April 23

April 24, 2024 - Reading time: 19 minutes

Saint’s Day for Jorge, Félix, Fortunato and Gerardo - of Aragón and Castilla y León

1229 - Fernando III of Castilla conquered Cáceres.
1521 - the revolt of the comuneros, the troops of Charles I defeated the commoners in the battle of Villalar.
1563 - the first stone of the Monasterio San Lorenzo de El Escorial is laid, founded by Felipe II to commemorate his victory at the Battle of San Quintín.

Camilo José Cela

1655 -The Siege of Santo Domingo begins during the Anglo-Spanish War, and fails seven days later.
1868 - Luis González Bravo is named president of Government.
1909 - A large earthquake hits Madrid
1925 - Edited he first edition of Don Quijote in Braille.

1925 - Having badly defeated Spain and driven her out of Spanish Morocco, the native Riffi, led by Abd-el-Krim, turn on the French in French Morocco
1929 - Barcelona reaches a million inhabitants.
1951 - Mexico begins in the First Congress of Academies of the Spanish Language, which ends on May 6 with the creation of the Association of Spanish Language Academies.
1976 - the Cervantes Prize in Spain (which is delivered at the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso of Alcala de Henares) is inaugurated.
1976 - First edition of the newspaper Avui Barcelona in Catalan.
1977 - Unions were legalized, prohibited by the Franco dictatorship.
1977 - Barcelona, 100,000 people demonstrate calling the Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia.
1983 - The program Box of Rhymes played the single by Vulpess called I like being a slut, which unleashed a national controversy.
1996 - The novelist and Nobel for Literatura Camilo José Cela is awarded the Premio Cervantes.
2000 - First broadcast of the reality show Big Brother.
2004 - The Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas awarded the Premio Cervantes 2003
2015 - Juan Goytisolo won the Cervantes Prize

Births
1594 - Serrallonga, Catalan bandit.
1837 - Juan Bautista Cabrera Ivars, poet, theologian and reformist (d. 1916).
1896 - Charlie Rivel, clown.
1915 - José Lahoz, cyclist (d. 2011).
1917 - Gerardo Antón, politician (d. 2011).
1919 - Epifanio Fernández (Epi), footballer(d. 1977).
1926 - Gerardo Rueda, abstract painter.
1926 - Amalia Avia, artist (d. 2011).
1927 - Manuel Rivera Hernández, artist (d. 1995).
1934 - Jaime de Jaraíz, painter.
1943 - María del Carmen Rosario Soledad Cervera y Fernández de la Guerra, Dowager Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva popularly known as Carmen "Tita" Cervera or Carmen "Tita" Thyssen, is a philanthropist, socialite, and art dealer and collector.
1943 - Iñaki Sáez, football player and trainer.
1944 - Juan de Loxa, writer, poet and journalist.
1946 - Andrés Junquera, footballer.
1948 - Álvaro Caruncho, painter (d. 2011).
1969 - Martín López-Zubero, swimmer.
1976 - Pasión Vega, popular singer

1976 - Enric Duran Giralt also known as Robin Banks or the Robin Hood of the Banks is a Catalan anticapitalist activist and a founding member of the Catalan Integral Cooperative (CIC - Cooperativa Integral Catalana) and Faircoop. On September 17, 2008, he publicly announced that he had 'robbed' dozens of Spanish banks of nearly half a million euros as part of a political action to denounce what he termed the predatory capitalist system.

From 2006 to 2008, Duran took out 68 commercial and personal loans from a total of 39 banks with no guarantees or property as collateral. He had no intention of repaying the debts, and used the money to finance various anti-capitalist movements. In 2008, Duran released both an online article entitled "I have "robbed" 492,000 euros from those who rob us the most, in order to denounce them and build alternatives for society" (translated), and an online video,each explaining what he had done and that he had left the country to view the reaction and consider his next move.

This was also published in the free magazine Crisis, in Catalan, of which 200,000 copies were printed and distributed by volunteers throughout Catalonia. A second newspaper, We can! Live Without Capitalism was distributed on March 17, 2009, and a third, We want! on September 17, 2009

Duran stated that he sought to create a debate about the financial system and the current capitalist system, proliferate protest actions against it and fund the social movements that seek to create alternatives. Duran called what he did "an individual disobedience action", and stated that he was prepared to go to prison for his actions.

In 2009 Duran returned to Spain, and was arrested by Spanish police on March 17, 2009, at the University of Barcelona, as charges had been brought against him by six of the thirty-nine banks concerned. He spent two months in prison before being freed on a bail of 50,000 euros

For the first anniversary of the announcement of his "robbery", an action day was planned in over 100 cities on September 17, 2009, in which people met, both in Spain and abroad, to share alternatives to capitalism

In November 2011, a presentation was made to a civil judge requesting the annulment of his contract with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. On November 25, 2011, the state prosecutor requested that the judiciary pass down an 8-year prison sentence for Duran, for the crimes of presenting false documents (in securing his loans) and continued insolvency. The defence attorney based his case on the fact that imprisonment for unpaid debts has been abolished in Spain. Duran himself responded by maintaining that "I do not think that the judiciary is entitled to judge" (translated from Catalan). He questioned the state's lack of response to the financial speculators who inflicted great suffering on much of the European population, and to the September 2011 changes to the Spanish constitution which made the repayment of debts the absolute priority of the country. He also claimed that his actions were an act of social justice - an attempt to redress in some small way the injustices perpetrated by those in power

Duran cited the pardon granted to the chief executive of the Banco Santander, Alfredo Sáenz Abad, in November 2011, as an example of the bias of the judiciary towards the powerful and well-connected, and argued that "when the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of our duties" (translated from Catalan). He called on his supporters not to waste time campaigning for his acquittal or release, but rather to follow his acts of civil disobedience towards the banks with their own. In March 2012 he released a video explaining his legal situation and continued to encourage others to civil disobedience

Deaths
1728 - Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, organist and composer.
1865 - Diego de Argumosa, doctor(b. 1792).
1868 - Ramón María Narváez y Campos, solider and politician.
1918 - Nicholas Achúcarro, physician and neuroscientist (b 1880.).
1931 - Isabella, Princess of Asturias, "La Chata" daughter of the Spanish Queen Elizabeth II.
1936 - Eugenio Noel, pseudonym of Eugenio Muñoz Diaz, writer.
1967 - Edgar Neville, writer, filmmaker and painter (b. 1899).
1976 - Jose Antonio Elola-Olaso, politician (b. 1909).
1978 - Juan de Contreras and Lopez de Ayala, nobleman, politician and writer (b 1893).
1981 - The Catalan writer and journalist, Josep Pla.
2014 - Benjamín Brea, Spanish-Venezuelan saxophonist, clarinet player, and conductor (Los Cañoneros) (b. 1946)