Happy Birthday to Tanzania!

The news desk of Al Jazeera English, a Qatari news channel. *Photo from Wikipedia September 3 is Independence Day, celebrates the second independence of Qatar from the United Kingdom in 1971. Following Ottoman rule, Qatar became a British protectorate in the early 20th century until gaining independence in 1971. Qatar has been ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-19th century. Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a sovereign country located in Southwest Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first

Helsinki, the capital city and most populous municipality of Finland. *Photo from Wikipedia December 6 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Finland from Russia in 1917. Most of the region was a part of the Kingdom of Sweden from the 13th century to 1809, when the vast majority of the Finnish-speaking areas of Sweden were ceded to the Russian Empire (excluding the Finnish-speaking areas of the modern-day Northern Sweden), making this area the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. The Lutheran religion dominated. Finnish nationalism emerged, focused on Finnish cultural traditions, including music and – especially – the highly distinctive

Bandar Seri Begawan (formerly known as Brunei Town), the capital city of Brunei. *Photo from Wikipedia February 23 is National Day of Brunei, which remarks the Independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. (*Its actual independence day is January 1) At the peak of the Bruneian Empire, Sultan Bolkiah is alleged to have had control over most regions of Borneo. The maritime state was visited by Spain’s Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in 1578’s Castille War. During the 19th century, the Bruneian Empire began to decline. The Sultanate ceded Sarawak (Kuching) to James Brooke and installed him