9 January 2020

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 9 January 12020 is Martyrs’ Day in Panama, Peace Agreement Day in South Sudan, Non-Resident Indian Day in India, Word Nerd Day and Static Electricity Day. Martyrs’ Day commemorates a moment in 1964 when a bunch of entitled American students in the Canal Zone took it upon themselves to run an American flag up the flagpole in front of their school while preventing a group of Panamanian students from flying their flag alongside it. In the struggle the Panamanian flag was torn, with Americans claiming that the Panamanians tore their own flag for some reason—obvious bullshit. The key point is that the flag would not have been torn if the American students hadn’t instigated the conflict. Anyway, as the result of the actions of these arrogant jerks some twenty-five people ended up dead, and the twenty-one Panamanian deaths are commemorated by this day.