i suggest you READ IT AGAIN
DiveCon, you are SOOOOO sad. SOOOO Sad.
Over the next quarter century, 20% of the island's population emigrated, mostly to Canada and the US. Limited home rule from Denmark was granted in 1874 and complete independence attained in 1944. Literacy, longevity, and social cohesion are first-rate by world standards.
Independence:
1 December 1918 (became a sovereign state under the Danish Crown); 17 June 1944 (from Denmark)
On 31 December 1943, the Act of Union agreement expired after 25 years. Beginning on 20 May 1944, Icelanders voted in a four-day
plebiscite on whether to terminate the union with Denmark and establish a republic.
[27] The vote was 97% in favour of ending the union and 95% in favour of the new republican constitution. Iceland formally became an independent republic on 17 June 1944, with
Sveinn Björnsson as the first president.
The
president of Iceland is a largely ceremonial
head of state and serves as a
diplomat but can block a law voted by the parliament and put it to a national referendum. The current president is
Ólafur Ragnar GrÃmsson. The
head of government is the
prime minister,
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who, together with the cabinet, is responsible for
executive government. The cabinet is appointed by the president after a
general election to Althing; however, the appointment is usually negotiated by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed, under the condition that it has a majority support in Althing.
Feeling like an idiot yet or what?
[Culled from the Factbook and Wiki entry on Iceland.]