ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Icelandic constitutional referendum, 1944

Okay, so imagine you have a group of people who live in a place called Iceland. These people have a special document called a constitution that tells them how to run their country and what the rules are.

But something interesting happened in 1944! The people of Iceland wanted to become their own country instead of being a part of another country called Denmark. They wanted to have their own king or queen, and make their own decisions about their country.

So, they decided to have a special vote called a referendum to ask all the people in Iceland what they thought. This is like when you and your friends vote on what game to play at recess, but for the whole country!

During this vote, the adults in Iceland got to decide if they wanted to keep Denmark as their ruling country or become independent. They each took a piece of paper and put a mark on it to choose yes or no.

When all the votes were counted, the result was that a very big majority of people wanted Iceland to become its own country! This meant that they didn't want to be ruled by Denmark anymore.

Because of this result, Iceland became an independent country on June 17, 1944. They created a new constitution that was their own and could make their own decisions about how their country worked.

So, the Icelandic constitutional referendum in 1944 was an important vote that allowed the people of Iceland to become an independent country and govern themselves!