Happy Birthday to Panama!

The Matterhorn, a mountain of the Alps straddling the border between Switzerland and Italy. *Photo from Wikipedia August 1 is National Day, commemorates Switzerland becoming a single unit in 1291. The date is inspired by the date of the Federal Charter of 1291, placed in “early August”, when “three Alpine cantons (*canton: a type of administrative division of a country) swore the oath of confederation” (Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden), an action which later came to be regarded as the “foundation of Switzerland.” Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. The country is situated in Western-Central Europe,

Syrian traditional clothing. *Photo from Wikipedia April 17 is the Evacuation Day, which is Syria’s national day commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier and Syria’s proclamation of full independence and the end of the French mandate of Syria. Syria, officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. French troops occupied Syria in 1920 after the San Remo conference proposed that the League of Nations put Syria under

Angolan woman with children. *Photo from Wikipedia November 11 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Angola from Portugal in 1975. What is now the modern country of Angola was influenced by Portuguese colonization, which began with, and was for centuries limited to, coastal settlements and trading posts established beginning in the 16th century. In the 19th century, European settlers slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. As a Portuguese colony, Angola did not encompass its present borders until the early 20th century, following resistance by groups. Independence was achieved in 1975 under a Marxist-Leninist one party