Happy Birthday to Panama!

Bissau-Guinean women. *Photo from Wikipedia September 24 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Guinea-Bissau from Portugal in 1973. Guinea-Bissau was once part of the Kaabu Empire, as well as part of the Mali Empire. Parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century, while a few others were under some rule by the Portuguese Empire since the 16th century. In the 19th century, it was colonized as Portuguese Guinea. Upon independence, declared in 1973 and recognized in 1974, the name of its capital, Bissau, was added to the country’s name to prevent confusion with Guinea (formerly French Guinea). Guinea-Bissau,

The annual Bengali New Year parade. Bengali New Year (“Pahela Baishakh” or “Bangla Nabobarsho”) is the first day of Bengali Calendar. It is celebrated on 14 April as a national holiday in Bangladesh. *Photo from Wikipedia March 26 is Bangladesh’s Independence Day and National Day, celebrates the declaration of independence from Pakistan in 1971. The Greeks and Romans identified the region as “Gangaridai”, a powerful kingdom of the historical subcontinent, in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had international trade links for millennia. The Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal transformed the region

Macedonia basketball team. *Photo from Wikipedia September 8 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Macedonia from Yugoslavia in 1991. In the late sixth century BCE the area was incorporated into the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then annexed by the Kingdom of Macedonia in the fourth century BCE. The Romans conquered the region in the second century BCE and made it part of the much larger province of Macedonia. Macedonia remained part of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, and was often raided and settled by Slavic peoples beginning in the sixth century CE. Following centuries of contention between the Bulgarian and