May 13 is celebrated as World Property Management Day, IEEE World Engineering Day, and Velcro Birthday. In different years, events related to major geographical discoveries, state changes, science, sports, politics, wars, and technological breakthroughs have taken place on this day.
World Property Management Day
This day is dedicated to specialists who are responsible for the continuous operation of buildings, engineering systems, services, security, cleaning, energy efficiency, and the convenience of space for people. This is about daily practical work, without which offices, hospitals, educational institutions, shopping centers, warehouses, and residential complexes quickly lose their normal functioning.
Property management includes not only repairs and maintenance, but also resource planning, cost control, emergency response, adapting buildings to new requirements, and maintaining conditions in which people can safely work, receive treatment, study, or receive services. During the war in Ukraine, this area became particularly prominent due to the need to support buildings during power outages, damage, evacuations, shelter operations, and rapid restoration of critical spaces.
Interesting facts
After massive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, building management in many cities changed: hospitals, schools, business centers, and residential complexes had to plan for backup power, water supplies, evacuation routes, elevator operation, ventilation, and heating during blackouts.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) together with the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine periodically assesses the energy resilience of medical facilities. For hospitals, this means checking whether operating rooms, intensive care units, oxygen systems, and heating systems can operate during power outages.
In Kharkiv during the war, part of urban life moved underground: training, shelters and some services began to be organized in underground spaces. This added new tasks for operation specialists: ventilation, sanitation, lighting, fire safety, accessibility and control of a large flow of people in premises that were previously not designed for constant daily use.
In Ukrainian shopping malls, after the start of a full-scale war, security became part of the daily management of the facility: staff had to take into account air alarms, routes to shelters, stopping escalators, tenant behavior, guarding entrances and quickly restoring work after an alarm.
Damage to the housing stock became the largest area of direct damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure: according to KSE Institute estimates, housing itself had the largest amount of losses among the sectors. Because of this, the work of building managers, condominium associations, emergency services and technical teams often began with the basics: closing broken windows, draining water from systems, turning on the heat, checking the roof and preventing further destruction of the building.
In modern facility management, it is not only the building that is important, but also the behavior of people inside it: improperly organized entrances, elevators, bathrooms, waiting areas or shelters can create more problems than the technical malfunction itself.
The profession became more visible after the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was building operations teams who adjusted ventilation, cleaning schedules, distancing, sanitary areas and the return of people to offices.
In many large buildings, the largest costs during the life cycle do not fall on construction, but on further operation: energy, repairs, security, cleaning, equipment replacement and emergency maintenance. Therefore, high-quality facility management often saves more money than one-time cheap repairs.
IEEE World Engineering Day
This day honors engineers who create technologies for communications, energy, medicine, transportation, computing, security, and everyday infrastructure. Many calendars present it as a day dedicated to the contribution of the engineering community to the development of society, education, and technical professions.
At the same time, it is worth distinguishing this day from “IEEE Day,” which has a more clearly confirmed origin in the IEEE environment and is associated with the first historical meeting of engineers to exchange technical ideas in 1884. Therefore, in texts about IEEE World Engineering Day, it is better not to exaggerate its status, but to talk about it as a widespread calendar mention, reminding of the role of engineers in the creation of modern technologies.
Interesting facts
IEEE was formed in 1963 after the merger of two organizations: the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. Because of this, two great technical traditions are combined in the history of IEEE: electrical engineering and radio engineering.
The Wi-Fi standard is designated IEEE 802.11. It was IEEE engineering standards that helped make wireless Internet compatible between devices from different manufacturers, and not tied to one company.
Ethernet, which is still used in offices, data centers, schools, and industry, is also standardized in the IEEE 802.3 family. Its durability shows that a good engineering solution can remain the basis of digital infrastructure for decades.
During a full-scale war, Ukrainian engineers became critically important not only in factories or IT, but also in the restoration of power grids, mobile communications, water supply, heating stations, and hospital equipment after shelling.
Ukrainian power engineers and engineering teams often worked under repeated threats to restore power to hospitals, water utilities, railways, communications and residential areas after power outages.
Communications engineers in Ukraine during blackouts supported base stations with batteries, generators and mobile technical teams. For many people, stable mobile communications were a way to call for help, receive air alerts or contact their relatives.
Ukrainian defense engineering has dramatically accelerated the development of unmanned systems, electronic warfare, ground robotic platforms and data analysis software. Some solutions were created not in classic laboratories, but by small teams of engineers, volunteers and military personnel.
Engineering standards are often invisible to the user, but they are what allow chargers, networks, computers, medical devices and industrial equipment to work together without constant failures.
Velcro Birthday
This day is dedicated to the invention of the Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral, who created a fastener made of two strips: one with small hooks, the other with loops that these hooks cling to. The idea came after a walk, when burrs stuck to his clothes and dog’s fur.
The common explanation for the patent in 1958 is inaccurate: the key patent for a hook-and-loop fastener was obtained earlier, and the name “Velcro” became a separate trademark. The invention itself was not perceived as something serious for a long time, because the first samples looked crude, but later Velcro became a convenient detail in clothing, medicine, sports, aviation, the space industry, children’s things and military equipment.
Interesting facts
Georges de Mestral examined burdocks under a microscope and saw that they were held together not by glue, but by tiny hooks. It was this natural structure that became the basis of the fastener, which is now called one of the most famous examples of biomimicry.
The name “Velcro” is formed from the French words “velours” and “crochet”, that is, “velvet” and “hook”. For years, the company has asked not to call all Velcro fasteners the word “Velcro”, because for it it is a brand, not a general product name.
It took de Mestral years to turn the idea into a mass product. The most difficult part was not to come up with the principle of hooks and loops, but to learn how to produce them on fabric in such a way that the fastener could be opened and closed many times without quickly breaking.
At first, clothing manufacturers were in no hurry to use Velcro because it seemed ugly and too technical. It was one of the first to be appreciated in areas where appearance was less important than reliability and speed: aviation, spaceflight, sports equipment and medical products.
In space missions, hook-and-loop fasteners helped to secure objects in weightlessness. There, an ordinary trifle like a pen, a bag or a tool could simply float through the cabin, so quick fastening was of practical importance.
During the war in Ukraine, Velcro became a common part of military equipment: they were used to attach chevrons, identifiers, elements of first-aid kits, pouches, flaps of bulletproof vests and parts of tactical clothing. Their advantage is that the desired part can be quickly removed or rearranged without sewing.
In field medicine, Velcro is important because of its speed. Blood pressure cuffs, tire clamps, orthoses, some medical bags, and casualty evacuation equipment all use this principle, as the fastener can be opened with one hand or while wearing gloves.
Velcro has become particularly useful for children’s shoes and clothing for people with limited mobility. Where laces, buttons, or buckles pose difficulties, a hook-and-loop fastener allows for greater independence in everyday life.
Historical events on this day
1501 – Amerigo Vespucci sets off on a westward voyage, during which he concludes that the lands discovered by Columbus were not part of Asia. His observations were important for European understanding of the New World and later influenced the name “America.”
1830 – Ecuador secedes from Gran Colombia and declares itself a separate independent republic. This was part of the collapse of the great state formation created after the liberation wars in South America.
1865 – Novorossiysk University was opened in Odessa, which became the third university on Ukrainian lands. Today, its successor is the Odessa National University named after Ilya Mechnikov.
1909 – the first bicycle race “Giro d’Italia” started, which later became one of the most prestigious competitions in world cycling. From the very beginning, the race combined sport, endurance and the promotion of Italian cities and regions.
1913 – the world’s first four-engine aircraft “Russian Knight” took flight, created by Igor Sikorsky from Kiev. At that time, the machine was extremely large: its weight was about five tons, which significantly exceeded the size of most aircraft of the early aviation era.
1918 – The Soviet People’s Commissariat of Food received extraordinary powers to seize food from the peasants. Such decisions became part of the policy of forced food supply, which intensified the conflict between the authorities and the peasantry.
1918 – In the USA, postage stamps were printed with an upside-down image of an airplane. The mistake turned the issue into one of the most famous philatelic rarities, known as the “Upside-Down Jenny”.
1927 – The Kyiv football club “Dynamo” was founded. It later became one of the most famous clubs in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and its history is closely connected with the development of Ukrainian football.
1950 – The first races of the first Formula 1 championship were held at the Silverstone track in Great Britain. It was from this start that the official history of the most famous series of car races began.
1958 – The May Crisis began in France, which exacerbated the political situation in the country against the backdrop of the war in Algeria. It resulted in the return of Charles de Gaulle to power and the formation of the Fifth Republic.
1963 – Kuwait became the 111th state admitted to the United Nations. This consolidated its international recognition after gaining independence.
1981 – in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, Ali Agca seriously wounded Pope John Paul II. The assassination attempt became one of the most high-profile events in the recent history of the Vatican.
1989 – about two thousand students began a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. They demanded democratic reforms, political openness and the fight against corruption.
1990 – the first issue of the newspaper “Halychyna” was published, which became the first democratic large-circulation newspaper of the Ivano-Frankivsk region during the Soviet period. Its appearance reflected social changes on the eve of the restoration of Ukraine’s independence.
1991 – the 1st Congress of Poles Living in Ukraine was held in Kyiv. The event was an important step for the self-organization of the Polish community and the development of cultural ties.
1991 – Winnie Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s wife, was found guilty in a case related to kidnapping and violence. The trial had a great public resonance in South Africa.
1992 – American astronauts set a record for staying in outer space, spending 8 hours and 29 minutes outside the ship. Then, for the first time, three astronauts went into outer space simultaneously.
2000 – In the Dutch city of Enschede, fireworks warehouses containing tens of tons of pyrotechnics exploded. The disaster killed 23 people, injured hundreds, and destroyed a significant part of the residential area.
2014 – Pro-Russian militants ambushed the village of Mayachka during the fighting for Sloviansk. Seven Ukrainian paratroopers were killed in an attack on a convoy of the 95th Separate Airmobile Brigade.
2023 – In the village of Gruzevytsia, Khmelnytskyi region, explosions were heard at the ammunition depots of the A3013 military unit. The event became one of the notable episodes of attacks on Ukraine’s military infrastructure during the full-scale war.
