April 12

April 13, 2024 - Reading time: 12 minutes

Saint’s Day for Víctor, Sabas, Damián, Julio, Basilio and Máximo.

1285 - The emir of Morocco and his son Abu Yusuf landed in Tarifa (Cádiz), ushering in what is called the battle of the Strait.
1752 - Royal Decree of Felipe V by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando is created, opened the next day.
1779 - the Treaty of Aranjuez is signed by Spain and France, under whose terms Spain later joined the American War of Independence against Britain.
1814 - presented the Manifesto of the Persians to King Ferdinand VII of Spain.
1870 - A court martial is performed to judge the Duke of Montpensier, who was killed in a duel his cousin Prince Henry of Bourbon.
1904 - Barcelona, Antonio Maura (President of the Council of Ministers) undergoes an attack with a knife.
1923 - in Tablada (Sevilla) king Alfonso XIII opens el aeródromo.

Montserrat Caballé - archive photo

1931 - municipal elections held in Spain give a resounding victory to the Republicans. Two days later King Alfonso XIII leaves Spain and the Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed.
1946 - The Patronato Sports Betting Mutual Charitable predecessor current agency State Lotteries is created.
1962 - a law on the banking sector includes as an important part of the reforms the nationalisation of the Bank of Spain. The Bank was nationalised in June that year.
1985 - at the restaurant El Descanso de Madrid, attributed to Islamic Jihad attack leaves as balance 18 dead and 82 wounded.
1992 - opening, one hundred years after its founding, Atocha Station, the largest railway complex in Spain and one of the most important in Europe.

2010 - A 6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Spain, one of the first large earthquakes to strike the Iberian region in half a century.

2016 - ‘Mario Conde used his children, son in law and lawyer to launder money’. The former banker was detained with seven others for creating a complex network of companies which, according to the prosecutor, shared around Spain 13 million pillaged from Banesto and hidden for at least 23 years.

2018 - Spain signs a strategic alliance.- the inheritance prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salmán al Sand, met yesterday with the Kings of Spain during his visit to Madrid. They signed four accords including the construction of five frigates in Spanish dockyards for 2 billion €

Births

1662 - Payo Enríquez de Rivera y Manrique, was a Spanish Augustinian friar who served as the Bishop of Guatemala (1657–67), Archbishop of Mexico (1668–1681) and Viceroy of New Spain (13 December 1673 – 30 November 1680). (d, 1684)

1707 - José Benegasi y Luján, writer (d. 1770).
1817 - Antonio López y López, businessman.
1885 - Paco Bru, football player trainer and referee (d. 1962).

1921 - Enric Marco (born in Barcelona) is an impostor who claimed to have been a prisoner in Nazi German concentration camps Mauthausen and Flossenbürg in World War II. He was awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Catalan government in 2001 and wrote a book on his experiences. In 2005 he admitted his claims were false and returned his medal, after his deception was revealed by university researcher Benito Bermejo.

Photo - https://cadenaser.com/

He told Catalan TV: "I wasn't in a concentration camp. I was held in captivity and the Nazis did impose penalties on me. But that does not exonerate me from being an impostor." He said he was released after being mistreated for several weeks and returned to Spain in 1943. Marco later admitted to having volunteered in 1941 to work in Kiel for the Nazi war industry. In his made-up story called Memoir of Hell Marco wrote he had been involved in the French resistance and captured by the Gestapo in southern France

After 2001 Marco represented an association of survivors of the thousands of Spaniards who had truly been deported to Nazi concentration camps.

From 1978 to 1979, Marco, a metal worker, had been the General Secretary of the Spanish anarchist Union CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo), from which he was expelled in 1980.

Marco died on 21 May 2022, at the age of 101

1930 - José Asenjo Sedano, writer.
1933 - Montserrat Caballé, bel canto operatic soprano, and unlikely pop star (with Freddie Mercury - Barcelona) born in Barcelona (d. 2018)
1943 - Luis Yáñez, politician.
1947 - Antonin Kratochvil, photographer.
1953 - Alejandro "Álex" Angulo León, ( born in Erandio, Biscay) was a Spanish actor who performed in over sixty films during his career spanning more than 30 years. Angulo died at the age of 61 when the vehicle in which he was travelling veered from the road.
1962 - Carlos Sainz,former World Rally Champion, was born in Madrid.
1977 - Gemma Mengual, synchronised swimmer.
1986 - Lorena, singer
1986 - Marcel Granollers, tennis player

1983 - Isaac Mahmood Noell, known professionally as Sak Noel, is a Spanish DJ, record producer, songwriter and music video director.

Deaths

1256 - Margaret of Bourbon, Queen of Navarre, regent of Navarre (b. 1217)

1530 - Joanna La Beltraneja, Princess of Castile (b. 1462)
1555 - Juana la Loca, Juana I de Castilla, died in the castle in Tordesillas which had been her prison for many years. (b. 1479)
1938 - Serafin Alvarez Quintero, dramatist.
1986 - José Jabardo, cyclist (b. 1915).
2004 - Juan Valderrama, flamenco singer (b. 1916).