1931: Originally planned for Pamplona, the Assembly of the Basque Municipalities is held in Estella to discuss the Basque Statute of Autonomy.  The meeting was a great success.  The Assembly — representing Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, and Nafarroa — approved the draft of the Basque Statute of Autonomy prepared by the Society of Basque Studies.  From that day, the statute was referred to as the “Statute of Estella”.  The statute was presented to the Spanish Cortes the same year, but was not approved.  This effort was the first at trying to gain autonomy for the Basque Country.

1555: Henry II, king of Nafarroa, dies. His father, John III or Jean d’Albret, had been defeated in 1512 by Ferdinand II of Aragon, both of whom had claimed the throne of Nafarroa. After that defeated, that portion of Nafarroa south fo the Pyrenees was annexed by Ferdinand while what became Nafarroa Beherea stayed in the House of d’Albert. Henry II tried to recapture the throne, but was unsuccessful. He was later taken prisoner at the Battle of Pavia during the Italian wars, though he escaped under disguise. As King, he restored the Parliament and other Nafarroan institutions in Nafarroa Beherea. He was married to the celebrated Marguerite de Valois. His daughter, Queen Jeanne III, converted to Calvinism and promoted a translation of the Bible into Basque, one of the first works in the language. Her son, Henry IV King of France, was the first of the Bourbon kings.

1634: In the early morning, six rebels involved in the Salt Uprising, riots in Bizkaia protesting a salt tax imposed by Philip IV, are arrested, including their leader Juan de Larrabaster. They are tried and executed that same day. The salt tax had greatly affected the cod trade, of great importance to Bizkaia.

1872: The Amorebieta Agreement is signed, bringing peace to Nafarroa and the Basque Country, at least for a short time, after Carlos VII flees into France after a defeat at Oroquieta earlier in the month. Francisco Serrano represents the government and Fausto Urquizu and Juan E. Orue the Carlists. The Agreement promises, amongst other things, amnesty to the Carlists. However, later that year, the Third Carlist War erupts, ending in 1876 with the final defeat of Carlos.

1453: After being imprisoned for more than two years after his defeat in his quest to claim his throne from his father, Charles IV of Nafarroa is set free after his father, John II, is pressured by deputies of the Kingdom of Aragon. Charles tries again to claim his throne and is again defeated and imprisoned, though is freed again after the Catalonians revolt in protest. At that time, he is made governor of Catalonia, but soon dies, possibly of poison. During his time in prison, he writes the Chronicle of Navarre, the primary source on the history of the lineage of the kings of Nafarroa.

1890: Miners in Bilbao, having striked against their employers because of bad working conditions (sleeping in barracks, often three to a bed; work hours from dawn to dusk; forced to buy food from the companies; irregular pay), return to work. With the police unable to stop the strike, which eventually comprised 28,000 workers, 16,000 of which were miners, the military had been called in, under the command of General Loma, who established the “pacto de Loma” which improved some of the working conditions. However, the failure of the companies to observe these conditions led to subsequent strikes.

1994: Jon Manuel Bilbao Azkarreta who, along with William A. Douglass, founded the Basque Studies Program (later to be known as the Center for Basque Studies) at the University of Nevada, Reno, dies in Vitoria-Gasteiz. His many accomplishments include building the Basque Studies Program Library; founding Eusko Bibliographia (the Institute of Basque Bibliography) and Harriluze, an institute dedicated to the study of the Basque diaspora; and the books Eusko Bibliographia, Los Vascos en Cuba, and Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World (with William A. Douglass).

2005: Izaskun Bilbao Barandika, born in Bermeo, is elected President of the Basque Parliament, the first woman to hold that post in the history of that body.

1118: The forces of Alfonso the Battler, King of Aragon and Nafarroa, besiege Zaragoza in an effort to reconquer the city from the Moors. After a siege of nine months, the city falls to Alfonso, who promptly makes Zaragoza the capital of Aragon.

1809: Mariano Renovales Revollar, soldier from Bizkaia, organizes a guerrilla campaign in the Nafarroan Roncal and defeats the troops of General D’Agoult of Napoleon’s army. He later participated in a plot to restore the Constitution of 1812 and had to flee Bilbao, ultimately landing first in New Orleans, where he published his celebrated Manifesto, and then Havana, where, after an argument with an official, he was imprisoned and later died.

1920: The opera Amaya, composed by Jesus Guridi Bidaola, premieres at the Coliseo Albia in Bilbao. Accompanied by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Bilbao Choral Society (led by Juan de Grignon Lamote), Amaya is considered the greatest opera of Basque musical nationalism. Guridi would use themes of Basque folklore in his operettas El Caserio (1926) and Mari Eli (1936).

1922: Jacinto Etxenagusia races against the Franco-Belgian Leon De Nys along the famous 13 kilometer Zarauz-Aia route, the setting for countless numbers of wagers. Etxenagusia had earlier beat Vicente Erro, who had covered the Tolosa-Pamplona-Tolosa course, 125 kilometers, in just over 15 hours. However, De Nys was a professional runner with excellent times on the track in Paris. At 11:30 in the morning, under a relentless sun, Jacinto Etxenagusia sets off. The Belgian follows three minutes and forty-five seconds later. De Nys takes 54 minutes and five seconds to run the 13 kilometres separating the two towns. Etxenagusia drops panting to the wayside. He died two days later after intense suffering. This type of race, between two Korrikalaris for wagers, was common in the Basque Country until the 1970s.

1937: The ship Habana leaves Santurtzi for England with about 4000 children, refugees from the Spanish Civil War. It first stops in Stoneham, with the hope that the children would later be distributed by various reception centers. However, the stay at Stoneham is longer than expected, with the children sheltered in some 250 tents, prepared by the Basque Children’s Committee. They are latter scattered across the whole of Britain.

1998: Josune Bereziartu becomes the first woman to climb an 8c, the Honky Tonky of Araotz, in Onati. Born in Lazkao, Gipuzkoa, in 1972, she is recognized as the best female climber in the world. In 2002, she established a new women’s world record, ascending the Swiss Bain du sang, with a difficulty of 9a. She blogs about her experiences at http://www.climbing.com/exclusive/problog/josune/

Unfortunately, I’ve been too swamped with work to keep up with the Today in Basque History articles.  I’ll do them as I get a chance, and hopefully fill in missing days in future years.  If anyone would like to assist me in this endeavor, please feel free to contact me.

1364: The Battle of Cocherel takes place. Charles II of Nafarroa had designs on the Duchy of Burgundy, which the newly crowned Charles V of France wished to give to his brother, Philip II. In the Battle of Cocherel, Nafarroan forces under the command of Jean de Grailly, an English knight and Captal of Buch, meet French forces led by Bertrand du Guesclin, who soundly defeated the Nafarroans. The Navarran army took up a defensive position, as was standard English tactics, forcing du Guesclin to be the aggressor. Du Guesclin managed to break the defensive formation by attacking and then pretending to retreat, which tempted the enemy from their hill in pursuit. A flank attack by du Guesclin’s reserve then won the day. The victory forced Charles II into a new peace with the French king, and secured Burgundy for Philip.

1521: A French-Nafarroan army, led by André de Foix, Lord of Asparros, invades High Nafarroa via Roncesvalles with the end of reconquering kingdom of Nafarroa for King Henry II of Albret. Two days later, the Lord of Asparros, leading his army, reaches Villava. On the following day, the 19th of May, he receives a delegation of distinguished men from Pamplona, who had risen against the Spanish. The Lord of Asparros hears and accepts their demands. That same day, according to tradition, he swears to keep and respect the Fueros of Nafarroa while the delegation swears allegiance to Henry II.

1800: Simon Gurtubay Zubero, Bizkaian businessman, is born in Igorre. An error, legendary in the history of the town, changed his fortune. During the second Carlist siege of Bilbao, he sent a telegram to his suppliers, asking to send him “100 o 120″ pieces of bacalao of highest quality. A typographic error replaced the “o” with a “0″, and he received 1,000,120 pieces. This filled the food shortage of the besieged city, popularized the ues of cod, and made him one of the first fortunes of Bilbao.

1407: Pedro II López de Ayala, politician and writer born in Vitoria, dies in Calahorra. He originally supported Pedro of Castille in his claim to the throne before switching sides to support the pretender to the throne, Henry of Trastamara. He fought with Henry at the Battle of Najera (Navarette) in 1367 and was captured by the Black Prince but was later released. He is best remembered for his Libro Rimado de Palacio (“Palace Verse” or “Rhymes of the Court”), in which he acidly describes his contemporaries and their social, religious, and political values.

1605: Juan De Oñate, founder of Santa Fe, New Mexico, inscribes his name on El Moro, a sandstone promontory that features ancient Native American petroglyphs. The Inscription reads “Passed by here the Governor Don Juan De Oñate, from the discovery of the Sea of the South on the 16th of April, 1605.”

1825: Willem J. Van Eys, Dutch linguist who dedicated more than 30 years of his life to the study of Euskara, is born in Amsterdam.

1861: Toribio Alzaga Anabitarte is born in Donostia. He is the most popular author of works for theater in the Basque language. He wrote his comedy, Aterako gera (We will leave) in 1888 from his refuge in Ziburu. From then on, he dedicated his life to comedies and even opera, always in Euskara.

1933: The second Aberri Eguna, or Basque National Day, is celebrated in Donostia. The central meeting takes place in the field of Atotxa. Speakers include Manuel Carrasco Formiguera, President of the Democratic Union of Catalonia and Francesc Maspons Anglasell and Ewal Ammende, vice president and general secretary of the Congress of European Nationalities (CNE).

1989: Pedro Manuel de Arístegui Petit, Gipuzkoan diplomat, is killed in Beirut, along with his father-in-law and sister-in-law, by a Syrian rocket while he was Spain’s ambassador to Lebanon.

1367: The Battle of Nájera, also known as the Battle of Navarrete, is fought between an Anglo-Gascon army and Franco-Castilian forces near Nájera, in the province of La Rioja. The English are led by Edward, the Black Prince, and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, allied with Pedro of Castile (called “The Cruel”) against his brother Enrique II or Henry of Trastámara. Pedro and Enrique had been in armed conflict, the Castilian Civil War, for some time before the intervention of foreign powers had been sought. The English forces destroy those of Enrique II. Carlos II of Nafarroa was also allied with Pedro.

1849: Carlos Alberto, king of Sardinia, arrives in Tolosa and abdicates his crown to his son Victor Emanuel, king of Italy.

1928: The aizkolaris Ignacio Iriarte and Miguel Ibarbia (“Mendiola”) battle in Azpeitia over 4 logs of 60 inches. The last hack of both men fall at the same time. The judge, “Atxumberri,” gives the victory to Mendiola. Iriarte, dissatisfied, calls for revenge 22 years later, in June 4 1950. Mendiola wins again.

1513: An agreement is signed between Ferdinand the Catholic and Louis XII of France. Mistakenly referred to as the Truce of Orthez, Louis XII agrees to abandon the cause of the dethroned king of Nafarroa Juan de Albret. Ferdinand the Catholic orders the Marquis of Comares to occupy all of Behe-Nafarroa.

1939: General Franco officially ends the Spanish Civil War, after the fall of Madrid, the last city still resisting the Nationalist forces. Franco proclaimed victory via a radio broadcast. After the war, there were harsh reprisals against Franco’s former enemies.

1977: Haimar Zubeldia, cyclist, is born in Usurbil, Gipuzkoa. He debuted as a professional in March, 1998, as part of the Euskadi-Euskaltel team. In 2003, his third time participating in the Tour de France, he finished in fifth place.