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Spanish History – 1904 to 1978

1904

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Salvador Dali, surrealist painter, was born in Figueres.

1906
A general act was issued by the international conference of Algeciras, Spain. Thirteen powers participated in the deliberations on the Moroccan question, and despite strong German objections, agreed to entrust to France and Spain the management of the Moroccan police. The powers also made arrangements regarding Morocco’s state bank, system of taxation, customs administration, and public works.
In Madrid, Spain, an anarchist bomb exploded under the wedding carriage King Alfonso and Queen Ena. 20 people were killed.

1912
Spanish steamer “Principe de Asturias” sank NE of Spain and 500 died.
Jose Canalejas Y Mendez (b.1854), premier of Spain, was assassinated by anarchist Manuel Pardinas.

1919
Madrid opened a subway system.

1921
Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato was assassinated while leaving Parliament in Madrid.

1925
France and Spain agreed to join forces against Abd el Krim in Morocco.

1926
Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join.
The United States declared non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
The Marques de la Vega Inclan, the Royal Commissioner for Tourism under Alfonso III, began to promote hotels in remote places to boost local economies. The “Paradores” were to be built by the government. The first one opened in 1928 in the mountains of Gredos.

1930
Madrid was paralyzed by general strikes and riots.

1931
Spanish voters rejected the monarchy.
Spain becomes a Republic.

1932
The town of Bunol banned bullfighting. An annual Tomatina festival later took its place where participants pelt each other with tomatoes.

1933
An uprising of Guardia Civil in Spain left 25 dead.
Montserrat Caballe, soprano, was born in Barcelona, Spain.

1933
Spanish Basques voted for autonomy.

1936-39
Francisco Franco forces victorious in Spanish Civil War.
Dictatorship established.
350,000 people in Spain lose their lives in a war between right wing nationalists and Spanish republicans.

1938
Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, was born.

1941
Placido Domingo, opera tenor (Pinkerton-Mme Butterfly), was born in Madrid, Spain.

1944
In Leon Province, Spain, train wrecks in the Torro Tunnel killed more than 500 people.

1946
Jose Carreras, opera tenor (I Lombardi, Werther, Three Tenors), was born in Barcelona, Spain.

1946-50
Franco regime ostracised by United Nations; many countries cut off diplomatic relations.

1953
US and Spain signed a defense treaty with 4 US bases to be set in Spain .

1954
Gen. Franco closed the Spanish consulate on Gibraltar in a fit of rage over a visit by Queen Elizabeth II.

1955
Spain admitted to UN.

1956
Holland and Spain withdrew from Olympics, to protest Soviets in Hungary.

1957
A flood devastated the Ciutat Vella, the historic district of Valencia. To avoid another such deluge the government diverted the Turia River and turned the riverbed into a public green zone.
1959
ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna – meaning Basque Fatherland and Freedom) established.

1960
Antonio Banderas, actor, was born in Malaga, Spain.
Fire in a cinema killed 152 children in Amude, Spain.

1961
Eta’s attempts to derail a train transporting politicians.
Spain accepted equal rights for men and women.

1962
Princess Sophia of Greece wed Don Juan Carlos of Spain.

1965
Generalissimo Francisco Franco met with Jewish representatives to discuss legitimizing Jewish communities in Spain.

1966
The 1st Jewish child was born in Spain since the 1492 expulsion.
A US Air Force B-52 carrying four unarmed hydrogen bombs crashed on the Spanish coast. Three of the bombs were quickly recovered, but the fourth wasn’t found until April. Two US Air Force jets collided in the skies over Spanish coastal village of Palomares. The mid-air crash of the B-52 bomber and a KC-135 refueling plane killed 8 crew members.

1968
West African colony of Spanish Guinea is granted independence as Equatorial Guinea.
Greece, Portugal and Spain’s embassies were bombed in the Hague.
Spain closed the border to Gibraltar, except to Spaniards.
Eta shot and killed Civil Guard Jose Pardines Arcay at a checkpoint. This marked ETA’s 1st killing.

1969
Spain returned the Ifni province to Morocco.
Gregorio Ordonez, deputy mayor of San Sebastian, Spain, was assassinated by an ETA terrorist.
Dictator Francisco Franco appointed Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon as official successor to the position of Head of State.
A block of flats near Segovia, Spain, collapsed killing 58 people. Developer Jesus Gil y Gil was jailed for 5 years for criminal negligence, but was pardoned after 18 months.

1970
A British aircraft crashed at Barcelona and 112 were killed.

1973
Basque nationalists assassinate Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco with a bomb in Madrid.

1974
In its 1st major attack ETA killed 12 people with a bomb at a Madrid cafe.

1975
Franco dies, Juan Carlos de Borbon is declared king.
Spain becomes a constitutional monarchy.

1976
Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

1977
Democratic elections held, the first in 4 decades.

1978
Spain’s new constitution establishes a parliamentary monarchy. Many powers centralized under Franco were devolved to the 17 autonomous regions.
Eta’s political wing, Herri Batasuna, is founded.
216 people were killed at a camping site when a tanker truck overfilled with propylene gas exploded on a coastal highway south of Tarragona.

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