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Vidovdan (Serbian Cyrillic: Видовдан) is a religious holiday, St. Vitus' Day, whose feast is on June 15. Where the Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the Julian Calendar, as in Serbia, that date coincides, in the 20th and 21st centuries, with June 28 in the Gregorian Calendar. In Bulgaria it is called Vidovden (Видовден) or Vidov Den (Видов ден) and is particularly well-known in the western part of the country.
Vidovdan has long been considered a date of special importance to ethnic Serbs and the Balkans, the following events each took place on Vidovdan, but are expressed here in the Gregorian Calendar:
- on June 28, 1389, the Ottoman Empire fought against Serbia in the Battle of Kosovo, and Serbian Prince Lazar was slain in battle. Ottoman Sultan Murad I was killed by Serbian knight Miloš Obilić.
- on June 28, 1914 the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian crown prince, Franz Ferdinand, triggers the First World War.
- on June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I.
- on June 28, 1921, the Serbian King Alexander I proclaimed the new Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution (Vidovdanski ustav).
- on June 28, 1948, the Cominform published, on the initiative of its Soviet delegates Zhdanov, Malenkov and Suslov, in a "Resolution on the State of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia" their condemnation of the Yugoslavian communist leaders - this happening is seen as the date that marks the final split between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
- on June 28, 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo, Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević delivered the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
- on June 28, 2001, Slobodan Milošević was deported to ICTY to stand trial.
- on June 28, 2006, Montenegro was announced as the 192nd member state of the United Nations.
- on June 28, 2008 was the inaugural meeting of the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija.
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