Happy Birthday to Panama!

Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. *Photo from Wikipedia February 17 is the day Kosovo declares independence as the Republic of Kosovo. In antiquity, Dardania covered the area, which formed part of the larger Roman province of Moesia in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the region became part of the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Serbian medieval states. It was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire an exact 70 years after the Battle of Kosovo. In 1913 the Kosovo Vilayet was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia, which in 1918 became part of Yugoslavia. Kosovo gained

2004 National Day celebration in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. *Photo from Wikipedia October 1 is National Day of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC was founded on October 1, 1949, with a ceremony at Tiananmen Square. One thing should be noted is that the PRC was not founded on that day, but on September 21, 1949. The Central People’s Government passed the Resolution on the National Day of the People’s Republic of China on December 2, 1949, and declared that October 1 is the National Day. The National Day is celebrated throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau with

Youth and adults in Kinshasa, the capital and the largest city of DR Congo. *Photo from Wikipedia June 30 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Democratic Republic of the Congo from Belgium in 1960. The region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first settled about 80,000 years ago. Bantu migration arrived in the region from Nigeria in the 7th century AD. The Kingdom of Kongo remained present in the region between the 14th and the early 19th centuries. Belgian colonization began when King Leopold II founded the Congo Free State, a corporate state run solely