Happy Birthday to Panama!

Bogotá, the capital and largest city of Colombia. *Photo from Wikipedia July 20 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of Colombia from Spain in 1810. The Spanish set foot on Colombian soil for the first time in 1499 and in the first half of the 16th century initiated a period of conquest and colonization, ultimately creating the New Kingdom of Granada, with as capital Santafé de Bogotá. Independence from Spain was acquired in 1819, but by 1830 the “Gran Colombia” Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation

*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

Abras on the Dubai Creek. An abra is a traditional boat made of wood and abras are used to ferry people across the Dubai Creek in Dubai. *Photo from Wikipedia December 2 is: National Day, which is celebrated in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It marks the UAE’s formal nationalization from the British Protectorate Treaties which ended on December 1, 1971 and the eventual, federal unification of the seven emirates in 1971 which combined to form the modern-day country. The area was settled by a number of tribes along both the coast and interior and was Islamized in the seventh