Today marks169 years since the birth of great Bulgarian poet, journalist and revolutionary Hristo Botev. The anniversary was celebrated in his native town Kalofer. Events started with a rally at the Hristo Botev memorial where the town’s residents and guests laid wreaths. A poet and journalist of genius Hristo Botev took part in the 1976 April Uprising against the Turkish yoke in the Bulgarian lands. With his detachment he traveled from Romania on board Radetzky steamship forcing the captain to stop on the Bulgarian shore of the River Danube near Kozloduy. From that point on the detachment led by Botev took a course to the Balkan Range where it fought several battles. Hristo Botev died as a hero on 2 June 1976. The feat of Botev and his detachment was widely covered in West European media and thus aided the declaration of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War which ended with the liberation of Bulgaria.