September 19, 2012 - St. Kitts and Nevis Independence Day

I've hardly heard of these Caribbean islands, but they were among the first islands to be settled by Europeans, and St. Kitts is sometimes called “The Mother Colony of the West Indies” because it was home to the very first British and French colonies in the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus and his crew “discovered” the islands long before the British and French arrived on the scene, and Spaniards also created colonies on these two islands; however, needless to say, the islands had actually been discovered and settled five thousand years before any Europeans arrived! These natives were called the Kalinago peoples.

France, Britain, and Spain fought to control the islands, but the British won out

Now these two islands make up an independent nation—the smallest in North and South America, whether you go by the nation's size or its population. The nation won its independence on this date in 1983.

Check out the islands with this video.

If you lived on St. Kitts...

• you would be a “Kittitian.”
• you would spend East Caribbean Dollars, each of which is worth about 37 U.S. cents.
• you would speak English.
• you would probably eat “goat water stew,” which includes goat meat, breadfruit, green pawpaw (papaya), and droppers (dumplings) in a tomato-based stew. Maybe you also eat “conkies,” which are a bit like tamales: cornmeal mixed with grated sweet potato, pumpkin, and coconut, wrapped in banana leaves, and boiled.

Also on this date:

Talk Like a Pirate Day 

Chocolatier George Cadbury's birthday