August 19, 1936: The Assassination of Federico García Lorca

August 19, 1936: Federico García Lorca, the Spanish poet, playwright and theater director, is assassinated near Alfacar, Granada, in the southern region of Spain, known as Andalusia. He was 38 years old.

Born on on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, outside Granada, García Lorca gained fame as a member of "The Generation of '27," a group of Spanish poets that tapped into the European literary movements of symbolism, futurism and surrealism. In 1928, he published Romancero Gitano (which was translated into English with what would now be considered a slur, Gypsy Ballads). He published the plays Blood Wedding in 1932, Yerma in 1934, and The House of Bernarda Alba in 1936.

But success did not fulfill him. He was gay, and suffered from depression after the end of a relationship with a sculptor. The coming of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 weighed heavily on him. He was a Socialist, like the prevailing government, the Second Republic that first won election in 1931. But the Nationalists, fascists, led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, were unfavorable to socialism due to its criticism of religion, and, with its strong Catholic base, unfavorable to homosexuals.

His hometown of Granada had gone without a Mayor for several months, because all possible candidates feared for their lives. García Lorca's brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, agreed to accept the position, but he was assassinated within a week. On the same day he was shot, August 18, García Lorca was arrested.

The circumstances of his death are in dispute, partly because his remains have never been found. In his book The Assassination of García Lorca, author Ian Gibson wrote that he was shot -- with 3 others: Joaquín Arcollas Cabezas, Francisco Galadí Melgar and Dióscoro Galindo González -- by Nationalist militia at the Fuente Grande (the Great Spring), on the road between Viznar and Alfacar.

Police reports released by radio station Cadena SER in April 2015, concluded that he was executed by fascist forces. A Franco-era report, dated July 9, 1965, describes the writer as a "socialist" and "freemason belonging to the Alhambra lodge," who engaged in "homosexual and abnormal practices."

Most biographers seem to agree that his death had political overtones. But Leslie Stainton, who wrote the 1999 biography Lorca: A Dream of Life, suggested that he was killed specifically because he was gay -- a murder, and a hate crime, but not an assassination.

He has been honored with statues in his hometown of Granada, and the national capital of Madrid; with a garden on the River Seine in Paris; in a hotel room where he once stayed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kept as a museum; and on the Rainbow Honor Walk, in the gay-friendly Castro District of San Francisco.

He once said, "I will always be on the side of those who have nothing, and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace." Sounds like my kind of guy.

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August 19, 1936 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Red Ruffing went the distance for the win. Lou Gehrig went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and rookie Joe DiMaggio went 3-for-5 with a solo home run.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Carl Hubbell went the distance for the win. Mel Ott hit a home run.

* The Boston Bees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-1 at National League Park in Boston. This was the 1st of 5 seasons under the Bees name for the former Boston Braves, who had previously called their ballpark Braves Field. The name never caught on, and in 1941, the team and the ballpark reverted to their previous names.

* The Philadelphia Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, 5-4 and 7-2. Frankie Hayes hit a home run to win the opener in the bottom of the 13th inning. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-9 over the 2 games.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 13-8 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Tiger slugger Hank Greenberg got hurt on April 29, and missed the rest of the season.

* And the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 6. The White Sox swept, 15-1 and 6-3.

April 14, 1931: The Spanish Republic Is Proclaimed

April 14, 1931: The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed, after King Alfonso XIII is deposed. It was hoped that Spain would be a democratic nation like America, Britain and France.

The Republic lasted just 8 years.

The First Spanish Republic did not last long, only from the abdication of King Amadeo I on February 11, 1873, following the Third Carlist War, to December 29, 1874, when a military coup deposed it, and put King Alfonso XII, son of Amadeo's predecessor, Queen Isabella II, on the throne.

Alfonso died on November 25, 1885, leaving a pregnant widow, Maria Christina, who had been a Princess of Austria. On May 17, 1886, she gave birth to a son, who was proclaimed King Alfonso XIII. He was just 11 years old when the Spanish-American War began, and his mother was his Regent, so it was impossible for the American newspapers and their "yellow journalism" to make either of them a figure of hate, so the government as a whole became the enemy.

It cannot be said that Alfonso XIII, who assumed full duties upon turning 16 in 1902, had "lost the empire": It had been falling apart since Britain defeated the Armada in 1588, and the process accelerated with the losses of most of the American colonies in the 1810s and 1820s. But corruption in the parliament, the dictatorial tendencies of most of Spain's Prime Ministers, and the ineffectuality of the King led to their overthrow.

King Alfonso XIII

Alfonso survived the influenza epidemic of 1918. Because Spain did not enter World War I and remained neutral, his illness was reported on, and the disease became known as the Spanish Flu. Most of the world suppressed news of the disease in their own countries as best they could, even though it killed twice as many people as the war did.

After the proclamation of the Republic, a provisional government was established, until December 9, 1931, at which time the 1931 Constitution was approved. Over the next 2 years of constitutional government, known as the Reformist Biennium, Prime Minister Manuel Azaña initiated numerous reforms. Power in Spain had long been shared by the crown and the Catholic Church. In 1932, religious orders were forbidden control of schools, while the government began a large-scale school-building project. A moderate agrarian reform was carried out. Home rule was granted to Catalonia, withe a parliament and a President of its own.

Manuel Azaña

Soon, Azaña lost parliamentary support and President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora forced his resignation on September 8, 1933. In the subsequent election, the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) won a plurality. However, the President declined to invite its leader, Gil Robles, to form a government, fearing CEDA's monarchist sympathies. Instead, he invited Alejandro Lerroux of the Radical Republican Party to do so.

Niceto Alcalá-Zamora

The period following the CEDA's victory, called the Black Biennium, was marked by escalating clashes between the left and the right,and state-sanctioned repression against the left. The CEDA exercised indirect influence over the government, and in October 1934 was finally successful in forcing the acceptance of three ministries.

In 1935, after a series of crises and corruption scandals, Alcalá-Zamora called for new elections, instead of inviting CEDA, the party with most seats in the parliament, to form a new government. The leftist Popular Front won a narrow victory in the February 13, 1936 election. The Right accelerated its preparations for a coup, which had been months in the planning.

Amidst the wave of political violence that broke out after the triumph of the Popular Front, a group of leftist militiamen shot José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo, one of the leaders of the opposition, on July 12, 1936. He died the next day. This assassination convinced many military officers to back the planned coup. On July 17, the revolt began with an army uprising in Spanish Morocco, followed by military takeovers in many cities in Spain. Military rebels intended to seize power immediately, but they were met with serious resistance as most of the main cities remained loyal to the Republic.

An estimated total of half a million people died in the war that followed. But most of the world considered the Republic to be Communist, and the democracies of the world, especially those with large Catholic populations, such as America, refused to stop the Fascist takeover by Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

King Alfonso XIII of Spain died on February 28, 1941. The Kings of Cambodia and Thailand would also die in 1941. Shortly before his death, Alfonso abdicated his claim to the throne, in favor of his son Juan, Count of Barcelona. Juan would eventually renounce his claim in favor of his son. When dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, the grandson of Alfonso XIII became King Juan Carlos I. He is still alive, but has abdicated in favor of his own son, King Felipe VI.

Although Manuel Azaña had been arrested, his death in 1940 was due to natural causes. Niceto Alcalá-Zamora died in 1949.

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April 14, 1931 was a Thursday. The Stanley Cup was awarded, as the Montreal Canadiens successfully defended their title. They beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum, to win the Finals, 3 games to 2.

Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Yankee Stadium. Red Ruffing outpitched Wilcy Moore, each man having previously pitched for the other team. Babe Ruth went 2-for-3 with a home run. Lou Gehrig went 1-for-4.

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Mel Ott went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Bill Terry went 1-for-4 with a walk. Chuck Klein went 2-for-5 with 2 homers and 3 RBIs.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers -- in their last season with Wilbert Robinson as manager, and thus with the Brooklyn Robins name -- lost to the Boston Braves, 

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Jimmie Foxx singled home the winning run in the top of the 11th inning, making Lefty Grove the winning pitcher in relief of Rube Walberg.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at League Park in Cleveland.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Redland Field (later renamed Crosley Field) in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-4 for the Cubs. Gabby Hartnett hit a home run. For the Pirates, Pie Traynor went 0-for-3 with a walk, Paul Waner went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a groundout; and Lloyd Waner went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.