Template:On this day - April 12

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

• 65 – Death of Seneca, Roman philosopher, politician, orator and writer of Hispanic origin (b. 4 BC).
• 1539 – Birth of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Hispano-Peruvian poet, historian and writer (d. 1616).
• 1555 – Death of Joanna "the Mad", Queen of Castile, of Aragon and of Navarre (b. 1479).
• 1557 – In the Viceroyalty of Peru (present-day Ecuador), the village of Cuenca is founded.
• 1609 – Friesland, Groningen, Guelders, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht and Zeeland create the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, thus breaking away from the Spanish Netherlands.
• 1707 – Birth of José Benegasi y Luján, Spanish poet and playwright (d. 1770).
• 1779 – The Treaty of Aranjuez is signed, by which Spain intervenes in the American War of Independence.
• 1814 – The Manifesto of the Persians is presented to King Ferdinand VII of Spain.
• 1848 – Birth of José Gautier Benítez, Puerto Rican poet (d. 1880).
• 1859 – Birth of Rafael Uribe Uribe, Colombian lawyer, journalist, diplomat and soldier (d. 1914).
• 1860 – In Venezuela, Manuel Felipe de Tovar is sworn in as the first president elected after independence.
• 1869 – In Cuba, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, elected by the Assembly of Guáimaro president of the Republic of Cuba in Arms, takes office.
• 1870 – In Spain, a court-martial is held to try the Duke of Montpensier, who had killed his cousin the Infante Don Enrique de Borbón in a duel.
• 1920 – Death of Teresa de Los Andes (19), Chilean Carmelite nun and saint (b. 1900).
• 1931 – In Spain, municipal elections are held in which the republican candidacies win a majority in 41 provincial capitals, which would lead to the proclamation of the Second Republic.
• 1946 – In Spain, the Patronato de Apuestas Mutuas Deportivas Benéficas is created, the predecessor of the current body Loterías y Apuestas del Estado.
• 1962 – In Spain, the Cortes approve the nationalization of the Bank of Spain.
• 1983 – In Los Angeles (California), the film Volver a empezar by José Luis Garci wins for Spain, for the first time, the Oscar for best non-English-language film.
• 2002 – During the coup d'état against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the businessman Pedro Carmona assumes the presidency and dissolves all the branches of government.
• 2018 – Death of Sergio Pitol, Mexican writer, translator and diplomat (b. 1933).