Happy Birthday to Panama!

A tree-kangaroo. The kangaloos inhabit the tropical rainforests of New Guinea. *Photo from Wikipedia September 16 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975. Little was known in Europe about the island until the 19th century, although Portuguese and Spanish explorers had encountered it as early as the 16th century. In the 19th century, Germany ruled the northern half of the country as a colony for some decades, beginning in 1884, as German New Guinea. The southern half was colonized in the same year by the United Kingdom as British New Guinea. With the

Crowd on beach in Gabon. *Photo from Wikipedia August 17 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Gabon from France in 1960. Bantu migrants settled the area beginning in the 14th century. Portuguese explorers and traders arrived in the area in the late 15th century. The coast subsequently became a center of the slave trade with Dutch, English, and French traders arriving in the 16th century. In 1839 and 1841, France established a protectorate over the coast. In 1862 – 1887, France expanded its control to include the interior, and took full sovereignty. In 1910 Gabon became part of French

Community health care workers in Ethiopia. *Photo from Wikipedia May 28 is Downfall of the Derg Day, a National Day of Ethiopia. The Derg is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987. It took power following the ousting of Emperor Haile Selassie I. Tracing its roots to the 2nd millennium BC, Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history. During the first centuries AD, the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region, followed by the Ethiopian Empire around 1137. Ethiopia derived