The cities of Melilla and Ceuta had been Spanish territory since 1497 and 1580 respectively, the latter handed over by Portugal. With the signing of the Treaty of Fez in March 1912, the sovereignty of the majority of Morocco passed to France, which declared the country a protectorate (this was part of a series of international agreements which saw recognition of French and Spanish territories in West Africa and the creation of a German colony Kamerun). A further agreement signed on 27 November between Spain and France established a Spanish Protectorate over the northern coastal zone which surrounded and joined Melilla and Ceuta, as well as Ifni on the Atlantic coast, and Tangiers (which became an International Zone in 1923).

In 1956 when French Morocco gained independence, Spain surrendered the majority of it's occupied territory - but not Ceuta, Melilla, Ifni, and Tarfaya. Tarfaya was prised back from Spain by Morocco in 1958, and Ifni followed in 1969. Spain, however, considers the cities of Melilla and Ceuta to be part of Spain proper and has refused Moroccan demands to return them.

From the diary of Howard Carter, 26 November 1922:

"After clearing 9 metres of the descending passage, in about the middle of the afternoon, we came upon a second sealed doorway ... The seal impressions were of Tutankhamun and of the Royal Necropolis, but not in any way so clear as those on the first doorway. The entrance and passage both in plan and in style resembled almost to measurement the tomb containing the cache of Akhenaten discovered by Davis in the very near vicinity; which seemed to substantiate our first conjecture that we had found a cache.

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On 24 November 1991 Freddie Mercury died of AIDS induced bracho-pneumonia. Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on the island of Zanzibar (then a British Protectorate) on 5 September 1946. Feddie's parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Indian Parsis, and they had moved to Zanzibar for Bomi's job as a cashier in the British Colonial Office.

The family fled Zanzibar in 1964 when the recently elected government was overthrown and Zanzibar (briefly) declared a republic. The family moved to Feltham, London, and Farrokh studied art at Isleworth Polytechnic, eventually gaining a diploma in Art and Graphic Design. By April 1970, Farrokh had changed his name to Freddie Mercury and joined with Brian May and Roger Taylor to form Queen.

On 23 November 2005 Liberia's National Electoral Commission declared Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf winner of November's presidential election, having concluded its investigation into claims of alleged election fraud filed by her rival, the international soccer star George Weah. Johnson-Sirleaf received nearly 60 per cent of the votes.

• Find out why Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in known as Liberia's 'Iron Lady'.