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n Onnthis date in 1964, Nyasaland became independent of the United Kingdomn(Britain). The first order of business was changing the name of thencountry to Malawi.
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n Evennthough Malawi is a really small, landlocked nation with littleneconomic development, low life expectancy, and high infant mortality,nit beat the U.S. in having a woman president. Joyce Banda becamenpresident in April of this year, following the sudden heart attacknand death of the elected president, Bingu wa Mutharika. n
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nSomenother nations that have beat the U.S. in having female heads-of-stateninclude Argentina, India, Israel, Great Britain, Iceland,nPhilippines, Germany, Nicaragua, Ireland, Iceland, Sri Lanka,nSwitzerland, Burundi, Liberia, Chile—and, well, the list goes onnand on. Even Muslim-majority nations such as Indonesia, Pakistan, andnBangladesh have elected women leaders into the top spots (presidentnor prime minister). As a matter of fact, it’s easy to find examplesnof nations that have or have had female presidents (or primenministers)–what’s not so easy is finding a nation that has never hadna female in the top governmental position. After a lot of digging,nI’ve discovered three examples of nations that have never had a womannas a leader: the U.S., Japan, and Italy. n
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nHopefullynthat will have changed within the next few decades!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nAnniversary of Althea Gibson’s win at Wimbledon
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