Home Features History Letters from Spain New Arrivals Profiles Recipes Sightseeing Vocabulary Weather

April 1

Saint’s Day for Hugo, Celso, Teodora, Macario, Esteban, Venancio and Víctor.

1520 - Madrid, commoners occupy the Alcázar de Madrid (See War of the Communities).
1572 - In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
1625 - A combined Spanish and Portuguese fleet of 52 ships commences the recapture of Bahia from the Dutch during the Dutch–Portuguese War.

Valle de los caidos - archive photo

1721 - begins the construction of the Palace of La Granja (Segovia) and construction replanting and layout of the gardens.
1767 - King Carlos III and his prime minister, Count de Aranda, expelled from the country to the Society of Jesus.
1862 - Spain and England break their alliance with France.
1863 - on the street Canuda Barcelona the Sisters of the Poor opened their first foundation.
1891 - In Burgos (España) newspaper Diario de Burgos starts printing
1894 - is inaugurated in Madrid the present building of the Royal Spanish Academy.
1901 - Spain celebrated in numerous rallies anticlerical, especially in La Coruna and Malaga.
1901 - the rules governing the movement of trams are established.
1924 - municipalities across the country are formed according to the new status of local government based on organismic concept of social life.
1937 - Spanish Civil War: Jaén, Spain is bombed by Nazi forces.
1939 - Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
1939 - US recognises Francisco Franco's government in Spain at the end of Spanish civil war. Pope Pius XII congratulates Generalissimo Franco's victory in Spain
1940 - Franco inaugurates the start of work to build the Valle de los Caídos – the Valley of the Fallen, a massive memorial to those who died in the Civil War which the General ordered built in El Escorial, Madrid.
1956 - Spain and Morocco sign agreement on transfer of Moroccan territory that until then was Spanish Protectorate
1959 - Franco inaugurates the Valle de los Caídos, the monument where he was buried following his death in 1975.
1993 - The Spanish Government refers to its opinion the Economic and Social Council a new model of labour relations that affect labour law and the modalities of contracts.
1997 - Spanish architect Miguel Fisac obtained unanimously Antonio Camuñas VII Architecture Prize.
2004 - the writer, journalist, and former war correspondent, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, is awarded the 2003 Premio González-Ruano de Periodismo journalism award for his article, ‘Una ventana a la guerra’ – ‘a window on the war,’
2004 - National Geographic announces the end of the Geological Survey of Spain ("Magna Project") with the development of over 1000 maps.
2004 - the painter, sculptor and print maker Paul Palazuelo receives the Velazquez Prize for Plastic Arts.
2005 - founded the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre.
2005 - León Musac (Museum of Contemporary Art) is inaugurated.
2005 - police stops in Madrid to thirteen people presumably related to the attacks of 11-M.
2007 - the last opening of the Bilbao bridge Deusto is performed.
2016 - Autonomous Deficits Cristobal Montoro, Treasury Minister, blames the wasteful spending and the diversion of the deficit on the autonomous regions and has announced sanctions. Brussels applauds the new controls, while maintaining concerns for the number in red has reached 10 billion € above the objective.
2017 - ‘Spain will have the power of veto over Gibraltar during the ‘Brexit’ negotiations’ - in the negotiation directives over Brexit it is clear that no agreement would apply to the colony ‘without an agreement between Spain and UK ‘ which supposes Spain can veto any decision over the disputed territory.
2018 - Menorca - ‘A British cyclist died rundown on the road in Alfalfa’- the 47 year old local resident, became the sixth cyclist to die on the roads of the island in 18 years. The car driver tested positive for alcohol.

Births
Diego Colón, first son of Christopher Columbus, 16th century.
1479 - Diego Columbus, was a Portuguese navigator and explorer under the Kings of Castile and Aragón
He served as the 2nd Admiral of the Indies, 2nd Viceroy of the Indies and 4th Governor of the Indies as a vassal to the Kings of Castile and Aragón.
He was the elder son of Christopher Columbus and his wife Filipa Moniz Perestrelo.He was born in Portugal, either in Porto Santo in 1479/1480, or in Lisbon in 1474.
He spent most of his adult life trying to regain the titles and privileges granted to his father for his explorations and then denied him in 1500.
He was greatly aided in this goal by his marriage to María de Toledo y Rojas, niece of the 2nd Duke of Alba, who was the cousin of King Ferdinand.
Diego was made a page at the Spanish court in 1492, the year his father embarked on his first voyage. Diego had a younger half-brother, Fernando, by Beatriz Enríquez de Arana.
Diego Columbus was taught by Christopher Columbus's mistress, Beatrice De Arana, until he transferred to the Franciscan monastery of La Rabida, at the urging of Father Juan Perez and friar Horacio Crassocius, prominent Franciscans and occasional priests to his father
Ferdinand and Diego had been pages to Prince Don Juan, then became pages to Queen Isabella in 1497
In August 1508, he was named Governor of the Indies, the post his father had held, arriving in Santo Domingo in July 1509. He established his home (the Alcázar de Colón), which still stands in Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic. In 1511 as Viceroy of the Indies, Diego Columbus commissioned Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar to go on an expedition from Santo Domingo to the newly acquired Spanish island of Cuba
In 1511, a royal council declared Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba under Diego's power "by right of his father." However, Uraba and Veragua were deemed excluded, since the council regarded them as being discovered by Rodrigo de Bastidas. The council further confirmed Diego's titles of Viceroy and admiral were hereditary, though honorific. Furthermore, Diego had the right to one-tenth of the net royal income. However, factions soon formed between those loyal to Diego and Ferdinand's royal officials. Matters deteriorated to the point that Ferdinand recalled Diego in 1514. Diego then spent the next five years in Spain "futilely pressing his claims." Finally, in 1520, Diego's powers were restored by Charles
Diego returned to Santo Domingo on 12 November 1520 in the midst of a native revolt against Spanish rule in the area of the Franciscan missions on the Cumana River, which was the site of Spanish slave raids, alongside the salt and pearl trades. Diego sent Gonzalo de Ocampo on a punitive expedition with 200 men and 6 ships. Then in 1521, Diego invested in Bartolomé de las Casas' enterprise to settle the Cumana area. That failure, blamed on Diego, meant the loss of the king's confidence. That loss, plus Diego's defiance of royal power on Cuba, forced Charles to reprimand Diego in 1523 and recall him back to Spain
The first major slave rebellion in the Americas occurred in Santo Domingo on 26 December 1522, when enslaved Jolof laborers working on Diego's sugar plantation started a revolt. During the rebellion, many formerly enslaved insurgents managed to escape into the mountainous interior of the colony, where they established independent maroon communities amongst the surviving Taíno. However, a lot of rebels were captured, and the Admiral had them hanged
After his death, a compromise was reached in 1536 in which his son, Luis Colón de Toledo, was named Admiral of the Indies and renounced all other rights for a perpetual annuity of 10,000 ducats, the island of Jamaica as a fief, an estate of 25 square leagues on the Isthmus of Panama, then called Veragua, and the titles of Duke of Veragua and Marquess of Jamaica.
After Columbus's death on February 23, 1526, in Spain, the rents, offices and titles in the New World went into dispute by his descendants.
1759 - José Bustamante, marine and politician (d. 1825).
1904 - Juan Gil-Albert, writer
1918 - Eduardo Primo Yúfera, chemist (d. 2007).
1932 - Bernardo Víctor Carande, writer (d. 2005).
1948 - Javier Irureta, football midfielder (6 caps Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao) and manager (Deportivo La Coruña 1998-2005) born in Irun
1954 - Óscar Ladoire, actor
1961 - The award-winning actor, Juan Echanove, was born in Madrid, At Gijón International Film Festival in 2002, he received the Nacho Martinez Award.
1961 - Sergio Scariolo Italian basketball coach (NBA: assistant Toronto Raptors; head coach Spain; World Cup gold 2019) born in Brescia, Italy
1977 - Haimar Zubeldia, cyclist
1978 - Marián Álvarez, actress.
1979 - Ruth Beitia athlete (Olympic gold women's high jump 2016) born in Santander
1986 - Sergio Rivero, singer.
1989 - María Villalón, singer
1997 - Álex Palou, Spanish racing driver


Deaths
1528 - Francisco de Peñalosa, composer (b. 1470)
1580 - Alonso Mudarra, guitarist and composer (b. 1510)
1872 - Manuel Rivadeneyra, printer (b. 1805).
1933 - Salvador Rueda, poet.
1933 - Joaquín Xaudaró, cartoonist (b 1872.).
1982 - Miguel Espinosa Gironés, writer.
2003 - Mario López, poet and painter.