Template:On this day - December 20

Chintila

• 639 – Chintila, King of Visigothic Hispania, dies of natural causes (b. 6th century).
• 1073 – Death of Saint Dominic of Silos, Spanish religious (b. 1000).
• 1494 – The Catholic Monarchs grant the charter of Las Palmas, capital of the Canary archipelago.
• 1591 – Juan de Lanuza y Urrea, 51st Justicia of Aragon, is executed after his defense of the Fueros in the context of the Alterations of Aragon.
• 1592 – Havana (Cuba) is declared a city by royal decree of Philip II.
• 1603 – Hernando Talavera Gallegos arrives in the Kingdom of Chile as lieutenant governor; he would later be Oidor of the Real Audiencia of Santiago de Chile, and later interim governor.
• 1795 – The remains of Christopher Columbus are removed from the Cathedral of Santo Domingo (Island of Hispaniola) to be moved to Havana (Cuba).
• 1803 – France hands over the region of Louisiana to the United States, ignoring the commitment it had made on signing the Convention of Aranjuez, by which it was obliged to sell the territory preferentially to Spain.
• 1827 – In Mexico, the first federal law for the expulsion of Spaniards by birth is promulgated.
• 1863 – In Santiago de Chile, the Santiago Volunteer Fire Department is formed, following the great fire at the Church of the Society of Jesus of 8 December of the same year.
• 1945 – In Buenos Aires (Argentina), President Juan Domingo Perón creates the National Institute of Remuneration, which obliges industries and private companies throughout the country to pay the aguinaldo (supplementary annual salary) to all Argentine workers.
• 1960 – The Juan March Foundation acquires the Cantar de mio Cid (the most valuable manuscript of the National Library) for 10 million pesetas.
• 1973 – In Spain, the terrorist group ETA murders Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, President of the Government, with a bomb.
• 1989 – The United States army invades Panama with the aim of deposing Manuel Antonio Noriega and installing the elected government of Guillermo Endara.
• 1948 – Birth of Mohamed Bouissef Rekab, one of the leading figures of Moroccan literature in the Spanish language.
• 1994 – In Mexico, the government of President Ernesto Zedillo devalues the currency from 3.50 to 6.50 pesos to the dollar, during the greatest economic crisis in Mexico's history.
• 2001 – In Argentina, in the midst of a great economic crisis during which looting and incidents with dozens of deaths occur, President Fernando de la Rúa resigns.
• 2002 – Death of José Suárez Carreño, Spanish-Mexican poet, narrator and playwright (b. 1915).