Gabon Independence Day

It is a public holiday on 16th and 17th August, following Assumption on the 15th to create a three day holiday. It marks the independence from France on this day in 1960. The French arrived in the region in the early 19th century. It officially occupied it in 1885 and in 1910 it became one of the four colonies of French Equatorial Africa. In 1958 it voted to become an autonomous republic within the French Community, and happened in 1960.