January 27 in Bulgaria’s history is a date that connects two very different kinds of institution — one built to gather and transmit information, the other convened to make a collective decision about the country’s energy future.
January 27, 1898 — The Bulgarian News Agency Is Established
Prince Ferdinand I issued the order founding the Bulgarian News Agency as a service within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Public Worship. In the late nineteenth century, news agencies were becoming essential tools of modern statehood — linking governments, newspapers, markets, and international affairs into a single information network. For Bulgaria, creating a national agency meant joining that network with its own institutional voice rather than depending entirely on foreign wires.
BTA went on to become one of Bulgaria’s central public information institutions, documenting wars, governments, culture, sport, diplomacy, and everyday public life across more than a century. Its founding on January 27 marks the moment Bulgaria decided that managing its own news was as important as managing its own borders.
January 27, 2013 — Bulgaria Holds a National Referendum on Nuclear Energy
The referendum asked Bulgarians whether to build a new nuclear power plant, reviving a debate closely linked to the long-running Belene project — a proposal that had moved through multiple governments, international contracts, suspensions, and public arguments. Though turnout fell below the threshold for a binding result, a majority of those who voted supported the proposal.
What the day revealed was how deeply energy policy could divide Bulgarian society. Nuclear power concentrated questions of cost, foreign dependence, environmental risk, industrial strategy, and electricity security into a single ballot question. January 27, 2013 sits at the intersection of democratic procedure and infrastructure planning — a reminder that decisions usually made in ministries can become, under the right conditions, questions for the whole country.
Explore January 26 and January 28 for more from this period of Bulgaria’s history. You might also enjoy our Bulgaria From Above series or our Bulgaria travel guides.
