Happy Birthday to Panama!

Syrian traditional clothing. *Photo from Wikipedia April 17 is the Evacuation Day, which is Syria’s national day commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier and Syria’s proclamation of full independence and the end of the French mandate of Syria. Syria, officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. French troops occupied Syria in 1920 after the San Remo conference proposed that the League of Nations put Syria under

Minsk, the capital and largest city of Belarus. *Photo from Wikipedia July 3 is Belarus’ Independence Day, celebrates the liberation of Minsk from Nazi occupation by Soviet troops in 1944. The decision to celebrate Independence Day on July 3, the day of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazis, was made during the 1996 national referendum proposed by President Alexander Lukashenko. After an initial period of independent feudal consolidation, Belarusian lands were incorporated into the Kingdom of Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution,

A classroom in a school in Thimph, the capital and largest city of Bhutan. *Photo from Wikipedia December 17 is Bhutan’s National Day. The date marks the coronation of Ugyen Wangchuck as the first Druk Gyalpo (the head of state of Bhutan) of modern Bhutan. Bhutan is one of only a few countries which have been independent throughout their history, never conquered, occupied, or governed by an outside power. Although there has been speculation that it was under the Kamarupa Kingdom (one of the historical kingdoms of Assam, a state in northeastern India) or the Tibetan Empire in the 7th