Happy Birthday to Panama!

Algerian school children. *Photo from Wikipedia July 5 is Independence Day, celebrating the independence of Algeria from France in 1962. North Africa served as a transit region for people moving towards Europe or the Middle East, thus, the region’s inhabitants have been influenced by populations from other areas, including the Carthaginians, Romans, and Vandals. The region was conquered by the Muslims in the early 8th century, but broke off from the Umayyad Caliphate after the Berber Revolt of 740. Later, various Berbers, Arabs, Persian Muslim states, Sunni, Shia or Ibadi communities were established that ruled parts of modern-day of Algeria.

Ugandan children attending a primary education program for conflict-affected students. *Photo from Wikipedia October 9 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Uganda from United Kingdom in 1962. Arab traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in the 1830s. They were followed in the 1860s by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile. British Anglican missionaries arrived in the kingdom of Buganda in 1877 (a situation which gave rise to the death of the Uganda Martyrs) and were followed by French Catholic missionaries in 1879. The British government chartered the Imperial British East Africa

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,