Happy Birthday to Panama!

City of Perth Skyworks on Australia Day, 2006. *Photo from Wikipedia January 26 is Australia Day, the official National Day of Australia. It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales and the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip. Convicts in Britain were originally transported to the Thirteen Colonies in North America. But after the American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly formed United States refused to accept further convicts. The settlement was seen as necessary because of the

Torii (鳥居, a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine) in Liberdade, São Paulo. Liberdade is home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan in the world. *Photo from Wikipedia September 7 is Independence day, celebrates the independence of Brazil from Portugal in 1822. The first European to colonize Brazil was Pedro Álvares Cabral on April 22, 1500 under the sponsorship of the Kingdom of Portugal. From the 16th to the early 19th century, Brazil was a colony and a part of the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808,

Kenyan women. *Photo from Wikipedia December 12 is Jamhuri Day, celebrates the independence of Kenya from Britain in 1963. Throughout the centuries, the Kenyan Coast has played host to many merchants and explorers. In 1414, the Chinese trader and explorer Zheng He (鄭和) representing the Ming Dynasty visited the East African coast. Also Malindi (important Swahili settlement since the 14th century) authorities welcomed the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. The colonial history of Kenya dates from the establishment of a German protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar’s coastal possessions in 1885, followed by the arrival of the Imperial British