Happy Birthday to Panama!

The Albanian iso-polyphony, a traditional part of Albanian folk music and, as such, is included in UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list. *Photo from Wikipedia November 28 is Albanian Flag Day, celebrate the independence of Albania from Turkey in 1912, the first Albanian flag raise in 1443, and for the new parliamentary constitution in 1998. In the third century BC, the region was annexed by Rome and became part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior (an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River). The unified Principality of Arbanon (the

School children in the classroom. *Photo from Wikipedia August 15 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Republic of the Congo from France in 1960. The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin. Congo-Brazzaville was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa. Following the revision of the French constitution that established the Fifth Republic in 1958, the AEF (French Equatorial Africa) dissolved into its constituent parts, each of which became an autonomous colony within the French Community. During these reforms, Middle Congo (French Congo) became known as the

Paramaribo, the capital and largest city of Suriname. *Photo from Wikipedia November 25 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Suriname from the Netherlands in 1975. Long inhabited by numerous cultures of indigenous tribes, Suriname was explored and contested by European powers before coming under Dutch rule in the late 17th century. In 1954, the country became one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On November 25, 1975, the country of Suriname left the Kingdom of the Netherlands to become an independent state, nonetheless maintaining close economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties to its former colonizer. Suriname,