Spanish trade unionist Manuel Molina Conejero was shot in Paterna on this date in 1939. Expect Spanish-language links throughout this post.

A longtime labor activist and (in 1910) co-founder of the mechanical sawmills union, Molina won election as a deputy of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in 1936 — the left-wing electoral victory that triggered General Francisco Franco’s rebellion and the start of the Spanish Civil War.

Molina was part of PSOE’s moderate faction, led by Indalecio Prieto, and was appointed civil governor of Valencia when Prieto’s rival Francisco Largo Caballero was forced to resign the presidency during the chaotic Barcelona May Days.

He was arrested by the Francoists upon their victory in the civil war.

There’s a street named for him in his home city.

On this day..

• Corpses Strewn: The Aiken Party Massacre
• 1857: Two members of the Aiken Party
• 1679: Five Covenanter prisoners from the Battle of Bothwell Bridge
• 1944: Victor Gough, of Operation Jedburgh
• 1836: Six Creek rebels, amid removal
• 1730: Patrona Halil, Ottoman rebel
• 1881: Four Black Friday hangings
• 1977: Benigno Aquino condemned
• 1988: Adrian Lim and his two wives
• 1838: Tsali, Cherokee
• 2008: Amoudou Samassa, to quell a lynch mob
• 1780: David Dawson and Ralph Morden, Quaker "traitors"
• Feast Day of St. Catherine of the Wheel