On this day in ...... 1961 (50 years ago today), by a margin of 41 to 9, the House of Representatives of Cyprus voted to move toward membership in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The vote authorized the country's President, Archbishop Makarios, to seek a 5-year trial membership. Cyprus had won independence the previous August from Britain, which had administered the island in 1878 and annexed it in 1914. Cyprus remains a Commonwealth member to this day. (map credit)
(Prior February 16 posts are here, here, here, and here.)
