History
Spain On This Day - March 25
By m.p.
Mar 25, 2008 - 7:33 AM

1584: Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa founds the settlement of Ciudad del Rey Felipe, in present-day Chile, the first Spanish attempt to colonise the shores of the Strait of Magellan. All the colonists died of starvation, and it later became known as Puerto del Hambre, the name which is still in use today.

The basketball player, Fernando Martín Espina, the first Spaniard to play in the NBA, was born in Madrid in 1962. He died in a traffic accident in 1989 at the age of 27.

David Bustamente, the singer who first reached fame in the Spanish TV show Operación Triunfo, was born in San Vicente de la Barquera, Cantabria, on this day in 1982.

The singer and actress, María de los Ángeles de las Heras Ortiz, known to the world as Rocío Durcal, and also in Spain as La Señora de la Canción, and La Española más Mexicana, died at her home in Madrid on this day in 2006 at the age of 61, after fighting a long battle with cancer.