Miguel de Cervantes is bornThe future author of Don Quixote was born in Alcalá de Henares, beginning a life of war, captivity, and hardship that shaped the first modern novel.September 29 in history
A day that runs from Spain's greatest novelist to a Colombian rock star, with a troubled king, a physics lab, and a curious cartoon girl in between.
September 29 has a strong Spanish accent. Miguel de Cervantes, the soldier, captive, and tax collector who went on to write Don Quixote, is traditionally said to have been born on this day in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares. Nearly three centuries later, in 1833, Ferdinand VII died after a reign of exile, broken promises, and repression, leaving a disputed throne that pulled Spain into the Carlist Wars.
The 20th century brings new voices from across the Atlantic and new forms of cooperation in Europe. In 1954, 12 countries ratified the convention that created CERN, the Geneva laboratory where physicists later found the Higgs boson and where the World Wide Web was born. Ten years later, the Argentine cartoonist Quino introduced Mafalda, a six-year-old who questions the adult world with the kind of sharp wit Cervantes would have recognized. And in 1998, Shakira released ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?, an album about thieves of every kind that carried Latin rock to a global audience.
Miguel de Cervantes is bornThe future author of Don Quixote was born in Alcalá de Henares, beginning a life of war, captivity, and hardship that shaped the first modern novel.
Ferdinand VII diesThe death of Spain's absolutist king left a daughter not yet three on the throne and a disputed succession that set off the Carlist Wars.
CERN is foundedTwelve European nations ratified the convention creating CERN, a shared laboratory that grew into the world's largest center for particle physics.
Mafalda appears for the first timeQuino's comic strip about a six-year-old girl worried about world peace debuted in an Argentine magazine and became a classic read across continents.
Shakira releases ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones?Shakira's fourth studio album blended Latin rock, pop, and Middle Eastern touches, and it carried the Colombian singer toward a far wider audience.