Happy Birthday to Panama!

View of Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments in the world. *Photo from Wikipedia November 9 is Independence Day, which celebrates the independence of Cambodia from France in 1953. In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name “Kambuja”. This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire which flourished for over 600 years, allowing successive kings to control and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia and accumulate immense power and wealth. The Indianized kingdom built monumental temples including Angkor Wat, now a World Heritage Site, and facilitated the

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

The Parthenon at the acropolis of Athens at night. *Photo from Wikipedia March 25 is Revolution Day, celebrates the declaration of the start of Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, in 1821. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organized into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great rapidly conquering much of the ancient world, spreading Greek culture and science from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus River.