What’s Happening Today?

National Unification Day (Liberia). It marks the Unification and Integration Policy, which was aimed at tackling political, social and economic disparities within Liberia. The father of modern Liberia William S. V. Tubman introduced the National Unification Policy, which featured among other things an extension of the vote to women and to the country’s indigenous people.
To recognize the benefits the policy brought to the country, the Act was passed in 1960, declaring May 14th National Unification Day.

Kamuzu Day (Malawi). Kamuzu Day is a public holiday in Malawi, observed on May 14th, and it commemorates the birthday of Malawi’s first President Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
Banda was appointed Prime Minister of Nyasaland, as Malawi was known then, in 1963 and led the country to independence on July 6th 1964. He chose the name “Malawi” for the new nation, after “Maravi”, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area.

What Happened Today?

1.    In 1910, the Anglo-German Agreement was signed. The agreement dealt with surveying the borders of the German and British East Africa protectorates. One of the defining points of the agreement was determining the 1-degree Southern latitude as the line that makes the Ugandan and Tanzanian border. This later led to conflict when Ugandan President Idi Amin later annexed the Kagera area of Tanzania, which he claimed originally belonged to Uganda.

2.    In 1918, Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands, a British Colonial politician, inaugurated the Two-minute silence. He instituted the observation of two minutes of silence, officially, to honour his son Reginald Hands, who had died in World War I. the practice has since been adopted by some countries in the commonwealth to remember those who die in conflict.

3.    In 1948, Israel became an independent state. This announcement was made by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and triggered a 10-month armed conflict known as the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 when a military coalition of Arab states invaded Israel. The war was however eventually won by Israel.

Birthdays

1.    1969 – Cate Blanchett, Australian actress, producer, and theatre director.

2.    1984 – Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

Sources: Wikipedia & checkiday

Photo: britanicca.com