Holidays on 24th September

Cambodia Constitution Day

This day commemorates the proclamation of the constitution on this day in 1993. The country was brought to its knees by the infamous Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s, and then followed by the Cambodian-Vietnamese War which lasted until 1991 and the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements in October of that year. An outcome of the agreements was that there would be a new constitution to help transition Cambodia into a modern democratic country with a constitutional monarchy. Prince Sihanouk singed the constitution into law on this day in 1993, formally establishing the Kingdom of Cambodia, and was sworn in as king later that day. It is a public holiday in the country.

Guinea-Bissau Independence Day

Today celebrate the unilateral declaration of independence from Portugal in 1973. The first European to explore this area was Portuguese in 1455, and they set up trading posts along the coast during the 16th century. But Portugal made very little effort to colonise, and it took until 1915 that the whole country came under Portuguese control. Having been previously administered as part of the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands Islands, Guinea-Bissau became the separate colony of Portuguese Guinea in 1879. In 1956, Amilcar Cabral established the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). They pushed for independence through peaceful means initially, but in 1963, disillusioned by Portugal’s use of force to suppress local demonstrations, the PAIGC launched a military campaign beginning the war of independence. By 1973 they controlled about two-thirds of the country, and despite Cabral’s assassination in January 1973, they declared itself an independent republic later that year.

World Gorilla Day

This day allows people all over the world to come together in celebrating the gorilla, and more importantly taking action to protect them in the wild. It was first held in 2017.