Some facts from Bulgarian history

Third millennium BC	Bulgarian lands fall under the cultural dominance of the Thracians, a Indo-European people, who lived in tribal society. Thracians were famous for their horsemanships and were masters in metal working with silver and gold. Many hoards were unearthed in present day Bulgaria at sites such as Panagurishte, Vulchi Trun and Vratza. Another essential feature of the Threcians was music. Orpheus himself was an early Thracian king.
Fifth century DC	First Slav tribes settled in the Bulgarian lands. At the same time Proto-Bulgars, a nomadic group of Turkic origin, invaded the Balkans. In 580 AD a group of 10,000 bulgars with their leader - Bulgarios were allowed to reside and settle in the lands of today's Bulgaria. They came from the lands between Ural and Volga and combined various ethnic elements. The name Bulgar means 'to mix'. Proto-Bulgars had a formidable military reputation and a highly developed sense of cohension and political organization.
Seventh century DC	The hoard of Kuvrat(Kubrat) Khan of Great Bolgary.
681	A Bulgarian state appeared in the Balkans. Khan Asparuh established his capital at Pliska near what is now Shumen.
803-814	The reign of Khan Krum. In 811 he fortified Sredets, now Sofia, from the Byzantines. After defeating Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus, Krum encrusted his deceased skull in sylver and used it as a drinking goblet.
814-831	Khan Omurtag
851-888	The reign of Boris the First. His efforts to convert Bulgaria to Christianity succeeded in 864. In 862 the ruler of Moravia requested an alphabet for his own people. The work was done by two Salonica born monks, Ciril and Methodius.
893	Declaration of the Independent Bulgarian Church.
893-927	The reign of Simeon the Great represents the culmination of the First Bulgarian Empire, 896-1018. After a long war with Byzantine empire, in 896 he concluded a peace with the Greeks, who agreed to accept the independence of the Bulgarian church. The capital was moved from Pliska to the nearby Preslav. In Preslav Bulgarian art and literature did flower to unprecedented heights. Simeon was surrounded with great men of letters like Monk Hrabr, John the Exarch and Konstantin of Preslav.
927-970	Tzar Petur. Hermitism indicated a willingness to withdraw from the world and its problems. The Bogomilism heresy assumed the entire visible world, including mankind, was the creation of Satan; only the human soul was created by God who sent his son, Christ, to show humanity the way to salvation.
997-1014	The reign of Tzar Samuil.
1018-1185	Bulgaria under the Byzantine rule.
1185	Petur and Asen, two landowners near Turnovo, took the leadership of the uprising agains Byzantine and declared independent Bulgarian state.
1197-1207	The reign of Tzar Kaloyan.
1218-1241	Ivan Asen the Second took the second Bulgarian kingdom to its greatest height. He moved the capital to Turnovo. During his reign one of the masterpieces of the mediaeval Balkan art was created: the frescoes of Boyana church near Sofia.
1323-1330	Tzar Mihail Shishman.
1331-1371	Ivan Alexander. In 1355 he commissioned the four gospels which are now in the British museum.
1393	The capital Turnovo capitulated to the Turks. In 1396 Vidin, the last Bulgarian stand, fall to the Ottomans. With this it began the five century Ottoman Empire rule on Bulgarian lands.
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Paisii Hilendarski	In eighteen century it began the process of Bulgarian national revival, so called vuzrazdane. Paisii was one of the Bulgarians with great contribution to this process. He was born in the town of Bansko in 1722. As a monk in the monastery of Hilendar on Mount Athos he wrote his seminal work, A Slavonic-Bulgarian History of the People, Tsars, Saints, and of all their Deeds, and of the Bulgarian Way of Life.
Georgi Sava Rakovski 1821 - 1867	Rakovski was the first revolutionary activist who initiated a concerted political action for the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turks. In 1867 he established the Second Bulgarian Legion for armed strugle against the Turks. A more lasting initiative of Rakovski was the Bulgarian Secret Central Committee (BSCC) founded in 1866, a sustained attempt to organize so called cheti or small armed groups of dedicated revolutionaries.
Luben Karavelov 1834 - 1879	A famous revolutionist, writer and journalist. Following Rakovski, Karavelov believed that Otomman power could only be removed by revolution of the Balkan Christians. He published numerous tracts, essays and novels.
Vasil Levski 1837 - 1873	The greatest Bulgarian national activist and martyr, Vasil Levski was born on 18 July 1837 in Karlovo. He became a leading member of Bulgarian Revolutionaly Central Committee (BRCC) when it was established in 1870. Levski's primary achievement was setting up a network of secret organizations in Bulgaria. He often said: Bulgaria's liberation could be achieved only by the Bulgarians. In 1872 he was betrayed by an accomplice and arrested. On 18 of Fabruary 1873 Levski was hanged in Sofia. He was one written the now famous words: "If I succeed, I shall succeed for the whole nation; If I fail, then I alone shall die."
Hristo Botev 1848 - 1876	Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary, Botev was born in Kalofer, son of a teacher.   A widely known and admired for his writings, above all for his poetry.