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| 1609 |
1609
Events
- April 4 – King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain
- April 9 – Spain recognizes Dutch independence
- May 23 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia.
- July 6 - Bohemia is granted freedom of religion (Letter of Majesty)
- August 25 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers. He is the first to perform observational astronomy as he observes the moons of Jupiter
- August 28 - Henry Hudson is the first European to see Delaware Bay.
- September 2 - Henry Hudson enters New York Bay aboard the Halve Maen.
- September 11 – Valencia expulses all the Moriscos
- September 12 - Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River.
- October 12 - "Three Blind Mice" published by London teenage songwriter Thomas Ravenscroft.
- Samuel de Champlain claims the Lake Champlain area of Vermont for France.
- The first published rounds in English are published by Thomas Ravenscroft.
- Claudio Monteverdi publishes his first opera, Orfeo.
- The Douay Rheims bible is published in England.
- Bermuda is first settled, by English shipwreck victims en route to Virginia.
- The Netherlands and Spain agree to the Twelve Years' Truce in the Eighty Years' War
- Dutch East India Company imports tea to Europe
- Japanese clan of Shimazu conquers Okinawa
- Cornelius Drebbel invents thermostat
- Henry Hudson explores Delaware Bay and Hudson River
- Warsaw becomes the capital of Poland
Science
- Johannes Kepler publishes his first two laws of planetary motion in Astronomia Nova
- Hugo Grotius - Mare liberum
Births
- February 10 - John Suckling, English poet (died 1642)
- February 18 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian and statesman (died 1674)
- March 22 - John II Casimir of Poland (died 1672)
- March 28 - King Frederick III of Denmark (died 1670)
- March 29 - Sarah Boyle, English noblewoman (died 1633)
- June 29 - Pierre Paul Riquet, French engineer and canal builder (died 1680)
- August 19 - Jean Rotrou, French poet and tragedian
- November 25 - Henrietta Maria of France, queen of Charles I of England (died 1669)
- November 26 - Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College (died 1659)
- December 24 - Philip Warwick, English writer and politician (died 1683)
- Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède, French novelist and dramatist (died 1663)
- John Clarke, English physician (died 1676)
- Samuel Cooper, English miniature painter (died 1672)
- Nathaniel Eaton, first schoolmaster of Harvard College (died 1674)
- Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (died 1641)
- Paul Fleming, German poet (died 1640)
- Jan Fyt, Belgian animal painter (died 1661)
- Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England (died 1676)
- Alberich Mazak, Austrian composer (died 1661)
- Hannibal Sehested, Danish statesman (died 1666)
- John Underhill, English soldier and colonist (died 1672)
- Gerrard Winstanley, English Protestant religious reformer (died 1676)
- Lucas d'Achéry, learned French Benedictine (died 1685)
See also :Category:1609 births.
Deaths
- January 21 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French protestant scholar (born 1540)
- February 17 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1549)
- March 9 - William Warner, English poet
- March 25 - Olaus Martini, Swedish Archbishop of Uppsala (b. 1557)
- April 4 - Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist (born 1526)
- May 15 - Giovanni Croce, Italian composer (born 1557)
- July 15 - Annibale Carracci, Italian painter (born 1560)
- August 22 - Maharal of Prague, Jewish mystic and philosopher (born 1525)
- October 1 - Giammateo Asola, Italian composer
- December 4 - Alexander Hume, Scottish poet (born 1560)
- Al-Jilani, Persian physician
- Mateo Alemán, Spanish novelist and man of letters (born 1547)
- Yamada Arinobu, Japanese nobleman (born 1544)
- Jacobus Arminius, Dutch Reformed theologian (born 1560)
- James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran
- Barnabe Barnes, English poet (born 1568)
- Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, Italian Baroque composer (born 1582)
- Mark Kerr, 1st Earl of Lothian, Scottish statesman (born 1553)
- Federigo Zuccaro, Italian painter (born 1543)
See also :Category:1609 deaths.
Category:1609
ko:1609년
April 4
April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). There are 271 days remaining.
Events
- 1581 - Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the world and is knighted by Elizabeth I.
- 1721 - Sir Robert Walpole enters office as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I.
- 1812 - U.S. President James Madison enacted a ninety-day embargo on trade with the United Kingdom.
- 1814 - Napoleon abdicates for the first time.
- 1818 - The U.S. Congress adopts the flag of the United States as having 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 stars) with additional stars to be added whenever a new state is added to the Union.
- 1841 - President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and at one month, the elected president with the shortest term served.
- 1850 - Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city.
- 1859 - Bryant's Minstrels debut "Dixie" in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.
- 1865 - American Civil War: A day after Union forces captured Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
- 1866 - Alexander II of Russia narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in the city of Kiev. A design for a city gate to commemorate his escape was the inspiration for Mussorgsky's The Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition.
- 1887 - Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the United States.
- 1905 - In India, an earthquake near Kangra kills 370,000.
- 1918 - World War I: Second Battle of the Somme ends.
- 1939 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
- 1945 - World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf death camp in Germany.
- 1945 - World War II: Soviet Army liberates Hungary.
- 1949 - Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
- 1964 - The Beatles occupy all of the top five positions on the Billboard singles chart in the United States.
- 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
- 1968 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.
- 1969 - Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
- 1969 - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is cancelled after the brothers failed to submit an episode before its broadcast date.
- 1973 - The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.
- 1974 - Hank Aaron, of the Atlanta Braves, ties Babe Ruth's home run record of 714 in the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds. Jack Billingham was the Reds pitcher who gave up the record tying home run. Ralph Garr was on second base at the time of the home run.
- 1975 - Vietnam War: Operation Baby Lift - A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans. 172 people are killed.
- 1976 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest.
- 1979 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.
- 1981 - In Dublin, Ireland, Bucks Fizz win the twenty-sixth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Making Your Mind Up".
- 1983 - Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.
- 1984 - President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.
- 1988 - Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
- 1991 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania.
- 1994 - Netscape Communications Corporation is founded (under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation") by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark.
- 2003 - Sammy Sosa becomes the 18th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- 2004 - Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army stage an uprising in several towns and cities in Iraq after the Coalition's closure of Sadr's al-Hawza newspaper. Among the dozen or so coalition casualties in this was Casey Sheehan.
Births
- 186 - Caracalla, Roman emperor (d. 217)
- 1492 - Ambrosius Blarer, German reformer (d. 1564)
- 1593 - Edward Nicholas, English statesman (d. 1669)
- 1646 - Antoine Galland, French archaeologist (d. 1715)
- 1648 - Grinling Gibbons Dutch-born woodcarver (d. 1721)
- 1688 - Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer (d. 1768)
- 1718 - Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman and Hebrew scholar (d. 1783)
- 1785 - Bettina von Arnim, German writer (d. 1859)
- 1802 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (d. 1887)
- 1819 - Queen Maria II of Portugal (d. 1853)
- 1846 - Comte de Lautréamont, French writer (d. 1870)
- 1875 - Pierre Monteux, French conductor (d. 1964)
- 1876 - Maurice de Vlaminck, French painter (d. 1958)
- 1884 - Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander (d. 1943)
- 1888 - Tris Speaker, baseball player (d. 1958)
- 1895 - Arthur Murray, American dance teacher (d. 1991)
- 1898 - Agnes Ayres, American actress (d. 1940)
- 1902 - Louise Leveque de Vilmorin, French actress (d. 1969)
- 1906 - Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
- 1906 - John Cameron Swayze, American journalist and television host (d. 1995)
- 1911 - Max Dupain, Australian photographer (d. 1992)
- 1913 - Frances Langford, American actress (d. 2005)
- 1914 - Marguerite Duras, French writer (d. 1996)
- 1915 - Muddy Waters, American musician (d. 1983)
- 1920 - Eric Rohmer, French film director
- 1922 - Elmer Bernstein, American composer (d. 2004)
- 1924 - Gil Hodges, baseball player (d. 1972)
- 1928 - Maya Angelou, American writer
- 1931 - Bobby Ray Inman, American admiral and intelligence director
- 1932 - Anthony Perkins, American actor (d. 1992)
- 1932 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian film director (d. 1986)
- 1932 - Richard Lugar, American politician
- 1934 - Clive Davis, American record producer
- 1938 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, American university president and baseball commissioner
- 1939 - Hugh Masekela, South African musician
- 1940 - Sharon Sheeley, American songwriter
- 1942 - Kitty Kelley, American writer
- 1944 - Craig T. Nelson, American actor
- 1945 - Daniel Cohn-Bendit, French political activist
- 1946 - Dave Hill, English guitarist (Slade)
- 1947 - Luke Halpin, American actor
- 1947 - Wiranto, Indonesian general
- 1948 - Dan Simmons, American writer
- 1948 - Abdullah Öcalan, Kurdish leader
- 1950 - Christine Lahti, American actress
- 1951 - Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia
- 1952 - Rosemarie Ackermann, German athlete
- 1956 - David E. Kelley, American writer and television producer
- 1957 - Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish film director
- 1957 - Nobuyoshi Kuwano, Japanese television performer and musician (Rats & Star)
- 1958 - Mary-Margaret Humes, American actress
- 1960 - Jane Eaglin, English soprano
- 1960 - Hugo Weaving, Australian actor
- 1963 - Jack Del Rio, American football player and coach
- 1963 - Graham Norton, Irish talk show host
- 1965 - Robert Downey Jr., American actor
- 1968 - Jennifer Lynch, American director
- 1970 - Barry Pepper, Canadian actor
- 1973 - David Blaine, American illusionist
- 1974 - Dave Mirra, American athlete
- 1975 - Scott Rolen, baseball player
- 1975 - Delphine Arnault, billionaire French businesswoman LVMH
- 1979 - Heath Ledger, Australian actor
- 1979 - Natasha Lyonne, American actress
- 1980 - Björn Wirdheim, Swedish race car driver
- 1985 - Casey Carmody, American actor
- 1991 - Jamie Lynn Spears, American television show host
- 1991 - Justin van Wijk, Dutch-Canadian football player
Deaths
- 397 - St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
- 896 - Pope Formosus (b. 816)
- 1284 - King Alfonso X of Castile (b. 1221)
- 1292 - Pope Nicholas IV (b. 1227)
- 1305 - Jeanne of Navarre, queen of Philip IV of France
- 1536 - Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (b. 1460)
- 1588 - King Frederick II of Denmark (b. 1534
- 1609 - Charles de L'Ecluse, Flemish botanist (b. 1526)
- 1617 - John Napier, Scottish mathematician (b. 1550)
- 1643 - Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (b. 1583)
- 1661 - Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, Scottish soldier
- 1701 - Joseph Haines, entertainer and author
- 1743 - Daniel Neal, English historian (b. 1678)
- 1761 - Theodore Gardelle, Swiss painter and enameler (b. 1722)
- 1766 - John Taylor, English classical scholar (b. 1704)
- 1774 - Oliver Goldsmith, English writer (b. 1728)
- 1792 - James Sykes, American politician (b. 1725)
- 1807 - Joseph Jérôme Lefrançais de Lalande, French astronomer (b. 1732)
- 1817 - André Masséna, French marshal (b. 1758)
- 1841 - William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States (b. 1773)
- 1842 - Jean Moufot, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1784)
- 1846 - Solomon Sibley, Senator from Michigan Territory (b. 1769)
- 1861 - John McLean, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1785)
- 1870 - Heinrich Gustav Magnus, German chemist and physicist (b. 1802)
- 1874 - Charles Ernest Beulé, French archaelogist and politician (b. 1826)
- 1879 - Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, German physicist (b. 1803)
- 1884 - Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian artist and diarist (b. 1860)
- 1919 - Sir William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832)
- 1923 - John Venn, British mathematician (b. 1834)
- 1932 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- 1951 - Al Christie, Canadian film director and producer (b. 1881)
- 1951 - George Albert Smith, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1870)
- 1953 - King Carol II of Romania (b. 1893)
- 1967 - Héctor Scarone, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1898)
- 1968 - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1929)
- 1972 - Adam Clayton Powell Jr., American politician (b. 1908)
- 1972 - Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (b. 1902)
- 1979 - Ali Bhutto, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1928)
- 1979 - Edgar Buchanan, American actor (b. 1903)
- 1983 - Gloria Swanson, American actress (b. 1897)
- 1984 - Oleg Antonov, Russian airplane engineer (b. 1906)
- 1987 - C.L. Moore, American writer (b. 1911)
- 1991 - Max Frisch, Swiss writer (b. 1911)
- 1991 - H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (plane crash) (b. 1938)
- 1991 - Forrest Towns, American hurdler (b. 1914)
- 1995 - Priscilla Lane, American singer, actress
- 1996 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (b. 1918)
- 1996 - Larry LaPrise, American songwriter (b. 1913)
- 1999 - Early Wynn, baseball player (b. 1920)
- 2001 - Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, American custom car designer (b. 1932)
- 2002 - Harry L. O'Connor, Czech-born film stuntman
- 2003 - Resortes, Mexican comedian (b. 1916)
Holidays and observances
- Lesotho - Heroes' Day
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4 BBC: On This Day]
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April 3 - April 5 - March 4 - May 4 -- listing of all days
ko:4월 4일
ms:4 April
ja:4月4日
simple:April 4
th:4 เมษายน
April 9
April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). There are 266 days remaining.
Events
- 193 - Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
- 1241 - Battle of Liegnitz: Mongol forces defeats the Polish and German armies.
- 1667: First ever public art exhibition opens in Paris
- 1682 - Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield - Union General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign is thwarted by Confederate General Richard Taylor's forces at Mansfield, Louisiana.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
- 1867 - Alaska purchase: By a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.
- 1909 - The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
- 1913 - The Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field opens.
- 1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
- 1917 - World War I: Battle of Arras - The battle begins with Canadian forces executing a massive assault on the Vimy Ridge.
- 1939 - Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after having been refused the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.
- 1940 - World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
- 1942 - Second World War: Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March - United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
- 1945 - The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk.
- 1947 - The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
- 1947 - The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride of 16 black and white men traveling through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws begins. The riders, sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, are seeking to force southern states to enforce the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
- 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La violencia).
- 1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin.
- 1949 - The Gurkha Contingent of the Singapore Police Force is formed.
- 1953 - Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax
- 1959 - Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
- 1967 - The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) takes its maiden flight.
- 1969 - The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1986 - The government of France rules against the privatization of French automaker Renault.
- 1987 - Dikye Baggett becomes the first person to undergo corrective surgery for Parkinson's disease.
- 1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - Manuel Noriega is convicted of eight crimes.
- 1992 - John Major wins the UK general election.
- 1998 - The National Prisoner of War Museum is dedicated in Andersonville, Georgia, on the site of an American Civil War POW camp.
- 1999 - Ismail Omar Guelleh is elected president of Djibouti.
- 1999 - Nigerian President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara is assassinated.
- 2002 - The funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom is held at Westminster Abbey.
- 2003 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: The Ba'ath regime headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq is deposed.
- 2004 - 2004 KBR Convoy Attacked on BIAP highway: Nine KBR civilians were killed. KBR convoy commander Thomas Hamill captured. Two US Army soldiers killed. The fuel convoy from LSA Anaconda was delivering fuel to Baghdad Airport when insurgents attacked the convoy with small arms fire and RPG's. KBR is a subsidiary of Halliburton.
- 2005 - HRH Charles, Prince of Wales weds Camilla Parker Bowles
Births
- 1336 - Tamerlane, Turkish conqueror (d. 1405)
- 1498 - John, Cardinal of Lorraine, French churchman (d. 1550)
- 1597 - John Davenport, Connecticut pioneer (d. 1670)
- 1648 - Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 1st Viscount Galway, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1720)
- 1649 - James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II of England (d. 1685)
- 1680 - Philippe Néricault Destouches, French dramatist (d. 1754)
- 1686 - James Craggs the Younger, English politician (d. 1721)
- 1691 - Johann Matthias Gesner, German classical scholar (d. 1761)
- 1757 - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (d. 1833)
- 1770 - Thomas Johann Seebeck, German physicist (d. 1831)
- 1773 - Étienne Aignan, French writer (d. 1824)
- 1794 - Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute (d. 1881)
- 1806 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel, English engineer (d. 1859)
- 1821 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet (d. 1867)
- 1830 - Eadweard Muybridge, English-born photographer and motion picture pioneer (d. 1904)
- 1835 - King Léopold II of Belgium (d. 1909)
- 1865 - Erich Ludendorff, German general in World War I (d. 1937)
- 1867 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1941)
- 1872 - Léon Blum, French prime minister (d. 1950)
- 1888 - Sol Hurok, Russian-born impresario (d. 1974)
- 1889 - Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist (d. 1985)
- 1897 - John B. Gambling, American radio talk-show host (d. 1974)
- 1898 - Curly Lambeau, American football coach, executive (d. 1965)
- 1898 - Paul Robeson, American singer and activist (d. 1976)
- 1903 - Ward Bond, American actor (d. 1960)
- 1904 - Sharkey Bonano, American musician (d. 1972)
- 1905 - J. William Fulbright, U.S. Senator from Arkansas (d. 1995)
- 1906 - Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
- 1908 - Victor Vasarely, Hungarian-born painter (d. 1997)
- 1910 - Abraham Ribicoff, American politician (d. 1998)
- 1912 - Lew Kopelew, Russian author (d. 1997)
- 1917 - Brad Dexter, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1918 - Jørn Utzon, Danish architect
- 1919 - J. Presper Eckert, American computer pioneer
- 1926 - Hugh Hefner, American editor and publisher
- 1928 - Tom Lehrer, American musician and mathematician
- 1932 - Jim Fowler, American zoologist
- 1932 - Carl Perkins, American musician (d. 1998)
- 1933 - Jean-Paul Belmondo, French actor
- 1935 - Avery Schreiber, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1937 - Marty Krofft, children's television producer
- 1938 - Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician
- 1939 - Michael Learned, American actress
- 1942 - Brandon De Wilde, American actor (d. 1972)
- 1945 - Peter Gammons, baseball journalist
- 1954 - Dennis Quaid, American actor
- 1954 - Iain Duncan Smith, British politician
- 1957 - Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer
- 1962 - Imran Sherwani, British field hockey player
- 1965 - Jeff Zucker, American television executive
- 1966 - Cynthia Nixon, American actress
- 1971 - Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver
- 1974 - Jenna Jameson, American adult entertainer
- 1975 - Robbie Fowler, English footballer
- 1977 - Gerard Way, American singer (My Chemical Romance)
- 1978 - Jorge Andrade, Portuguese footballer
- 1978 - Rachel Stevens, English singer
- 1979 - Keshia Knight Pulliam, American actress
- 1987 - Jesse McCartney, American singer/actor
- 1998 - Elle Fanning, American actress
Deaths
- 491 - Zeno, Byzantine Emperor
- 715 - Pope Constantine
- 1024 - Pope Benedict VIII
- 1137 - William X, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1099)
- 1483 - King Edward IV of England (b. 1442)
- 1484 - Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales (b. 1473)
- 1553 - François Rabelais, French writer
- 1557 - Mikael Agricola, Finnish scholar (b. 1510)
- 1626 - Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, statesman, and essayist (b. 1561)
- 1693 - Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, French writer (b. 1618)
- 1739 - Nicolas Saunderson, English scientist and mathematician (b. 1682)
- 1747 - Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, Scottish clan chief
- 1754 - Christian Wolff, German philosopher (b. 1679)
- 1761 - William Law, English minister (b. 1686)
- 1804 - Jacques Necker, French statesman (b. 1732)
- 1806 - William V of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic
- 1889 - Michel Eugène Chevreul, French chemist (b. 1786)
- 1917 - James Hope Moulton, English scholar of Classical Greek (b. 1863)
- 1936 - Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (b. 1855)
- 1940 - Mrs. Patrick Campbell, English actress (b. 1865)
- 1944 - Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (executed) (b. 1920)
- 1945 - Wilhelm Canaris, German Nazi leader (b. 1887)
- 1945 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian (executed) (b. 1906)
- 1948 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (b. 1903).
- 1959 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (b. 1867)
- 1961 - King Zog of Albania (b. 1895)
- 1963 - Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (b. 1891)
- 1976 - Dagmar Nordstrom, American composer, pianist, one of The Nordstrom Sisters (b. 1903)
- 1976 - Phil Ochs, American singer (b. 1940)
- 1988 - Brook Benton, American actor (b. 1931)
- 1991 - Martin Hannett, record producer (b. 1948)
- 1996 - Richard Condon, American novelist (b. 1915)
- 1996 - James W. Rouse, American real estate developer, activist, and philanthropist (b. 1914)
- 1997 - Laura Nyro, American singer and songwriter (b. 1947)
- 1999 - Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, Niger politician and general (b. 1949)
- 2001 - Willie Stargell, baseball player (b. 1940)
- 2002 - Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
- 2005 - Andrea Dworkin, American feminist and writer (b.
Holidays and observances
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Jalál (Glory) - First day of the second month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Good Friday (2004)
- Bataan Day (Day of Valor - Araw ng Kagitingan) in the Philippines
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/4/9 Today in History: April 9]
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April 8 - April 10 - March 9 - May 9 -- listing of all days
ko:4월 9일
ms:9 April
ja:4月9日
simple:April 9
th:9 เมษายน
Spain
The Kingdom of Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de España or España; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma). To west (and, in Galicia, south), it borders Portugal. To south, it borders Gibraltar and Morocco. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in north Africa, and a number of uninhabited islands on the Mediterranean side of the strait of Gibraltar, known as Plazas de soberanía, such as the Chafarine islands, the "rocks" (peñones) of Vélez and Alhucemas, and the tiny Isla Perejil (disputed). In the Northeast along the Pyrenees, a small exclave town called Llívia in Catalonia is surrounded by French territory.
History
Main article: History of Spain
Prehistory
The aboriginal peoples of the Iberian peninsula, consisting of a number of separate tribes, are given the generic name of Iberians. This may have included the Basques, the only pre-Celtic people in Iberia surviving to the present day as a separate ethnic group. The most important culture of this period is that of the city of Tartessos. Beginning in the 9th century BC, Celtic tribes entered the Iberian peninsula through the Pyrenees and settled throughout the peninsula, becoming the Celtiberians.
The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries.
Around 1,100 BC Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 8th century BC the first Greek colonies, such as Emporion (modern Empúries), were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (Ebro in Spanish). In the 6th century BC the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).
Roman Empire
The Romans arrived in the Iberian peninsula during the Second Punic war in the 2nd century BC, and annexed it under Augustus after two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes and the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies becoming the province of Hispania. It was divided in Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic; and, during the Roman Empire, Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the southwest.
Hispania supplied the Roman Empire with food, olive oil, wine and metal. The emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius I, the philosopher Seneca and the poets Martial and Lucan were born in Spain. The Spanish Bishops held the Council at Elvira in 306. Many of Spain's present languages, religion, and laws originate from this period.
Muslim Spain
Main articles: Al-Andalus and Reconquista
In the 8th century, nearly all the Iberian peninsula, which had been under Visigothic rule, was quickly conquered (from 711), by Muslims (the Moors), who had crossed over from North Africa, as part of the conquests of the Christian kingdoms there by the religiously inspired Umayyad empire. Only three small counties in the north of Spain kept their independence: Asturias, Navarra and Aragon, which eventually became kingdoms.
Very soon the Muslim emirate split into small kingdoms. Christian and Muslim kingdoms fought and allied among themselves, with the Christians driving the Moorish forces out of the northern most parts of the peninsula within a few decades. The Muslim taifa kings competed in patronage of the arts, and the Jewish population of Iberia set the basis of Sephardic culture. Much of Spain's distinctive art originates from this seven-hundred-year period, and many Arabic words made their way into Castilian (Spanish) and Catalan, and from them to other European languages.
The Moorish capital was Córdoba, in the southern portion of Spain known as Andalucía. During the time of Arab occupation, large populations of Jews, Christians and Muslims living in close quarters, and at its peak some non-Muslims were appointed to high offices. Though its tolerance has been exaggerated and romanticised by 19th century scholars it did produce some real achievements. At its best it produced great architecture, art, and Muslim and Jewish scholars played a great part in reviving the study of ancient western culture and philosophy, making their own important contributions to it, and becoming one of the most important ways by which these studies were revived in Europe. However there were also restrictions and imposts on non-Muslims, which tended to grow after the death of Al-Hakam II in 976, and worsened after the fall of Al-Andalus in 1031. Later invasions of stricter Muslim groups from north Africa even led to persecutions of non-Muslims, forcing some (including some Muslim scholars) to seek safety in the then still relatively tolerant city of Toledo after its Christian reconquest in 1085.
1085]
The long, convoluted period of expansion of the Christian kingdoms, beginning in 722, only eleven years after the Moorish invasion, is called the Reconquista. As early as 739, the northwestern region of Galicia, which became one of the most important centres of western medieval Christian pilgrimage, Santiago de Compostela, had been liberated from Moorish occupation by forces from neighbouring Asturias. The 1085 conquest of the central city of Toledo had largely brought to an end the reconquest of the northern half of Iberia. The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 heralded the collapse, within a few decades, of the great Moorish strongholds, such as Seville and Córdoba, in the south-west. By the middle of the thirteenth century most of the Iberian peninsula had been reconquered, leaving only Granada as a small tributary state in the south. It ended in 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand captured the southern city of Granada, the last Moorish city in Spain. The Treaty of Granada [http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty1492.html] guaranteed religious toleration toward Muslims while Jews were expelled that year. At Ferdinand's insistance the Spanish Inquisition had been established and Tomás de Torquemada was appointed as its first Inquisitor General in 1482. Behind much of the real religious intolerance was always the ever present fear that the Muslims might assist another Muslim invasion. Furthermore Aragonese labourers were angered by the use of Moorish workers by landlords to undercut them. A 1499 Muslim uprising was crushed and was followed by the first of the expulsions of Muslims, in 1502. The year 1492 was also marked by the discovery of the New World. Isabel I funded the voyages of Columbus. In their contests with the French army, Spanish forces relied more on well trained, highly mobile, regular soldiers and eventually achieved success with the organised tactical use of hand guns against armoured French knights, in the Italian Wars from 1494. Already considerable powers, these wars saw the emergence of the new combined Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon as a European great power.
From the Renaissance to the 19th Century
Until the late of the 15th century, Castile and Léon, Aragon and Navarre were independent states, with independent languages, monarchs, armies and, in the case of Aragon and Castile, two empires: the former with one in the Mediterranean and the latter with a new, rapidly growing, one in the Americas. The process of political unification continued into the early sixteenth century. It was the unification of these separate Iberian empires that became the base of what is in now referred to as the Spanish Empire.
By 1512, most of the kingdoms of present-day Spain were politically unified, although not as a modern, centralized state (in contemporary minds, "Spain" was a geographic term meaning Iberian Peninsula, which includes Portugal, not the present-day state called Spain). The grandson of Isabella and Ferdinand, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor but called in Spain Carlos I, extended his crown to other places in Europe and the rest of the world. The unification of Iberia was complete when Charles V's son, Philip II, became King of Portugal in 1580, as well as of the other Iberian Kingdoms (collectively known as "Spain" at that time).
During the 16th century, under the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe. The Spanish Empire covered most territories of South and Central America, Mexico, some of Eastern Asia (including The Philippines), the Iberian peninsula (including the Portuguese empire from 1580), southern Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. It was the first empire about which it was said that the sun did not set. It was a time of daring explorations by sea and by land, the opening up of new trade routes across oceans, conquests and the beginning of European colonization. Not only did this lead to the arrival of ever increasing quantities of precious metals, spices and luxuries, and new agricultural plants, that had a great influence on the development of Europe, but the explorers, soldiers, traders and missionaries also brought back with them a flood of knowledge that radically transformed the European understanding of the world, ending conceptions inherited from medieval times.
The treasure fleet across the Atlantic and the Manila galleons across the Pacific made it the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe, but the rapidly rising influx of silver and gold from the colonies in the Americas throughout the 16th century ultimately resulted in economically damaging rampant inflation and led to economic depression by the 17th century. Religious and dynastic wars supported by the Spanish crown, especially in the Netherlands, also greatly burdened the empire's economy.
17th century]
In 1640, under Philip IV, the centralist policy of the Count-Duke of Olivares provoked wars in Portugal and Catalonia. Portugal became an independent kingdom again, taking with it its empire, and Catalonia enjoyed some years of French-supported independence but was quickly returned to the Spanish Crown, except Roussillon.
A series of long and costly wars and revolts followed in the early 17th century, and began a steady decline of Spanish power in Europe from the 1640s. Controversy over succession to the throne consumed the country and much of Europe during the first years of the 18th century (see War of the Spanish Succession). It was only after this war ended and a new dynasty—the French Bourbons—was installed that a true Spanish state was established when the absolutist first Bourbon king Philip V of Spain in 1707 dissolved the parliamentarist Aragon court and unified the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon into a single, unified Kingdom of Spain, abolishing many of the regional privileges and autonomies (fueros) that had hampered Habsburg rule. The British abandoned the conflict after Utrecht (1713), which led to Barcelona's easy defeat by the absolutists in 1714. The National Day of Catalonia still commemorates this defeat.
Of note during the 17th century was the cultural efflorescence now known as the Spanish Golden Age.
Historically, the period of the mid 17th century to the mid 20th century was a failure for Spain compared to north western Europe. The extended, lingering decline of the Spanish empire was due in large part, ironically, to its spectacular successes in the 15th and 16th centuries that led to the centuries of the treasure fleets bringing back silver and gold into the country from the American mines. These shipments engendered inflation (a fact noticed by the School of Salamanca) that ate away at Spanish trades and commerce by causing local goods to be uncompetitive, and eventually making the country almost totally dependant upon imports by the mid seventeenth century, which proved disasterous as the silver mines became exhausted. Greatly worsening matters were the constant wars defending the world empire against envious European rivals, internal successions and the European wars (Eighty Years War and Thirty Years War), where Spain's resources were constantly drained defending the Habsburg's dynastic and religious interests, including the Counter Reformation. From the early 17th century the government sought to meet its needs by tampering with the silver content of the currency, leading to severe bouts of inflation and deflation. The terrible burden of taxes on the productive classes of the country, and the financial instability led to the collapse of the Castilian economy to the point where people reverted to bartering in the 1620s. A severe decline in food production ensued. The result was a steep real economic and demographic decline during the 17th century, especially in empire's overburdened lynchpin, Castile, aggravated by failed harvests and plagues. Habsburg policies that entrenched the privileges and exemptions of the nobility (with its roots back in the Castilian War of the Communities) and the Church (as part of support of the Counter Reformation), with a great extension of Church lands, also played a decisive part in the undermining the Spanish economy and in curtailing the spread of modern thought. This was in stark contrast to the diminishing status of both institutions in rivals France, England and the Netherlands. The resentment of ordinary peasants and labourers would find expression in implicating the nobility of Moorish ancestory and the churchmen of hypocrisy. These accusations found their way into the theatre and literature of the time. The beggary that grew rapidly from the late 16th century forced many to live by their wits and inspired the popular picaresque genre of literature.
Following the wars of Spanish succession at its commencment, the 18th century saw a long, slow recovery, with an expansion of the iron and steel industries in the Basque country, some increase in trade and a recovery in food production and population. The Bourbons drew on the French system in trying to modernise the administration and economy, in which it was more successful in the former than the latter. However in the last two decades of the century there was a rapid growth (from a relatively low base) in general trade after the opening up of free trade within the empire (ending the south's monopoly), and even the beginnings of an industrialisation of the textile industry in Catalonia. But this promising late eighteenth century surge was shortlived, being totally disrupted by the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, that preceeded the loss of the vast mainland American territories and plunged the country into endemic political instability, which lasted until 1939. The Napoleonic incursion led to a fierce guerilla war (Peninsular War) and saw the first wide spread appearance of Spanish nationalism. In the latter half of the 19th century, Spanish Catalonia became a center of Spain's industrialization. Pockets of relative modernity in Catalonia and the north would appear, but Spain's relative economic and political decline overall mirrored in general the fate of other regions of southern Europe such as Portugal, the Italian states, the Balkans, and much of central and eastern Europe, as much of the rapidly growing global oceanic trade, pioneered by the Iberian countries, was diverted to northwestern Europe.
Spain lost all of its remaining old colonies in the Caribbean region and Asia-Pacific region at the end of the 19th century, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and a large number of Pacific islands to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898.
However "the Disaster" of 1898, as Spanish-American War was called, led to Spain's cultural revival (Generation of '98) in which there was much critical self examination, and relieved it from the burden of its last major colonies. However political stability in such a dispersed and variegated land, caught between pockets of modernity and large areas of extreme rural backwardness and strongly differentiated regional identities would elude the country for some decades yet, and was ultimately imposed only by a brutal dictatorship in 1939.
20th century
The 20th century initially brought little peace; colonization of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea was attempted. A period of dictatorial rule (1923 - 1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. The Republic offered political autonomy to the Basque Country and Catalonia and gave voting rights to women. However, in July 1936, against a backdrop of increasing political polarization, anti-clericalism and pressure from all sides, coupled with growing and unchecked political violence, the Republic was faced with an attempted military coup d'etat led by right-wing army generals. Although the coup initially failed, the ensuing Spanish Civil War ended in 1939 with the victory of the nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco and supported by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the United States of America, increasingly concerned about communism. The Republican side received tepid support from European democracies, which left the Soviet Union and idealist voluntary International Brigades as the only supporters of the legitimate democratic Republican rule. The Spanish Civil War has been called the first battle of the Second World War. After the civil war, General Francisco Franco ruled a nation exhausted politically and economically. During the Second World War Franco, under extreme pressure (Hitler had brought his army to the border of Spain after invading France), opted to remain neutral arguing that Spain could not afford a new war, but, as a concession to his civil war backer, authorised volunteers to go to the Russian front to fight the Soviet Union in an anti-Communist crusade in what came to be known as the Blue Division. The resentment of Franco's brutality towards the more modern pro-Republican regions of Catalonia and the Basque country, whose distinctive languages and identity he suppressed during his long reign, continues to fuel strong separatist movements to this day.
The only official party in Spain at the time of Franco´s regime was the Falange party founded by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. Primo de Rivera denied his party was fascist, calling fascism fundamentaly false. His political philosophy was based on Catholicism, saying that man "carries eternal values" and carries "a soul that is capable of damning or saving itself". He called for "the greatest respect for...human dignity, for the integrity of man and for his liberty." Primo de Rivera called for what he called "organic democracy". Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera was executed in Alicante in 1936.
After World War II, being one of few surviving fascist regimes in Europe, Spain was politically and economically isolated and was kept out of the United Nations until 1955, when it became strategically important for U.S. president Eisenhower to establish a military presence in the Iberian peninsula. This opening to Spain was aided by Franco's opposition to communism. In the 1960s, more than a decade later than other western European countries, Spain began to enjoy economic growth and gradually transformed into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector. Growth continued well into the 1970s, with Franco's government going to great lengths to shield the Spanish people from the effects of the oil crisis.
Upon the death of the dictator General Franco in November 1975, his personally-designated heir Prince Juan Carlos assumed the position of king and head of state. With the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the arrival of democracy, some regions — Basque Country, Navarra— were given complete financial autonomy, and many — Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia— were given some political autonomy, which was then soon extended to all Spanish regions, resulting in a quite decentralized territorial organization in Western Europe. Remaining dysfunctionalities, such as unlimited financial strain on contributor regions such as Catalonia make their people aim for a more equilibrated system, such as those enjoyed in Germany, where finantial contribution to the whole can never exceed 4% of a Land's GDP. In the Basque Country pro-peace Basque and Spanish nationalisms coexist with radical nationalism supportive of the terrorist group ETA, which remains one of the biggest problems faced by Spanish citizens.
Adolfo Suárez González, Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo Bustelo, after an attempted coup d'état in 1981, Felipe González Márquez (when Spain joined NATO and European Union), José María Aznar López and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have been prime ministers of Spain.
21st century
On March 11, 2004, a series of bombs exploded in commuter trains in Madrid, Spain. These resulted in 191 people dead and 1,460 wounded. It also had a significant effect on the upcoming elections in Spain, due in part to the ruling government's insistence that the ETA was the prime suspect in the bombings, even as the evidence of Muslim extremist terrorism rapidly emerged from the police investigation and the international press. see the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings article for more information
:See also: List of Spanish monarchs, Kings of Spain family tree
Politics
Main article: Politics of Spain
Politics of Spain.]]
Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales or National Assembly. The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers presided over by the President of Government (comparable to a prime minister), proposed by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly following legislative elections.
The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate or Senado with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms.
Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instance, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some differences within this system, since power has been devolved from the centre to the periphery asymmetrically, with some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) seeking a more federalist—or even confederate—kind of relationship with Spain, now the Central Government is dealing with autonomous governments for the transfer of more autonomy. This novel system of asymmetrical devolution has been described as a coconstitutionalism and has similarities to the devolution process adopted by the United Kingdom since 1997.
The terrorist group, ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom), is attempting to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and killings of politicians and police. Although the Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, their different approaches to the separatist movement are a source of tension between the federal and Basque governments.
On 17 May 2005, all the parties in the Congress of Deputies, except the PP, passed the Central Government's motion of beginning peace talks with the ETA with no political concessions and only if it gives up all its weapons. PSOE, CiU, ERC, PNV, IU-ICV, CC and the mixed group -BNG, CHA, EA y NB- supported it with a total of 192 votes, while the 147 PP parliamentaris objected.
On February 20th 2005, Spain became the first country to allow its people to vote on the European Union constitution that was signed in October 2004. The rules states that if any country rejects the constitution then the constitution will be declared void. The final result was very strongly in affirmation of the constitution, making Spain the first country to approve the constitution via referendum (Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia approved it before Spain, but they did not hold referenda).
Administrative divisions
Administratively, Spain is divided into 50 provinces, grouped into 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities with high degree of autonomy.
Autonomous communities
autonomous communities
Main article: Autonomous communities of Spain
Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas) and 2 autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas; Ceuta and Melilla).
- Andalusia (Andalucía)
- Aragon (Aragón)
- Principality of Asturias (Principáu d'Asturies in Asturian/Principado de Asturias in Spanish)
- Balearic Islands (Illes Balears in Catalan / Islas Baleares in Spanish)
- Basque Country (Euskadi in Basque/País Vasco in Spanish)
- Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)
- Cantabria
- Castile-La Mancha (Castilla-La Mancha)
- Castile and Leon (Castilla y León in Spanish)
- Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan/Cataluña in Spanish/ Catalunha in Aranese)
- Extremadura
- Galicia (Galicia or Galiza in Galician)
- La Rioja
- Madrid
- Murcia
- Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque/Navarra in Spanish)
- Land of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana in Valencian /Comunidad Valenciana in Spanish, as official denominations).
Provinces
Main article: Provinces of Spain
The Spanish kingdom is also divided into 50 provinces (provincias). Autonomous communities group provinces (for instance, Extremadura is made of two provinces: Cáceres and Badajoz). The autonomous communities of Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarre, Murcia, and Madrid (the nation's capital) are each composed of a single province. Traditionally, provinces are usually subdivided into historic regions or comarcas (main article: Comarcas of Spain).
Places of sovereignty
There are also five enclaves (plazas de soberanía) on and off the African coast: the cities of Ceuta and Melilla are administered as autonomous cities, an intermediate status between cities and communities; the islands of the Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera are under direct Spanish administration.
The Canary islands, Ceuta and Melilla, although not officially historic communities, enjoy a special status.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Spain
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