year – The Jagiellonian University – one of the oldest in Europe – was established in Krakow on the initiative of King Casimir III the Great. It became the basis for the formation of the Polish intellectual elite and still remains the center of education and science.
1497 year – The Pope excommunicated Girolamo Savonarola, a charismatic Florentine monk who condemned the luxury of the church and secular morality. His influence was so powerful that he actually ruled Florence, but eventually found himself under ecclesiastical punishment.
1551 year – In the capital of Peru, Lima, the University of San Marcos was founded – the first higher education institution on the American continent. Its appearance marked the beginning of systematic European education in the New World.
1881 year – France officially established a protectorate over Tunisia, which marked the beginning of colonial rule in the region. This event opened a new page in the history of North Africa, which lasted until the middle of the 20th century.
1926 year – Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile made the first ever airship flight over the North Pole. It was a breakthrough in polar research and a huge achievement of aeronautics at that time.
1929 year – In Lviv, the literary organization “Grono” was created, which united the writers of Western Ukraine. It became one of the centers of Ukrainian cultural life in the interwar period, especially in the conditions of Polish censorship.
1937 year – The BBC company carried out the first television broadcast in world history – the coronation ceremony of King George VI. This broadcast marked the beginning of television as a mass media.
1993 year – Estonia became a member of the Council of Europe, taking an important step towards integration with European structures after the collapse of the USSR and restoration of independence.
1994 year – Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic agreed to a ceasefire by signing the Bishkek Protocol. This was the first step towards a temporary freeze in the conflict that had been going on since the late 1980s.
2004 year – In the Anglican Church, the world’s first position of web priest appeared – a minister who takes care of the virtual congregation exclusively on the Internet. It reflected a new era of spiritual life in the digital age.
2007 year – Andriy Danylko in the image of Verka Serdyuchka won second place at the Eurovision Song Contest, losing only to the Serbian singer Maria Sherifovych. This became one of the highest positions of Ukraine in the competition until the victory of Ruslana in 2004 and Zlata Ognevich in 2013.
On May 12, 1871, Kaiser Wilhelm I of the German Empire signed the supreme decree, which changed the title of “Bundeschancellor” to “Imperial Chancellor.”
The first to receive this new position was Otto von Bismarck, a politician who would remain in it for 20 years, unite the scattered German states around Prussia and turn Germany into the main power of the European continent.
This move was the result of the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the triumph of Prussia and the proclamation of the creation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles. Bismarck did not just carry out a technical unification – he laid the foundations of the modern German bureaucracy, the social insurance system and the “real balance” foreign policy.
However, the figure of Bismarck is still controversial. There is a monument to him in almost every big city in Germany, but the attitude towards him ranges from admiration to outright hostility. On the one hand, he is a political genius, the architect of German unity, the creator of a strong state apparatus and a legislator who introduced pension and health insurance. On the other hand, he was the author of three brutal wars (with Denmark, Austria, and France), hundreds of thousands of dead, the cultivation of power as a political tool, aggressive internal censorship, and harsh repression against socialists and Catholics.
However, not a single monument to Bismarck in Germany was demolished. His figure is neither canonized nor demonized there — it remains a symbol of the power of state will, with all its consequences.
May 12, 1950 Ernest Hemingway in a magazine The New Yorker summed up his “writing ring”.
“I started very calmly and beat Turgenev. By training hard, I managed to beat Maupassant. I fought to a draw with Stendhal twice, and I think I was better the last time. But no one will force me to enter the ring with Tolstoy, unless I go crazy,” – he wrote
This quote accurately conveys the essence of Hemingway – a man obsessed with sports, especially boxing. The writer’s friends mentioned that he was the most sports-fanatic person they knew. He tried not to miss boxing matches, baseball matches, regularly visited the shooting club and fervently cheered on the players of hi-alai, an extremely dangerous Basque game where a ball bouncing off a wall at breakneck speed can easily become a deadly projectile.
But Hemingway’s main passion was boxing.
“My writing is nothing, my boxing is everything.” he said.
For him, it was not just a struggle, but a philosophy of life. His principle sounded like a manifesto:
“A boxer who only defends himself will never win. Corner your opponent and knock the spirit out of him. Dodge the swing, block the hook and hit the straights with all your might. Boxing taught me to never lie down, to always be ready to attack again… fast and hard like a bull.”
Hemingway sometimes did not hold back and openly challenged literary critics whose articles particularly annoyed him to boxing matches. They were usually silent in response – probably quite reasonably.
Awarding the title of honorary doctor of sciences to the President of Ukraine Leonid Danylovych Kuchma.
On May 12, 1999, the Academic Council of the Ivan Franko Lviv National University awarded the title of honorary doctor of sciences to the President of Ukraine, Leonid Danylovych Kuchma, for his great contribution to the development of Ukraine and establishing the authority of the young state on the international arena.
However, in 2009, he was stripped of this title – “for ignoring the rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian people, facilitating the falsification of the 2004 presidential elections and betraying academic values.”
Well, he will definitely not be the President again – so why not get rid of him… But nothing: in October 2022, the University received a new “Honorary Doctor of the Ivan Franko Lviv National University” – the former Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson.
