Tomorrow is Independence Day in the United States, a day when Americans from sea to shining sea come together to celebrate the birth of their nation with pyrotechnics and wiener gluttony. But with all the fanfare surrounding the Fourth of July, we often forget that several other nations celebrate their own Independence or National Days in July — including South Sudan, the newest country in the world! So in light of all that talk that Americans are all just a bunch of self-centered hotheads who only care about what’s going on within our borders, let’s take this opportunity to celebrate the other nations (mapped in red above) that let their freak flags fly a little higher with us throughout the month of July:
Burundi // July 1
Canada // July 1*
Rwanda // July 1
Somalia // July 1
São Tomé and Príncipe // July 2
Belarus // July 3
United States of America // July 4
Algeria // July 5
Cape Verde // July 5
Venezuela // July 5
Malawi // July 6
Soloman Islands // July 7
Argentina // July 9
South Sudan // July 9
Bahamas // July 10
France // July 14*
Slovakia // July 17
Laos // July 19
Colombia // July 20
Belgium // July 21
Liberia // July 26
Maldives // July 26
Peru // July 28
Vanuatu // July 30
If you notice those little asterisks by Canada and France, they’re there because these two countries don’t celebrate their liberation in July, per se. Canada stayed affiliated with the British Empire after being molded into a country, and France was already country when its fed-up citizens stormed the Bastille, but Canada Day and La Fête Nationale (commemorating both events respectively) both fall within the month of July and, hey, the more the merrier! I will be sure to drink a good ol’ American Budweiser for each of these nations during my Independence Day barbecue tomorrow, and if you don’t hear from me on Thursday, I’ve probably succumbed to beer poisoning.
