On April 28, 1947, Poland saw the beginning of Operation Wisla, the forced resettlement of about 150,000 ethnic Ukrainians to the Polish hinterland. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski recently apologized to Ukraine for the actions of the former Polish communist regime. The Ukrainians were deported from the so-called Zakerzonia, that is, the traditionally Ukrainian lands of Kholmshchyna, Pidliashshia, Nadsiania and Lemkivshchyna, which happened to be on the Polish side of the border.
Early in the morning on April 26th, 1986, an explosion occurred at the No. 4 reactor of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located not far from Kyiv. Around 30 people were killed and about 200 more were treated for acute radiation poisoning. Large areas of land in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were contaminated to various degrees. The accident occurred during a test of the turbines, which involved the turning off of the automatic shutdown system. An unexpected surge in power led to a steam explosion that lifted the top off the reactor and released fission products into the atmosphere, followed by another blast that spewed out burning graphite and fuel. The main casualties were among fire fighters, who quickly extinguished the blaze, then the cleanup crews and finally people living in the immediate vicinity.
On the same day, in 2001, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko was dismissed by parliament in a no-confidence vote engineered by Communist hardliners and Ukrainian big business. Yushchenko had served as chairman of the National Bank and had then been made premier under then President Leonid Kuchma in December 1999.
On April 24, 2004, Vitaly, the elder of the two Klitchko brothers, defeated South African Cory Sanders in Las Vegas to win the WBC heavyweight world boxing championship title.
On April 16th, 1710, the Cossack Bendery Constitution was signed. Alleged to be the first constitution in the world to embody the principles of separation of powers and a democratically elected parliament and called the General Council, it's chief author was Hetman Orlyk Pylyp (1672-1742). The document consisted of 16 articles, which can be divided into four thematic groups.
Yesterday
Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, a mathematician who played a major role in the development of the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, US, was born April 13, 1909, in Lviv, Ukraine. Ulam solved the problem of how to initiate fusion in the hydrogen bomb. He received his doctoral degree (1933) at the Polytechnic Institute in Lviv, but died in New Mexico an American citizen.
On the same day in 1767, Artem Vedel, one of the greatest Ukrainian musical talents and composer of liturgical works, was born in Kyiv to a carpenter. He studied at the Kyivan Academy, where he served as the conductor of the academy's cappella from the age of sixteen. In 1787, Kyivan Metropolitan Samiilo Myslavskyi sent Vedel to conduct the choir of the governor general of Moscow, Piotr Yeropkin.
Mischa Elman, violin virtuoso in the Romantic tradition and one of the foremost violinists of the 20th century, born Jan. 20, 1891, in Talnye, Ukraine. He died April 5, 1967, New York, N.Y., U.S. A celebrated child prodigy, Elman studied violin from age four. In 1902, he became a tuition-free pupil of the famed violinist and teacher Leopold Auer at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Ukrainian dancer and choreographer Serge Lifar was born in Kiev on April 2, 1905. He studied under another Ukrainian dance supremo, Vaslav Nijinsky, then joined the Diaghilev company in 1923. He was artistic director and principal dancer of the Paris Opera 1929-44 and 1947-59. He completely revitalized the company and in so doing, reversed the diminished fortunes of French ballet. A great experimenter, he produced his first ballet without music, Icare 1935. He developed the role of the male dancer in his Prometheus 1929 and Romeo and Juliet (music by Prokofiev) 1955.
 On April 1st, 1938, Ukrainian aircraft designer Kostyantyn Kalinin was arrested and soon died in a Soviet prison from tortures he was subjected to there. A graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kalinin went on to work in Kharkiv where he headed an aircraft design bureau in 1926.
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