Carabane is an island and a village located in the extreme south-west
of Senegal, in the mouth of the Casamance River. The earliest known
inhabitants of the island were the Jola people, the ethnic group which
is still the most populous on the island. On January 22, 1836, the
island was ceded to France by the village leader of Kagnout in return
for an annual payment of 196 francs. In 1869, Carabane became
autonomous, but it merged with Sédhiou in 1886. Since World War II, the
population of the island has gradually declined for a variety of
reasons including periods of drought, the Casamance Conflict and, more
recently, the sinking of the Joola in 2002. Because the Joola was the
primary means of travel to and from Carabane, much of the village's
ability to trade and receive tourists has been lost. Although Carabane
was once a regional capital, the village has since become so
politically isolated from the rest of the country that it no longer
fits into any category of the administrative structure decreed by the
Senegalese government. Although there have been attempts to cultivate a
tourism industry on the island, the inhabitants have been reluctant to
participate. Carabane was added to the list of historic sites and
monuments of Senegal in 2003.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabane>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1706:
Great Northern War: The Swedish employed the double envelopment
military strategy to defeat Saxony–Poland and their Russian allies at
the Battle of Fraustadt near Fraustadt in present-day Wschowa, Poland.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fraustadt>
1815:
The Cambridge Union Society, one of the oldest debating societies in
the world, was founded at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge,
England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Union_Society>
1867:
Work began on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels' polluted
main waterway to allow urban renewal in the centre of the city.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/covering_of_the_Senne>
1945:
World War II: The Allies began their strategic bombing of Dresden,
Saxony, Germany, resulting in a lethal firestorm which killed tens of
thousands of civilians.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II>
1960:
African American college students staged the first of the Nashville
sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., part of
a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
soffit (n):
(architecture) The visible underside of an arch, balcony, beam,
cornice, staircase, vault or any other architectural element
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soffit>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Morning has broken,
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them
springing
Fresh from the Word!
--Eleanor Farjeon
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Farjeon>