The history of the Comoros extends to about 1000 BC when the archipelago was first inhabited. The Comoros have been inhabited by various groups throughout this time. France colonised the islands in the 19th century, they became independent in 1975; the earliest inhabitants of the islands were people from the Swahili culture from as early as 1000 BC, small trading communities of Bantu-speakers from the coasts of East Africa. In the 8th to 13th centuries AD they were followed by an influx of Austronesian sailors from Southeast Asia, who had earlier settled nearby Madagascar, they are the source for the earliest archeological evidence of farming in the islands. Crops from archeological sites in Sima are predominantly rice strains of both indica and japonica varieties from Southeast Asia, as well as various other Asian crops like mung bean and cotton. Only a minority of the examined crops were African-derived, like finger millet, African sorghum, cowpea; the Comoros are believed to be the first site of contact and subsequent admixture between African and Asian populations.

Comorians today still display at most 20% Austronesian admixture. From around the 15th century AD, Shirazi slave traders established trading ports and brought in slaves from the mainland. In the 16th century, social changes on the East African coast linked to the arrival of the Portuguese saw the arrival of a number of Arabs of Hadrami who established alliances with the Shirazis and founded several royal clans. Over the centuries, the Comoros have been settled by a succession of diverse groups from the coast of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia and Madagascar. Portuguese explorers first visited the archipelago in 1505. Apart from a visit by the French Parmentier brothers in 1529, for much of the 16th century the only Europeans to visit the islands were Portuguese. Ndzwani was ruled by a single sultan, who attempted to extend his authority to Mayotte and Mwali. Both the British and the French turned their attention to the Comoros islands in the middle of the 19th century; the French acquired the islands through a cunning mixture of strategies, including the policy of "divide and conquer", chequebook politics and a serendipitous affair between a sultana and a French trader, put to good use by the French, who kept control of the islands, quelling unrest and the occasional uprising.

William Sunley, a planter and British Consul from 1848–1866, was an influence on Anjouan. On 25 March 1841, France purchased the island of Maore — the name of the island was corrupted in French to "Mayotte" — which became a colony upon ratification on 13 June 1843. In 1850 Sultan Selim of Johanna island seized the American whaler Maria and imprisoned her commander, Captain Moores. In response, the United States Navy launched the Johanna Expedition in February 1852 to gain the release of Moores and extract compensation; the sultan did not meet the demands, the sloop-of-war USS Dale bombarded the island's fortifications. In 1886 Said Ali bin Said Omar, Sultan of Bambao, signed an agreement with the French government that allowed France to establish a protectorate over the entire island of Ngazidja. Résidents were posted on the three islands. On 9 April 1908, France declared the protectorates and Mayotte a single colony and dependencies. On 25 July 1912, it was annexed to Madagascar as a province of that colony.

From 16 June 1940 to 1942 the colonial administration remained loyal to Vichy France, but 25 September 1942 to 13 October 1946 they were, like Madagascar, under British occupation. Until the opening of the Suez Canal, the islands used to be an important refuelling and provisioning station for ships from Europe to the Indian Ocean. Independence came for the Comoros. During the middle of the 20th century the French reluctantly began to accede to requests for constitutional changes and in 1946 the Comoros had become a separately administered colony from Madagascar. After World War II, the islands became a French overseas territory and were represented in France's National Assembly. Internal political autonomy was granted in 1961. Agreement was reached with France in 1973 for the Comoros to become independent in 1978. On July 6, 1975, the Comorian parliament passed a resolution declaring unilateral independence; the deputies of Mayotte abstained. In 1961 the Comoros was granted autonomous rule and, seven years after the general unrest and left-wing riots of 1968, it broke all ties with France and established itself as an independent republic.

From the beginning Mayotte refused to join the new republic and aligned itself more to the French Republic, but the other islands remained committed to independence. The first president of the Comoros, Ahmed Abdallah Abderemane, did not last long before being ousted in a coup d'état by Ali Soilih, an atheist with an Islamic background. Soilih began with a set of solid socialist ideals designed to modernize the country. However, the regime faced problems. A French mercenary by the name of Bob Denard, arrived in the Comoros at dawn on 13 May 1978, removed Soilih from power. Solih was killed during the coup. Abdallah returned to govern the country and the mercenaries were given key positions in government. In two referendums, in December 1974 and February 1976, the population of Mayotte

The 2004 Montana gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2004 for the post of Governor of Montana. Democrat Brian Schweitzer defeated Montana Secretary of State Republican Bob Brown. Brian Schweitzer, a farmer from Whitefish, began campaigning for the Democratic nomination over a year before the primary, he had narrowly lost the Senate race to Conrad Burns in 2000. In February 2004 he announced that liberal Republican state senator John Bohlinger would be his running mate for the post of lieutenant governor; this would be the first bipartisan gubernatorial team since the Montana Constitution was amended in 1972 to require governors and lieutenant governors to run as a team. In March 2004 John Vincent, a former speaker of the Montana House of Representatives entered the race and criticised Schweitzer for taking both sides on some issues. In the end Schweitzer won the Democratic primary. Three days after the primary Schweitzer addressed the Montana Democratic Convention, gave a bear hug to his defeated rival, said he would bring a new kind of leadership to Montana.

Incumbent Governor Judy Martz had a difficult term of office with her approval ratings as governor going as low as 20%. In August 2003 she announced she would not run for re-election as she wanted to spend more time with her family. Lieutenant Governor Karl Ohs was decided not to. Montana Secretary of State Bob Brown, conservative businessman Pat Davison and State Senators Ken Miller and Tom Keating competed for the nomination. Brown was seen as the favorite in the primary but was attacked by Pat Davison for being'liberal on taxes.' Brown was the only one of the candidates who refused to sign a pledge not to raise taxes as he said he wanted to keep all options open as governor. In mid summer polls showed Schweitzer had a 10-point lead over Brown, but by October the gap had closed to only 4 percent. Schweitzer campaigned with plans to lift Montana from its position at the bottom of all 50 states in wages, he called for new uses to be found for crops like mint and for small businesses to pool in purchasing health care.

He supported opening the border with Canada to allow consumers to get cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Brown said that the Democrats harmed job creation, he touted his government experience including 26 years in the Montana legislature and accused Schweitzer of taking hypocritical stands. Schweitzer won the election to become the first Democrat in 20 years to win an election for governor. According to the exit polls Schweitzer obtained two-thirds of the vote from over 65s and from independent voters; this was despite President George W. Bush winning Montana easily over John Kerry

The 2017 Overton's 400, was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 30, 2017 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Contested over 160 laps on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, it was the 21st race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Pocono Raceway known as the Tricky Triangle, is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania at Long Pond, it is the site of two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races held just weeks apart in early June and late July/early August, one NASCAR Xfinity Series event in early June, one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event in late July/early August, two ARCA Racing Series races in early June and late July/early August. From 1971 to 1989, again since 2013, the track has hosted an Indy Car race sanctioned by the IndyCar Series and run in August. Pocono is one of a few NASCAR tracks not owned by either Speedway Motorsports, Inc. or International Speedway Corporation, the dominant track owners in NASCAR. It is run by the Igdalsky siblings Brandon and Nicholas, both of whom are third-generation members of the family-owned Mattco Inc, started by Joseph II and Rose Mattioli.

Mattco owns South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia. Outside of the NASCAR races, Pocono is used throughout the year by Sports Car Club of America and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools; the triangular oval has three separate infield sections of racetrack – North Course, East Course and South Course. Each of these infield sections use a separate portion of the tri-oval to complete the track. During regular non-race weekends, multiple clubs can use the track by running on different infield sections; some of the infield sections can be run in either direction, or multiple infield sections can be put together – such as running the North Course and the South Course and using the tri-oval to connect the two. Matt Kenseth was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 51.114 seconds and a speed of 176.077 mph. Kyle Busch was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 50.898 seconds and a speed of 176.824 mph. Kyle Busch scored the pole for the race with a speed of 179.372 mph.

Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 3:20 p.m. The field didn't complete a full lap when rounding the third turn, Matt Kenseth got loose and spun, triggering an eight-car wreck that brought out the first caution. Aric Almirola took the worst damage on his way to a last-place finish. Back to green on the eighth lap, cars started hitting pit road to short-pit the first stage on Lap 15. Busch pitted from the lead on Lap 22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the next 11 circuits, before diving onto pit road on Lap 37, cycling the lead to Kenseth. He didn't hold the lead for long, however, as Busch passed him going into Turn 1 to take the lead on Lap 42 and drove on to win the first stage that concluded on Lap 51, he opted to pit under the stage break. Teammate Denny Hamlin restarted from the tail-end of the field for speeding. On fresher tires, Busch powered by the outside of Kenseth in Turn 3 to return to the lead on the Lap 56 restart; when the field came back through Turn 3 a lap Jimmie Johnson spun, after contact with teammate Kasey Kahne, hit the wall, bringing out the third caution.

The race restarted on Lap 62. A drive-shaft piece that came from Kyle Larson's car brought out the fourth caution on Lap 70. Hamlin stayed out to get the race lead, but was relegated to second on the restart, bumping up Austin Dillon, for not maintaining pace car speed, it made no difference, however. He led the next 15 laps, before Martin Truex Jr. got to his inside exiting Turn 1 and took the lead heading down the Long Pond Straightaway. Truex was among a slew of cars that that opted to short-pit for the position to win towards the end of the second stage on Lap 98, handing the lead to Clint Bowyer, who won the stage on Lap 101. Truex resumed his place up front; the race restarted on Lap 106. Cars started hitting pit road for their final pit stop with 37 laps to go. Race leader Truex pitted with 34 to go, he did so with 25 handing the lead to Brad Keselowski. When he stopped five laps the lead cycled to Hamlin. During the cycle, Joey Logano was hit with a pass through penalty for speeding, a stop and go penalty for pitting to service his car during his pass through.

With 17 to go, Kevin Harvick took the lead from Hamlin going into Turn 1. But Busch caught Harvick going into Turn 3, bumped him out of the racing groove and drove on to victory. Stage 1 Laps: 50 Stage 2 Laps: 50 Stage 3 Laps: 60 Lead changes: 9 among different drivers Cautions/Laps: 5 for 21 Red flags: 0 Time of race: 2 hours, 50 minutes and 7 seconds Average speed: 141.080 miles per hour NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen and Dale Jarrett had the call from the regular booth for the race. Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte had the call in the new NBC's stock car smarts booth for the race. Dave Burns, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race. Motor Racing Network had the radio call for the race, simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio