On January 20, Bulgaria’s history offers two firsts — one in the sky, one on the page — separated by half a century but equally tied to the country’s engagement with a wider world.
January 20, 1912 — The First Bulgarian Airplane Flies near St Petersburg
The aircraft named Prince Boris of Turnovo — the first Bulgarian airplane — took flight near St Petersburg, Russia. Only a few years had passed since powered flight first became practical anywhere in the world, yet aviation was already attracting military planners, engineers, and states eager to master the new technology. For Bulgaria, the flight announced both ambition and modernity.
It was not long before that ambition proved its military value: during the Balkan Wars, Bulgarian aviators conducted reconnaissance and bombing missions that placed Bulgaria among the early participants in European air warfare. The flight of January 20, 1912 was a technical beginning that connected Bulgaria with one of the most transformative inventions of the twentieth century.
January 20, 1965 — BTA Launches The World in Photos and Cartoons
The Bulgarian News Agency published the first issue of The World in Photos and Cartoons, a magazine later renamed Paraleli. In an era when information in Bulgaria was filtered through ideological systems, the illustrated publication played a distinctive role: photographs and graphic commentary could show foreign cities, leaders, conflicts, sports, science, and daily life in ways that text alone could not.
The magazine brought international visual culture to Bulgarian readers across several generations, lasting in publication until 2010. It reflected BTA’s broader position as the country’s official news agency and a producer of public visual memory. January 20 marks the beginning of that long window onto the wider world.
Keep reading with January 19 and January 21, or see a different side of Bulgaria through Bulgaria From Above and our travel guides.
