August 10 pairs a national wound with a point of pride in Bulgaria’s history: the 1913 treaty that stripped the country after the Second Balkan War, and, two years later, the first flight of an aeroplane designed and built by a Bulgarian teenager.
August 10, 1913 — The Treaty of Bucharest
The signing of the Treaty of Bucharest brought the Second Balkan War to a close. Bulgaria had started the conflict hoping to revise the partition of Macedonia settled after the First Balkan War, only to be crushed by its former allies.
The treaty forced it to hand over large territories — most of Macedonia among them — to Greece, Serbia, and Romania, leaving Bulgaria with just a narrow strip of Aegean coast. The loss settled into the national memory as a lasting grief, steering the country’s foreign policy and irredentist hopes for decades.
August 10, 1915 — Bulgaria’s First Homegrown Aeroplane Takes Flight
At Bozhurishte airfield, a commission from the Ministry of War inspected a biplane designed and built by Asen Yordanov, a gymnasium student still in his teens who had picked up his technical skills as a volunteer mechanic during the Balkan Wars.
After a clean test flight, the commission pronounced the aircraft — nicknamed “Express” — fully airworthy and original, formally recognising Yordanov as an inventor. He later built a remarkable career in the United States, helping design the Douglas DC-3 and contributing to Boeing’s B-17 and B-29 bombers.
Head back to August 9 for the previous entry, or trade the history books for photography and travel tips in Bulgaria From Above and our guides to the best of Bulgaria.
