January 17

January 18, 2024 - Reading time: 18 minutes

Saint’s Day for Antonio Abad, Leonila and Diodoro.

1287 - Alfonso III of Aragón invades Menorca and frees the island from centuries of Moorish occupation.

Alfonso III of Aragón - www.articulos.altoaragon.org

1595 - Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

1601 - France gains Bresse, Bugey, Valromey and Gex in treaty with Spain
1694 - The first route in pilgrimage of the image of the Virgen de la Fuensanta from her sanctuary to the city of Murcia.
1784 - For the first time in Madrid set the date stamps for letters.
1817 - The Argentinean general, José de San Martín, sets off for his crossing over the Andes at the head of 4,000 men in the conquest of Chile from its Spanish rulers.
1937 - Manuel Azaña Valencia moved to the seat of the presidency of the Republic.
1954 - Opening of the winter season and Mountain Valgrande-Pajares in the Puerto de Pajares (Asturias), one of the first ski resorts in Spain.
1966 - Two US planes collide above the Spanish coast, four bombs fell, three near Palomares and another close to Almeria.None of the 1.5 megaton bombs exploded although two of them leaked radioactive plutonium over the area. The other two were recovered intact from the sea, one of them a month later by a local fisherman.

Photos went round the world in 1966 of the then Spanish Minister for Tourism, Manuel Fraga, and the United States ambassador to Spain, Angier Biddle Duke, taking a dip off the coast of Palomares in Almería.

1980 - A Spanish destroyer is shot at by a Moroccan plane while sailing in waters off Western Sahara.
1982 - The gynecologist Julio Iglesias Puga, father of Julio Iglesias, is released after being kidnapped by the terrorist group ETA on 29 December the previous year.
1986 - Delegations of the governments of Israel and Spain meet in the Hague and agree to establish diplomatic relations.
1996 - The prison officer, José Antonio Ortega Lara, is kidnapped by ETA terrorists as he arrived home from his job in the prison in Logroño. He spent 532 days in captivity.
1997 - Tens of thousands of people appear throughout Spain to demand the release of Cosme Delclaux and Ortega Lara, kidnapped by the terrorist band ETA.
2001 - The so-called "Barcelona commando" of ETA tries to kill the broadcaster Luis del Olmo with a car bomb.

2017 - ‘Bárcenas admitted a ‘B account’ but failed to reveal the origin of his fortune’ – he failed to implicate any top dogs in the PP and claimed Rajoy had ordered him to cut contacts with Correa.

Births

Calderón de la Barca https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/

1600 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca,(y Barredo González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño) was a dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque writers of the Spanish Golden Age, especially for his plays

Calderón de la Barca was born in Madrid, where he spent most of his life. He was born on a boat in the Manzanares River, thus the name 'de la Barca' added to his father's last name. During his life, he served as a soldier and he was a Roman Catholic priest. Born when the Spanish Golden Age Theatre was being defined by Lope de Vega, he developed it further. his work being regarded as the culmination of the Spanish Baroque theatre. As such, he is regarded as one of Spain's foremost dramatists and one of the finest playwrights of world literature (d. 1681)
1793 - Antonio José Martínez, Spanish-American priest, rancher and politician (d. 1867)

1803 - Juan Antonio de Urbiztondo y Eguía In 1814 he became a knight's page in the Spanish Army, fought against the government of Trienio Liberal, and then became the inspector of the Voluntarios Realistas. Madrid historians mentioned Urbiztondo's participation to a dispute at the Royal Palace of Madrid, which involved the Duke of Cádiz, the Duke of Valencia and Joaquín Osorio y Silva-Bazán (who was killed by Urbiztondo). In 1833 he was imprisoned at Mérida due to the accusation that he is supposed-to-be connection to Carlism, but he managed to escape to Portugal (d.26-Apr-1857)
1837 - Jose Antonio Fernandez de Villalta y Uribe, politician and lawyer (d. 1921).

1872 - Valentí Marín i Llovet was a Catalan notary, chess writer and player. He was in the Spanish team in the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad of Paris, in 1st Chess Olympiad of London, in the 2nd Chess Olympiad of The Hague, in the 3rd Chess Olympiad of Hamburg and in the 4th Chess Olympiad in Prague; and he was president of the Federación Española de Ajedrez (Chess Spanish Federation, FEDA). (d.07-Dec-1936)

1872 - Lluís Masriera i Rosés was born in Barcelona to the famous painter Josep Masriera, who was also a well-known silversmith and, along with his brother Francesc Masriera, he ran the family jewelry business started by his father, José Masriera. Lluís Masriera started in his family’s workshop and created pieces with the same aesthetic and precision that the workshop had always been known for; one which highlighted technical perfection but little creativity.

Cortesia de Balcli's - http://www.balclis.com

1875 - Pedro Mata Domínguez. novelist, playwright and poet. He was the grandson of Pedro Mata Fontanet. His first novel Ganarás el pan… received the prize of La Ilustración Española (1902), while his most popular novel was Corazones sin rumbo (1916), a work awarded the palm of the Círculo de Bellas Artes. (d. 27-Dec-1946)

1878 - Joaquín Benjumea, politician (d. 1963).

1888 - Eugeni Xammar i Puigventós was an international journalist, career diplomat, and polyglot translator (he spoke seven languages and wrote five) who lived most of his life outside of Catalonia as a correspondent in Europe during the stormy, unstable years of the First and Second World Wars. He worked as a correspondent in Buenos Aires, Paris, Madrid, London, Berlin, Washington DC, and Geneva, and traveled to Italy, Russia, and Austria, among others. As a correspondent, he collaborated principally with Catalan media outlets, writing in Catalan, like La Publicitat, La Veu de Catalunya, or Mirador magazine, which he complemented with activities in Spanish in South American publications and the Madrid-based newspaper Ahora. His mastery of languages allowed him to work as a translator for international organizations like the UN, WHO, World Bank, and FAO. His longest assignment was in Berlin, between 1922 and 1936, during the Weimar Republic, when Xammar published in 1923 an alleged interview of Hitler, the first known such of the future Führer, in which he explains how he was incubating what he called "the serpent's egg". (d. 05-Dec-1973)
1919 - Antonio Mingote, cartoonist (d. 2012).
1919 - Antonio Palenzuela, Bishop of the diocese of Segovia (d. 2003).
1932 - Aniceto Utset, cyclist (d. 1998).

1940 - Rosa María Posada Chapado, was a lawyer and politician. She served as President of the Assembly of Madrid (1987-1991) as well as Vice President. (d.29-Oct-2014)
1942 - Forges (Antonio Fraguas de Pablo), cartoonist. His artistic name is based on the translation to Catalan of the word fraguas.(d. 22-Feb-2018)
1943 - Amada Elsa López Rodríguez is an Equatoguinean-Spanish writer specializing in poetry.
1944 - Concha Cuetos, actress.
1946 - Luis Figuerola-Ferretti, journalist.

1947 - Margarita Ammann Martínez, better known as Gretel Ammann was a philosopher, essayist, activist, radical feminist, and lesbian separatist. She was a pioneer of feminism in Barcelona.(d. 02-May-2000)
1950 - Cristina Galbó, actress and teacher of dance.

By CGE - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

1954 - Marina Rossell i Figueras, singer in Catalan and Spanish. She's one of the most important singers in the modern Catalan language. She has sung traditional and revolutionary classical Catalan songs, habaneras and her own compositions. Rossell has collaborated with such diverse artists as: Georges Moustaki, Montserrat Caballé, Luis Eduardo Aute, Carlos Cano, Pedro Guerra or the flamenco guitarist Tomatito. She has made numerous tours by Europe, Latin America, northern Africa.
1955 - Esteban Vigo Benítez retired football midfielder and manager. He played the vast majority of his professional career with CD Málaga and Barcelona, amassing La Liga totals of 240 games and 24 goals over 13 seasons. Vigo became a manager in 1995, going on to coach several clubs.
1961 - Ángel Petisme, singer and poet.
1962 - Lorenzo Rico, handball player.
1965 - Manuel Sánchez Delgado, footballer.
1971 - Javier Gutiérrez Álvarez, actor.He has appeared in more than fifty films since 1997
1981 - Daniel Diges, singer, pianist, composer and actor. Although born in Madrid proper, he has spent all his youth in the neighbouring city of Alcalá de Henares.
1983 - Álvaro Arbeloa, footballer, born in Salamanca

Deaths
1689 - Pedro Atanasio Bocanegra, painter (b. 1638).
1824 - Carlos Martínez de Irujo y Tacón, diplomat and politician (b. 1763).
1826 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish-French composer (b. 1806)
1907 - Antonio Montes Vico, bullfighter (b. 1876).
1926 - Adolfo Bonilla, Philosopher (b. 1875).
1973 - Juan Adsuara, sculptor (b. 1893).
2002 - Camilo José Cela, writer and winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature, died at the age of 85.
2012 - Carlos Pujol, writer and translator (b. 1936).
2012 - Carlos Guirao, guitarist, keyboard player, and composer (Neuronium) (b. 1954)
2013 - Fernando Vicente Álvarez Areces, 75, President of Asturias (1999-2011), Senator (since 2011) and Mayor of Gijón (1987-1999) Guillén, actor (b. 1932).

2013 - Fernando Guillén, actor (b. 1932)

2019 - Vicente Álvarez Areces, President of Asturias (1999-2011), Senator (since 2011) and Mayor of Gijón (1987-1999) (b.1944)

2019 - Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias, President of the European Court of Justice (1994–2003) (b.1947)