Happy Birthday to Panama!

Kyrgyz family in a region of Kyrgyzstan. *Photo from Wikipedia August 31 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet Union in 1991. Although geographically isolated by its mountainous location, it had an important role as part of the historical Silk Road trade route. In between periods of self-government it was ruled by Göktürks (突厥, a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples in medieval Inner Asia), the Uyghur Empire, and the Khitan (契丹) people, before being conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century; subsequently it regained independence but was invaded by Kalmyks (the Oirats in Russia), Manchus

*Photo from Wikipedia July 1 is Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day. It is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the Constitution Act, 1867 (then called the British North America Act, 1867), which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire. Beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries, British and French claims were made on the area, with the colony of Canada first being established by the French in 1537. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost territories

Port-Louis, the Capital of Mauritius. *Photo from Wikipedia March 12 is National Day, celebrates the independence of Mauritius from the UK in 1968. The island of Mauritius was visited during the Middle Ages by the Arabs and then by the Portuguese. The island was uninhabited until the Dutch Republic established a colony in 1638, with the Dutch naming the island after Prince Maurice van Nassau. The Dutch colony was abandoned in 1710, and, five years later, the island became a French colony and was named Isle de France. Due to its strategic position, Mauritius was known as the “star and