Happy Birthday to Panama!

A market street in central Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan and its largest city. *Photo from Wikipedia August 19 is Independence Day of Afghanistan, commemorates the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919, granting independence from Britain. The land has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviet, and in the modern era by Western powers. The political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state

Storming of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel. *Photo from Wikipedia July 14 is Bastille Day. It commemorates the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, a turning point of the French Revolution as well as the Fête de la Fédération (lit “Festival of the Federation”) which celebrated the unity of the French people on July 14, 1790. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of abuses by the monarchy;

Kyrgyz family in a region of Kyrgyzstan. *Photo from Wikipedia August 31 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1991. Although geographically isolated by its mountainous location, it had an important role as part of the historical Silk Road trade route. In between periods of self-government it was ruled by Göktürks (突厥, a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples in medieval Inner Asia), the Uyghur Empire, and the Khitan (契丹) people, before being conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century; subsequently it regained independence but was invaded by Kalmyks (the Oirats in Russia), Manchus