Happy Birthday to Tajikistan!

International pop star Rihanna, a native of Barbados. *Photo from Wikipedia November 30 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Barbados from the United Kingdom in 1966. Inhabited by Kalinago people (or “Island Caribs”) since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Amerindians, Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and claimed for the Spanish Crown. It first appeared in a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese visited the island in 1536, but they left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever

Cepelinai or didžkukuliai, a traditional Lithuanian dish of stuffed potato dumplings. *Photo from Wikipedia February 16 is Restoration of Lithuania’s Statehood Day, celebrate the independence of Lithuania from Russia and Germany in 1918. During the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe; present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were the territories of the Grand Duchy. With the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian

Comorians. They share African-Arab origins. *Photo from Wikipedia July 6 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Comoros from France in 1975. The first human inhabitants of the Comoro Islands are thought to have been Arab, African and Austronesian settlers who traveled to the islands by boat. Portuguese explorers first visited the archipelago in 1503. The islands provided provisions to the Portuguese fort at Mozambique throughout the 16th century. France first established colonial rule in the Comoros in 1841. The Comoros served as a way station for merchants sailing to the Far East and India until the opening of