On a day like today, but in 1617, 400 years ago, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was born in Seville (southern Spain), a Baroque painter, a faithful follower of his time, who reflected in his work the spirituality and customs of the time.
Other ephemeris:
1553.- Pedro de Valdivia founds in Chile the forts of Arauco, Purén, Tucapel and the city of Los Confines or Angol.
1784.- Carlos III establishes the galley sentence in Spain to strengthen the fight against pirates.
1812.- Battle of Cerrito, later called Victoria, during the siege of Montevideo, in which the Uruguayan patriots defeated the Spanish troops.
1853.- In “El Semanario”, from Asunción, the lyrics of the Paraguayan national anthem are published for the first time.
1857.- The city of Ottawa becomes the capital of Canada.
1869.- Henri Matisse, French painter, was born.
1880.- George C. Marshall, American soldier, Nobel Peace Prize 1953, is born.
1908.- Simon Wiesenthal, famous Austrian “Nazi hunter” of Jewish origin, is born.
1909.- The custom of eating twelve grapes to the sound of the twelve strokes of midnight begins in Spain.
1910.- Paul Bowles, American writer and composer, is born.
1914.- José Manuel Lara, Spanish editor, is born.
1929.- The Indian National Congress, inspired by Gandhi, declares itself in favor of the complete independence of India.
1936.- Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer, dies.
1937.- Anthony Hopkins, British actor, is born.
1943.- Ben Kingsley, British actor, is born.
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– Concha Márquez Piquer, Spanish singer, is born.
1948.- The Israelis expel the Egyptian forces from the Negev area.
– Daniel Díaz Torres, Cuban film director, and Donna Summer, American singer, are born.
1968.- Trygve Lie, Norwegian diplomat, first Secretary General of the UN, dies.
1979.- Queen Elizabeth II of England names film director Alfred Hitchcock a Knight of the Order of the British Empire.
1980.- Herbert Marshall McLuhan, Canadian essayist, dies.
1991.- The Salvadoran government and the guerrillas agree to peace with the mediation of the UN, after 12 years of civil war and 75,000 deaths.
1993.- The former president of Georgia Zviad Gamsajurdia, fled his country to Chechnya, commits suicide in a mountainous area of Georgia.
1999.- Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns and announces elections. He is succeeded by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who grants Yeltsin and his family immunity from criminal prosecution for life.
– Panama assumes the sovereignty of the Canal, after being administered by the US since its inauguration in 1914.
2002.- The explosion of a central rocket sales point causes 28 deaths and 27 disappearances in the port town of Veracruz (Mexico).
– Venezuela ends the year completing thirty days of general strike and 28 days of work stoppage at the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, SA
– Eruption of the Stromboli volcano (Italy).
2004.- The United Nations Mission for the verification of the peace agreements in Guatemala (MINUGUA) concludes, after ten years in that country.
– Ricardo Ovidio Palmera “Simón Trinidad”, one of the guerrilla leaders of the Colombian FARC implicated in drug trafficking activities, is extradited to the US.
– Raúl Matas, “El Maestro”, Chilean broadcaster and presenter, dies.
2013.- The Government of Burma announces the amnesty of all political prisoners.
2014.- The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, signs the application for adhesion to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
2015.- A fire devours a large part of a skyscraper in Dubai.
– Natalie Cole, American singer, daughter of Nat King Cole, dies.
2016.- Ban Ki-moon ends his term as Secretary General of the United Nations after a decade.
– The Venezuelan opponent Manuel Rosales, imprisoned for more than a year, is released.