Happy Birthday to Panama!

Malabo (formerly Santa Isabel), the capital of Equatorial Guinea. *Photo from Wikipedia October 12 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Equatorial Guinea from Spain in 1968. The Portuguese explorer Fernando Pó, seeking a path to India, is credited as being the first European to discover the island of Bioko in 1472. In 1778, Queen Maria I of Portugal and King Charles III of Spain signed the Treaty of El Pardo which ceded Bioko, adjacent islets, and commercial rights to the Bight of Biafra between the Niger and Ogoue rivers to Spain. From 1827 to 1843, the United Kingdom had

A market in Maradi, the third largest city in Niger. *Photo from Wikipedia August 3 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Niger from France in 1960. In the 19th century, contact with Europe began with the first European explorers to travel to Niger. Following the 1885 Berlin conference during which colonial powers outlined the division of Africa into colonial spheres, French military efforts to conquer existing African states were intensified in all French colonies including Niger. By 1922, all resistance to colonial rule was eliminated and Niger became a French colony. Following the Overseas Reform Act (Loi Cadre) of

Andorra la Vella, the capital of Andorra. *Photo from Wikipedia September 8 is National Day of Andorra, also the feast of Our Lady of Meritxell. Our Lady of Meritxell is an Andorran Roman Catholic statue depicting an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Meritxell is the patron saint of Andorra. The original statue dated from the late 12th century. However, the chapel in which it was housed burned down on September 8 and 9, 1972, and the statue was destroyed. A replica can be found in the new Meritxell Chapel, designed in 1976. Created under a charter in