WThe Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise is a Spanish civil order established in 1939, recognising activities in the fields of education, science, culture, higher education and research.
WClaro Abánades López was a Spanish journalist, publisher, historian and a Carlist activist. His career of a journalist lasted over 70 years (1897–1969), though he is rather known as author of studies on history of Alcarria and as editor of monumental multi-volume series of Juan Vázquez de Mella works.
WEsperanza Aguirre y Gil de Biedma is a Spanish politician. A member of the People's Party (PP), she served as President of the Senate between 1999 and 2002, as President of the Community of Madrid between 2003 and 2012 and as Minister of Education and Culture (1996–1999). She also chaired the People's Party of the Community of Madrid between 2004 and 2016.
WBartolomé Bennassar was a French historian and writer. He specialized in Spanish and Latin American history.
WTeresa Berganza Vargas OAXS is a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with the roles of Rossini, Mozart, and Bizet. She is admired for her technical virtuosity, musical intelligence, and beguiling stage presence.
WIrina Georgieva Bokova is a Bulgarian politician and the former Director-General of UNESCO (2009–2017). During her political and diplomatic career in Bulgaria, she served, among others, two terms as a member of the National parliament, and deputy minister of foreign affairs and minister of foreign affairs ad interim under Prime Minister Zhan Videnov. She also served as Bulgaria's ambassador to France and to Monaco, and was Bulgaria's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. Bokova was also the personal representative of Bulgaria's President to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (2005–2009).
WJaime del Burgo Torres was a Spanish official, writer and a Carlist activist. He is noted mostly as a historian; his works focus on Navarre and the Carlist wars. As a public servant he is known as longtime head of Navarrese library network, regional Ministry of Information delegate and a governmental and self-governmental tourist official. As a Carlist he is acknowledged as moving spirit behind the Navarrese Requeté in the 1930s and as representative of the Carloctavista faction during early Francoism. He also wrote novels, poems and dramas.
WMaría Enriqueta Camarillo (1872–1968) was a Mexican poet-novelist, short story writer and translator. She was highly decorated for her works having schools and libraries named after her, as well as a bust by Spanish sculptor Mariano Benlliure erected in Hidalgo Park in Mexico City in her honor. She received the 1923 literary prize from Académie française for her novel El Secreto. She was awarded a collaborative partnership in 1927 with the Real Academia Hispano-Americana de Ciencias y Artes of Cádiz for her textbook Rosas de la Infancia and for the same work a prize as best children's literature at the Literary Salon of the Universal Exposition in Seville, Spain. Camarillo was granted the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 1947 and in 1948 received the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise.
WPilar del Castillo Vera is a Spanish politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2004. She previously served as Minister for Education, Culture and Sport in the government of Prime Minister José María Aznar from 2000 to 2004.
WJosé Cruz Herrera was a Spanish painter who concentrated principally on genre works and landscape art. He worked in Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, France and especially Morocco, where he lived for much of his life in Casablanca. Many of his works are displayed at the Museo Cruz Herrera in his home town of La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz).
WJosé Plácido Domingo Embil is a Spanish opera singer, conductor and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a lirico-spinto tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José, and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation. In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into almost exclusively baritone parts, most notably Simon Boccanegra. He has performed 151 different roles.
WJorge Edwards Valdés is a Chilean novelist, journalist and diplomat. He was the Chilean ambassador to France during the first Piñera presidency.
WLuis Miguel Enciso Recio was a Spanish historian and politician.
WMaría del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 18th Duchess of Alba GE was one of the most senior aristocrats in Spain, as well as the most titled aristocrat in the world.
WSir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the enzyme lysozyme and the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance which he named penicillin. He discovered lysozyme from his nasal discharge in 1922, and along with it a bacterium he named Micrococcus Lysodeikticus, later renamed Micrococcus luteus. His discovery of what is later named benzylpenicillin from the mould Penicillium rubens in 1928, is described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease." For this discovery he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.
WManuel Fraga Iribarne was a Spanish professor and politician in Francoist Spain, who was also the founder of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambassador to the United Kingdom between 1973 and 1975, Minister of the Interior in 1975, Second Deputy Prime Minister between 1975 and 1976, President of the People's Alliance/People's Party between 1979 and 1990 and President of the Regional Government of Galicia between 1990 and 2005. He was also a Member of the Congress of Deputies and a Senator.
WDario Franceschini is an Italian lawyer, writer, and politician, member of the Democratic Party (PD), of which he briefly became leader in 2009. Since September 2019, Franceschini is serving as Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, a position that he also held from February 2014 to June 2018, making him the longest-serving cultural heritage minister in the history of the Italian Republic. Franceschini also served as Minister for Parliamentary Relations from 2013 to 2014.
WValentín Fuster Carulla is a Spanish-American cardiologist.
WJosé Gálvez Ginachero was a Spanish Roman Catholic doctor. Ginachero studied in Granada and Madrid in medicine where he obtained excellent results before doing additional studies in Berlin and Paris. His return to his hometown saw him implement practices he learnt in Europe that not all doctors followed in terms of sanitation in order to reduce patient deaths. He was a distinguished doctor noted for his care for the poor and his meticulous attention to medical practices. This earned him accolades in recognition of his importance to the Málaga social arena and earn him praise from the nation's monarchs.
WJosefina Gómez Mendoza is a Spanish geographer, writer, and professor emerita. From 2001 to 2005, she was Rector of the National University of Distance Education (UNED). She is a member of the Royal Academy of History, Medal No. 7, and the Royal Academy of Engineering, Medal No. 58.
WRebeca Grynspan Mayufis is a Costa Rican economist, the current Ibero-American Secretary General, a former UN Under-Secretary-General, and the Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. She was the Vice President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. Grynspan previously served as Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, appointed to the position by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in December 2005.
WDr. Juan de Dios Guevara Romero was a Peruvian chemist.
WJulia Gutiérrez Caba OAXS MML is a Spanish theatre and film actress.
WHassan II ; was King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999. He was a member of the Alaouite dynasty. He was the eldest son of Mohammed V, Sultan, then King of Morocco (1909–1961), and his second wife, Lalla Abla bint Tahar (1909–1992). Hassan was known to be one of the most severe rulers of Morocco, widely accused of authoritarian practices and of being an autocrat and a dictator, particularly during the Years of Lead.
WJosé María Íñigo Gómez was a Spanish journalist, radio and television presenter, and stage and screen actor.
WEsther María Koplowitz y Romero de Juseu, 7th Marchioness of Casa Peñalver, LH is a Spanish billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist.
WLeonardo Zamora Legaspi, O.P. was the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Caceres and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (1988–1991). He was appointed as the first Filipino Rector Magnificus of the University of Santo Tomas in 1970. On September 8, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI accepted his retirement as Metropolitan Archbishop of Caceres, and named Bishop Rolando Joven Tria Tirona, O.C.D., as Archbishop-elect. Archbishop Tirona, who until then had been the Bishop-Prelate of the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Infanta in the Philippines, immediately succeeded to the see upon the acceptance of his appointment and was formally installed as Metropolitan Archbishop of Caceres on 14 November 2012.
WInfanta Margarita of Spain, Duchess of Soria, 2nd Duchess of Hernani, Grandee of Spain, is the younger sister of King Juan Carlos and aunt of the reigning King Felipe VI of Spain.
WJosé Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruiz, better known by his pseudonym Azorín, was a Spanish novelist, essayist and literary critic. As a political radical in the 1890s, he moved steadily to the right. In literature he attempted to define the eternal qualities of Spanish life. His essays and criticism are written in a simple, compact style. Particularly notable are his impressionistic descriptions of Castilian towns and landscape.
WMarta Ángela Mata Garriga was a Spanish politician and pedagogue who promoted the renovation of public schools during Spain's transition to democracy in 1978, and defended secular schools. She was the founder of the Associació de Mestres Rosa Sensat and wrote numerous books and articles on reading and writing didactics, pedagogy, educational policy, and children's stories.
WMaría del Carmen García Maura OAXS is a Spanish actress. In a career that has spanned six decades, Maura is best known for her collaborations with noted Spanish film directors Pedro Almodóvar and Álex de la Iglesia. Maura holds the record for most Goya Awards for Best Leading Actress than any other actress in the history of Spanish film. She also won a Cesar Award in 2013 and a Cannes Film Festival Award in 2006.
WThe military career of Francisco Franco Bahamonde began on 29 August 1907, when he took the oath as a cadet at the Spanishy Toledo Infantry Academy. On 13 July 1910 he graduated from Infantry Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Spanish Army, in the same promotion as Juan Yagüe, Emilio Esteban Infantes, Camilo Alonso Vega, José Asensio, Lisardo Doval Bravo and Eduardo Sáenz de Buruaga. He rose through the ranks over the next twenty years and became one of the most important Spanish commissioned officers of the Rif War. On 31 January 1926 Franco, aged 33, became the youngest general in all of Europe. In January 1928 he was then chosen to direct the newly formed General Military Academy in Zaragoza. From 19 May 1935 to 23 February 1936, Franco was elevated to Chief of Army Staff before the 1936 election moved the leftist Popular Front into power, relegating him to the Canary Islands as Commander of the Archipelago Force. After initial reluctance, he joined the July 1936 military coup which, after failing to take Spain, sparked the Spanish Civil War.
WElisabeth Mohn is a German billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist.
WMaría de los Ángeles López Segovia OAXS MML, better known as Lina Morgan, was a Spanish film, theatre and television actress and showgirl.
WHermann Parzinger is a German historian who is a specialist in the culture of the Scythians. He has been president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation since 1 March 2008.
WRenzo Piano is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016). He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998.
WBaron Hervé Pinoteau was a French historian and royalist apologist. He was the author of more than 900 articles and 22 books primarily on history and heraldry.
WMaría Dolores Fernández Pradera OAXS was a Spanish melodic singer and actress, and one of the most famous voices in Spain and Latin America.
WMiguel de la Quadra-Salcedo y Gayarre was a Spanish reporter and Olympic athlete. He was the director and founder of cultural program Aventura 92, nowadays named as Ruta Quetzal BBVA. Although he was born in Madrid, he was always recognized as Basque-Navarre.
WManuel Quiroga Losada was a noted Spanish violinist of the early 20th Century, whose career was cut short by a traffic accident in New York in 1937. He was repeatedly billed by music critics as "the finest successor of Pablo de Sarasate", and he is sometimes referred to as "Sarasate's spiritual heir". Enrique Granados, Eugène Ysaÿe and other composers dedicated compositions to him. The greatest violinists of the time – Ysaÿe, Fritz Kreisler, George Enescu, Mischa Elman and Jascha Heifetz – as well as composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Jean Sibelius, held Quiroga's artistry in great regard. Guilhermina Suggia, the Portuguese cellist, described his playing of Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata as "marvellous and flawless".
WBlanca de los Ríos Nostench was a Spanish writer and painter.
WArthur Rubinstein was a Polish-American classical pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers and many regard him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time. He played in public for eight decades.
WMaría Jesús San Segundo Gómez de Cadiñanos, was a Spanish economist, academic, diplomat and politician, minister of Education and Science of Spain between 2004 and 2006.
WCarl Adolph Schuricht was a German conductor.
WFrancisco Javier Solana de Madariaga is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government as Foreign Affairs Minister under Felipe González (1992–1995) and as the Secretary General of NATO (1995–1999), he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and Secretary-General of the Western European Union and held these posts from October 1999 until December 2009.
WAdolfo Suárez González, 1st Duke of Suárez was a Spanish lawyer and politician. Suárez was Spain's first democratically elected Prime Minister since the Second Spanish Republic and a key figure in the country's transition to democracy after the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
WGonzalo Suárez Morilla is a Spanish writer, screenwriter and film director.
WManuel Suárez y Suárez was a Spanish immigrant to Mexico who became a successful entrepreneur and patron of the arts. He is known for the Casino de la Selva in Cuernavaca, the Hotel de México, and the adjacent Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros.
WHugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton was an English historian and writer, best known for his book The Spanish Civil War.
WMarianne Leonie Petrus Thyssen is a Belgian politician for the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V), European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility between 2014 and 2019.
WJulio de Urquijo e Ibarra, Count of Urquijo (1871-1950), in Basque self-styled as Julio Urkixokoa, was a Basque linguist, cultural activist, and a Spanish Carlist politician. As a Traditionalist deputy he twice served in the Cortes, during the terms of 1903-1905 and 1931-1933, though the climax of his political activity fell on the late Restoration period. As a scientist he was the moving spirit behind settting up numerous vascologist institutions, especially Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos (1907) and Sociedad de Estudios Vascos (1918). Himself he specialized in Basque paremiology and bibliography. He opposed academy-driven unification of Basque dialects and preferred to wait until standard Basque emerges naturally.
WAmelia Valcarcel is a Spanish philosopher and feminist. She is considered within the “philosophic feminism” as part of the “equality feminism” approach. In 2015 she is a professor in Moral and Political Philosophy at the National University of Distance Education and since 2006 is member of the Spanish Council of State.
WConcepción Velasco Varona OAXS MML, known professionally as Concha Velasco, is a Spanish film actress, theater actress, singer, and television presenter. She was born in Valladolid and she moved to Madrid when she was 10 years old. She worked as a dancer with Manolo Caracol and with Celia Gámez.
WCarlos Emilio Juan Zurita y Delgado, Duke of Soria and Hernani, is the husband of Infanta Margarita and uncle of King Felipe VI of Spain.