April 16

April 17, 2024 - Reading time: 8 minutes

Saint’s Day for Engracia, Toribio de Liébana and Calixto.

1519 - Barcelona Carlos I of Spain Rey is sworn to the Catalan Parliament.
1540 - on the town of Chuquisaca (capital of the nation of the ponds), the Spanish Peranzúrez founded the Villa de la Plata New Toledo (present Sucre, Bolivia's administrative capital).
1568 - in Granada Moriscos take up arms, very unhappy with the measures taken by Pedro Deza, president of the Chancellery.
1582 - Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
1610 - Lope de Vega signed and dated his play The good saves.
1931 - Doña Victoria Eugenia and her children, Don Alfonso the Prince of Asturias, the Infantes Don Jaime and Don Gonzalo, and the Infantas Doña Beatriz and Doña María Cristina, are the first of the Spanish Royal Family to arrive in Paris for exile in France.
2015 - Rodrigo Rato was detained for questioning for several hours
2015 - The Andalucían Parliament was constituted
2015 - Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, chosen academic for the Spanish language

Vicente López Portaña portrait of Francisco de Goya. - wikipedia

Births

1793 - Saint Joaquina Vedruna de Mas, born Joaquima de Vedruna Vidal de Mas and in religious Joaquina of Saint Francis of Assisi - was a Spanish professed religious and the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. First she married to a nobleman despite her desire to become a nun though she and her husband both desired the religious life; the couple bore nine children but she and her children fled after Napoleon invaded the nation to which her husband remained to fight as a volunteer and later died leaving her widowed but free to pursue her religious inclinations.Her canonization as a saint was celebrated on 12 April 1959.

In due course she was forced to resign as the Superior of her order due to sickness; she died during a cholera epidemic in Barcelona on 28 August 1854

1867 - José de Diego, Puerto Rican patriot and advocate for Puerto Rico's independence from Spain and the US, born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico (d. 1918)
1889 - José María Zumalacárregui Prat, economista (d. 1956).
1893 - Federico Mompou, Catalan composer (Música Callada - 'The Voice of Silence' born in Barcelona (d. 1987)
1908 - Ray Ventura, French-Spanish pianist and bandleader (d. 1979)
1927 - Nicolás Redondo, unionist.
1930 - Marquitos, footballer (d. 2012).
1933 - Marcos Alonso Imaz, footballer (d. 2012)
1947 - Jose Luis Moreno, artist, theater and television entrepreneur.
1958 - Javier Sardá, tv presenter.
1959 - Emilio Aragon Álvarez ,producer, composer and audiovisual entrepreneur. He was the original presenter of the Spanish game show VIP Noche, which was a popular 1990s game show on the Spanish Telecinco network. He later hosted and directed the first season of El gran juego de la oca on Antena 3, also in Spain. Since 2006 he has been the president of the television network La Sexta.
1960 - Rafael Benítez, footballer and manager, born in Madrid
1972 - Conchita Martínez, tennis player (Wimbledon 1994; Federation Cup 1991, 93, 94, 95, 98) and coach (Garbiñe Muguruza, Karolína Plisková) born in Monzón, Huesca

1973 - Teddy Cobeña. Spanish-Ecuadorian expressionist and representational sculptor

Deaths
1566 - Juan Correa de Vivar, pintor español (b. 1510)
1828 - The Spanish painter, Francisco de Goya, died in his home in France (b. 1746)
1943 - Carlos Arniches, Spanish dramatist (b 1866.).
1973 - Singer-songwriter, Nino Bravo, died in a traffic accident in Cuenca at the age of 28.