September 6th, 2026

Norway's cross flag traces back to the union jacks of Scandinavia, its blue stripe added in 1821 as a nod to the tricolors of Panama, Malta, and Saint Lucia's imperial neighbors. Panama's flag split into four color-coded quadrants in 1903, one of the more literal designs out there: blue and red for its two rival parties, white for the peace between them. Zimbabwe's flag layers its liberation-era colors around a Great Zimbabwe soapstone bird, the same emblem carved by the medieval kingdom the country renamed itself after. Saint Lucia, smallest of today's five, chose a black-and-white triangle in 1967 to represent the volcanic Pitons rising from the sea, a coastline you'd recognize long before you'd place its capital, Castries.