January 6th
The year begins with a science fiction event. A horde of Trump supporters storms the Capitol after a rally by the outgoing president. Five people die.
January 6-11
Filomena sweeps Spain. It snows over Madrid for 48 hours straight. The capital is paralyzed. People ski down the Gran Vía. Almost 100,000 trees will be cut down.
January 17
Upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poisoning with a neurotoxin for military use, the opponent Alexéi Navalni is detained at a Moscow airport.
January 20
“We have a lot to repair, a lot to restore, a lot to heal and build.” Biden is sworn in as President of the United States. Trump accuses him of having stolen the elections.
February 14th
Elections in Catalonia. The PSC is the most voted party, but the pro-independence bloc has a majority and Pere Aragonès, from ERC, will be invested as president of the Generalitat on May 20. Vox enters the Parliament. Citizens collapses.
February 25
It is made public that Juan Carlos I, an expatriate in the United Arab Emirates, has paid the Treasury more than four million euros for undeclared income.
March, 15th
The Sidereus Nuncius scandal. The Ministry of Culture opens an investigation into the disappearance of the National Library of Galileo’s astronomical treatise. The library hid the theft for four years.
23 of March
The container ship Ever Given runs aground in the Suez Canal. The mega-ship, 400 meters long, blocks one of the great arteries of maritime transport for six days.
April 14th
Twenty years after the US invaded Afghanistan, Biden announces the withdrawal of his troops. There, 2,461 of its soldiers died and Washington invested more than 800,000 million euros.
April 18th
Twelve great clubs launch the European Soccer Super League. The project is frozen three days later in the face of opposition from UEFA and fans, especially those of the British Premier clubs.
May 4th
Pablo Iglesias leaves politics after failing in the elections to the Community of Madrid. The PP of Isabel Díaz Ayuso wins, who will be elected president with the support of Vox.
May 9
With the vaccination process against covid underway, having already received at least one dose of 13 million citizens, Spain comes out of the state of alarm.
May 10
New military confrontations between Israel and Hamas begin. At least 256 people die in Gaza and 12 in Israel. The ceasefire arrives on the 21st.
may 17th
Migration crisis on the African border of Spain. In two days, some 8,000 migrants enter Ceuta irregularly. Diplomatic tension with Morocco.
5th June
The G-7 agrees in London a global minimum tax of 15% to multinationals “to guarantee the long-term sustainability of public finances.”
June 13th
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-ruling leader (15 years in two phases, the second since 2009), is removed from power by a heterogeneous eight-party coalition.
June 22nd
The Government pardons the nine prisoners of the process. “We want to close the division once and for all. It is time to return to politics, ”says Pedro Sánchez.
Quique García (Efe)
June 29
In a place in Canada called Lytton the thermometer reaches 49.6 degrees, a historical record in the country and an example of the unusual heat wave that sweeps North America between late June and early July.
3rd of July
Samuel Luiz Muñiz, 24, is murdered in A Coruña on a Saturday morning after a savage group beating amidst “fag” insults.
July 7th
The president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, is shot dead at his home. In a terrible summer, the following month, on August 14, the country will suffer a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that will leave more than 2,000 dead.
July 10th
Pedro Sánchez remodels his Government. He replaces seven ministers, raises Nadia Calviño to the first vice presidency and Iván Redondo ceases to be his chief of staff.
July 11
Something never seen since the 1959 revolution happens in Cuba, civil protests break out in various cities of the country. The regime responds with repression and arrests.
July 14
By six votes to five, the Constitutional Court declared illegal the confinement decreed by the Spanish Government in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.
July 14-15
Torrential rains inundate large parts of western Germany, killing at least 183 people. Merkel, “shocked” after visiting the disaster area, says: “We have to hurry in the fight against climate change.”
July 27th
The taboo on mental health is broken in elite sport. Simone Biles, one of the best gymnasts in history, gives up competing in the team final at the Tokyo Games due to anxiety problems.
August 5
Leo Messi, the player who led Barcelona to its highest levels, says goodbye to the club. The economic crisis of the entity prevents him from retaining the star, who after 778 games and 672 goals with Barça goes to Paris Saint Germain.
august 9
The latest major UN report on climate change concludes that human influence on global warming is “unequivocal” and that it has caused “irreversible” damage.
August 15th
Afghanistan returns to zero point. Four months after the announcement of the US withdrawal, the Taliban take Kabul. Crowds of Afghans try to flee the country amid the chaos.
September 6
Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, a myth of French cinema, an icon of the avant-garde nouvelle vague and at the same time a blockbuster star, dies at the age of 88. France says goodbye to him with State honors.
September 15
The central government and the Generalitat of Catalonia recover the political dialogue table after a year of pause due to the pandemic.
September 19th
The La Palma volcano erupts. The lava will destroy homes, infrastructure, agricultural areas. At the beginning of December it remained active and it was already the longest eruption in the Canary Islands since 1712.
October 5th
Pau Gasol announces his retirement. The first Spaniard to become an NBA star, and the leader of a memorable generation’s national team, leaves basketball at age 41.
October 14th
PSOE and PP agree to renew the Constitutional Court, the Court of Accounts and the Ombudsman. That of the Judicial Power remains on hold.
November 10
Belarus becomes the hub of a migration crisis in Europe. The European Union announces sanctions on Minsk for orchestrating an avalanche of immigrants on the Belarusian border with Poland.
November 13
The Glasgow climate summit closes with timid advances, without an emergency agreement to accelerate the international fight against warming.
November 26
Europe suspends flights with seven southern African countries due to the new variant of the coronavirus, baptized as an omicron by the WHO, which qualifies it as “worrying”.
27th of November
The writer Almudena Grandes, a benchmark in contemporary Spanish literature, dies in Madrid at the age of 61.
November 29th
Luis Suárez has a successor. The soccer player Alexia Putellas, from Barcelona, receives the Ballon d’Or half a century after the last one won by a Spaniard.
December 2nd
The most powerful politician in Europe, Angela Merkel, ends her term as Chancellor of Germany. For his official farewell act, he requests that a ballad, a Christian hymn and a song by the punk singer Nina Hagen be performed.
December 13th
Verónica Forqué, winner of four Goya awards and one of the most popular actresses in Spain, dies at the age of 66. The interpreter committed suicide at her home in Madrid.
elpais.com
George Holan is chief editor at Plainsmen Post and has articles published in many notable publications in the last decade.
