March 16

March 17, 2024 - Reading time: 11 minutes

Saint’s Day for Ciriaco, Hilario, Julián and Heriberto.

1521 - the famous Portuguese navigator, Fernao Magalhaes, known to the world as Magellan, reaches the Philippines on his voyage to discover a westerly route to the Spice Islands. He was killed by natives the following month, but one of his captains, Juan Sebastián Elcano, went on to complete the first circumnavigation of the world.

Virgen of Suffrage - Photo - www.forosdelavirgen.org

1740 - the image of the Virgen del Sufragio, the patron saint of Benidorm, is discovered on a local beach.
1782 - American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
1812 - Siege of Badajoz begins: British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during the Peninsular War.
1818 - In the Second Battle of Cancha Rayada, Spanish forces defeated Chileans under José de San Martín.
1895 - at the Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid) the opera La Dolores, by Tomás Bretón debuts with libretto by Josep Feliu i Codina.
1938 - begin three days of airstrikes on civilians by the rebels of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War causing more than a thousand dead.
1943 - begins the First Legislature of Spanish Cortes (1943-1946).
2010 - Near Paris, the terrorist band ETA kills (for the first time in its history) a gendarme, during a firefight by both sides.

2016 - The PP is to charge Barberá and all the party in Valencia’. It is the first time that a party has adopted this collective model. The former Mayor will testify voluntarily before the judge and is not thinking of resigning. The nine councillors under investigation in the ‘Taula’ case have denied resigning

Births

Portrait of Francisco Pizarro by Amable-Paul Coutan, 1835

1478 - Francisco Pizarro, explorer, military and conquistador, who led the Spanish conquest of Peru. Born in Trujillo, to a poor family, Pizarro chose to pursue fortune and adventure in the New World. He went to the Gulf of Urabá, and accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama, where they became the first Europeans to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. He served as mayor of the newly founded Panama City for a few years and undertook two failed expeditions to Peru. In 1529, Pizarro obtained permission from the Spanish crown to lead a campaign to conquer Peru and went on his third, and successful, expedition.

When local people who lived along the coast resisted this invasion, Pizarro moved inland and founded the first Spanish settlement in Peru, San Miguel de Piura. After a series of manoeuvres, Pizarro captured the Incan emperor Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca in November 1532. A ransom for the emperor's release was demanded and Atahualpa filled a room with gold, but Pizarro charged him with various crimes and executed him in July 1533. The same year, Pizarro entered the Inca capital of Cuzco and completed his conquest of Peru. In January 1535, he founded the city of Lima. Pizarro eventually fell victim to political power struggles and was assassinated in 1541

Unfinished Portrait of Montañés by Diego Velázquez, 1636

1568 - Juan Martínez Montañés, known as el Dios de la Madera (the God of Wood), was a Spanish sculptor, born at Alcalá la Real, in the province of Jaén. Montañés executed most of his sculpture in wood, which was gessoed, polychromed and gilded. Other works were the great altars at Santa Clara in Seville and at San Miguel in Jerez, the Immaculate Conception and the realistic figure of Christ Crucified in Cristo de la Clemencìa, commissioned in 1603, in the sacristy of Sevilla cathedral the figure of St John the Baptist, and the St Bruno (1620); a tomb for Don Pérez de Guzmán and his wife (1619); the highly realistic polychromed wood head and hands of St Ignatius of Loyola (1610) and of St Francis Xavier in the university church of Seville, where the costumed figures were used in celebrations. Montañés achieved great fame in his lifetime; he died in 1649, leaving a large family.

His works are more realistic than imaginative, but this, allied with an impeccable taste, produced remarkable results.(d. 1649)
1849 - Joaquín María Arnau Miramón, architect.
1906 - The internationally-renowned award-winning writer, Francisco Ayala, was born in Granada. the last representative of the Generation of '27. (d. 2009)
1907 - Luis de Carlos, businessman and president of the football club Real Madrid (d. 2004)
1907 - Jose Maria Otero de Navascues, physicist (d. 1983).
1923 - Fernando Santos, actor (d. 1993).
1928 - Ramón Barce, composer and philosopher (d. 2008).
1935 - Teresa Berganza, soprano and actress (d. 2022)

1937 - Constançe Capdeville, Portuguese pianist and composer, born in Barcelona (d. 1992)
1941 - Carlos Gimenez, cartoonist.
1942 - Maria del Carmen Iglesias Cano, historian.
1943 - Maruja Torres, writer.
1944 - Julio Cesar Iglesias, journalist.

1965 - The actress and TV presenter, Belén Rueda, was born in Madrid
1965 - Richard Daniel Roman, English-Spanish songwriter and producer
1970 - Rafa Pascual, volleyball player.
1977 - Mónica Cruz, actress and dancer.
1980 - Felipe Reyes, basketball player

1982 - Jesús Del Nero - road bicycle racer

Deaths

1279 - Jeanne of Dammartin, Queen consort of Castilla y León (b 1216)
1829 - Diego Muñoz-Torrero, priest and politician (b. 1761)
1930 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, general and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (b. 1870)
1979 - Carmen de Icaza, writer (b. 1899)
1994 - Francisco Bonilla Martí, an obstetrician and gynecologist (b. 1911)
2005 - José Vento Ruiz, painter (b 1925)
2006 - Jose Noriega, singer tune.
2010 - Jose Vidal-Beneyto, philosopher, sociologist and political scientist (b 1926.).
2011 - Josefina Aldecoa, writer (b 1926)
2012 - Estanislau Basora, footballer (The monster of Colombes, 22 caps for Spain, 301 matches for Barcelona (b. 1926)