Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands. Madagascar split from India around 88 million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve to a biodiversity hotspot; over 90 percent of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The island is among the last major land masses to be reached by humans; its first settlers arrived on outrigger canoes from Borneo around 2350 years ago, followed over 1000 years later by migrants from East Africa. The Malagasy people are often divided into eighteen or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. At the turn of the 19th century, most of the island's numerous kingdoms were united under Merina rulers as the Kingdom of Madagascar. The monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island regained independence in 1960. Since 1992 the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in a popular uprising in 2009 the last elected president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign and presidential power was transferred to Andry Rajoelina in a move widely viewed by the international community as a coup d'état.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1492:

Members of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus reported the sighting of unknown light on their way to Guanahani. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1492_light_sighting

1797:

French Revolutionary Wars: The Royal Navy captured eleven Dutch Navy ships without any losses in the Battle of Camperdown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camperdown

1809:

American explorer Meriwether Lewis died along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee in an apparent suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meriwether_Lewis

1950:

A field-sequential color system developed by Hungarian-American engineer Peter Goldmark became the first color television system to be adopted for commercial use, but it was abandoned only a year later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-sequential_color_system

1987:

Sri Lankan Civil War: The Indian Peace Keeping Force began Operation Pawan to take control of Jaffna from the Tamil Tigers in order to enforce their disarmament as a part of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pawan

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

microcosm: 1. A smaller system which is representative of or analogous to a larger one. 2. A small natural ecosystem; an artificial ecosystem set up as an experimental model. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/microcosm

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now. --Thich Nhat Hanh https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thich_Nhat_Hanh