50 Fun Facts About Philippine History

Which explorer's expedition made the first documented European arrival, sighting Samar in March 1521?

Ferdinand Magellan. He never finished the voyage: six weeks later he was killed in a fight on Mactan, and Elcano brought the last ship home to Spain.

Which datu of Mactan defeated the Spanish expedition on the beach in April 1521?

Lapulapu. He refused to bow to Spain or to its new ally, Rajah Humabon of Cebu, so the expedition's captain landed on Mactan to force him and was killed in the fight.

Who led the 1565 expedition that founded the first permanent Spanish settlement, in Cebu?

Miguel López de Legazpi. He held Cebu through a Portuguese blockade in 1568, then moved north and founded Manila as the colony's capital in 1571.

Whose 1543 expedition gave Leyte and Samar the name 'Las Islas Filipinas', honoring a Spanish prince?

Ruy López de Villalobos. Some accounts credit one of his captains with coining the name, and the voyage itself ended in disaster.

When Spanish forces took Maynila in 1571, its rulers followed which religion?

Islam. Maynila was a walled Muslim settlement whose ruler taxed trade on the Pasig River; the Spanish destroyed it and raised the fortress city of Intramuros on the site.

Which Augustinian friar pioneered the tornaviaje, the return sailing route from the Philippines to Mexico, in 1565?

Andrés de Urdaneta. He swung far north to catch winds blowing back toward America, and Manila's galleons followed that high arc across the Pacific for 250 years.

The Manila galleons sailed between Manila and which Mexican port?

Acapulco. The yearly galleon unloaded Chinese silk and porcelain there and sailed home heavy with Mexican silver, the lifeline of Spanish Manila.

What event ended the Manila galleon trade in 1815?

The galleons had carried Asian luxury goods west and New World silver east for 250 years, mostly crewed by Filipino natives.

What does the Laguna Copperplate Inscription of 900 CE, the earliest known dated Philippine document, record?

A debt being forgiven. It clears a man named Namwaran and his family of a debt in gold; a man dredging river sand found the plate, and a dealer who could not sell it passed it to the National Museum.

Tabon Man, among the earliest human remains found in the Philippines, was unearthed in caves on which island?

Palawan. A National Museum team under Robert Fox dug the Tabon Caves in the 1960s, and despite the name, the famous skullcap is thought to be a woman's.

The human species Homo luzonensis was named in 2019 from bones found in which cave?

Callao Cave. One foot bone found there in 2007 could not be placed; twelve more bones and teeth then showed a mix of ancient and modern features seen in no other human species.

The opening of which canal in 1869 cut travel time to Spain and helped create the ilustrado class?

Suez. With Spain easier to reach and export fortunes growing, wealthy families sent their sons to study in Europe, where they launched the reformist Propaganda Movement.

Gomburza refers to three priests executed by garrote in 1872 after which uprising?

The Cavite mutiny. Some 200 troops and arsenal workers rose in a brief revolt, but the governor used it to try three reformist priests, whose execution made them martyrs of the nationalist cause.

What does the Latin title of Rizal's 1887 novel Noli Me Tángere mean?

Touch me not. The words come from John's Gospel, and the novel's exposure of the evils of Spanish rule got it banned in the Philippines, where copies had to be smuggled in.

To which town on Mindanao was Rizal banished in 1892?

Dapitan. He spent four years in exile there and had no part in the 1896 uprising, yet he was arrested, tried for sedition and shot.

On what date was Rizal executed at Bagumbayan?

December 30, 1896. The date is now Rizal Day, a national holiday, and his death by firing squad convinced many Filipinos that there was no alternative to independence from Spain.

Where was Rizal's farewell poem 'Mi último adiós' hidden before being passed to his family?

In an alcohol stove. Rizal left the poem untitled; the name it carries today was added by others after his death.

Founded in 1892, the Katipunan modeled its secret initiation rites on those of which society?

The Freemasons. Recruits were led in blindfolded and put through ordeals, and the society ran in total secrecy as a shadow government with its own president and cabinet.

Who was the Katipunan's Supremo, often called the Father of the Philippine Revolution?

Andrés Bonifacio. Largely self-taught, he worked as a messenger and warehouse keeper, and in 1897 a rival revolutionary government had him tried for treason and executed.

What was the name of the Katipunan's short-lived newspaper, printed only in March 1896?

Kalayaan. The name means 'Freedom'; that August, Spanish friars uncovered the society's plans and its leaders were forced into revolt before they were ready.

During the Cry of Pugad Lawin in August 1896, what did Katipuneros tear up in defiance of Spain?

Their tax certificates. The cédula marked its holder as a subject of Spain, so ripping it up was a public break with the crown; where and on which August day it happened is still disputed.

Which 1897 assembly elected Emilio Aguinaldo president in absentia, splitting the revolution?

The Tejeros Convention. It voted in Aguinaldo while he was away at the front, and the Katipunan's Supremo declared the proceedings void and walked out.

Under the December 1897 Pact of Biak-na-Bato, Aguinaldo and other leaders went into exile where?

Hong Kong. Spain paid the exiles to leave for good, but neither side kept the bargain: Aguinaldo spent the money on arms and was back within months to resume the fight.

Which American commodore destroyed the Spanish squadron at Manila Bay on May 1, 1898?

George Dewey. Ordered to attack the Spanish fleet, he slipped past the island forts at the mouth of the bay around midnight and struck at first light.

Which order opened the 1898 Battle of Manila Bay?

'You may fire when ready, Gridley.' The order went to the flagship's captain at about 5:40 a.m.; within hours the Spanish squadron was destroyed, at almost no cost to the American one.

Where was Philippine independence proclaimed on June 12, 1898?

Kawit, Cavite. The ceremony was held at Aguinaldo's own family home, but neither Spain nor the United States recognized the declaration, and one colonial ruler simply replaced the other.

Who sewed the first Philippine flag, unfurled at the 1898 proclamation?

Marcela Agoncillo. She stitched Aguinaldo's design while her family lived abroad in exile, helped by her daughter Lorenza and by Delfina Herbosa, a niece of José Rizal.

Who composed the music of 'Lupang Hinirang', the national anthem, in 1898?

Julián Felipe. He wrote it as a march with no words, first played at the 1898 independence ceremony; José Palma's Spanish poem 'Filipinas' was fitted to the tune a year later.

What do the sun's rays on the Philippine flag originally represent?

The first provinces to rebel. Eight rays mark the eight provinces where the 1896 revolt broke out, and by law the flag is flown with its red stripe on top when the country is at war.

How much did the United States pay Spain for the Philippines under the 1898 Treaty of Paris?

$20 million. The sum was nominally for Spain's public buildings and works in the islands; Filipinos had already declared independence, and fighting with their new rulers soon followed.

In which Bulacan town was the constitution of the First Philippine Republic proclaimed in January 1899?

Malolos. The congress sat in the town's Barasoain Church, and the republic it proclaimed had barely two weeks of peace before war with the United States began; American troops took the town that March.

Which revolutionary, known as the 'brain of the revolution', served as the First Republic's first prime minister?

Apolinario Mabini. A peasant's son who earned a law degree, he was the revolution's leading theorist, and when he refused to swear allegiance to the United States he was exiled to Guam.

Which US president decided in 1898 that the United States must take the Philippines from Spain?

William McKinley. He promised 'benevolent assimilation' that December; within weeks American and Filipino troops were fighting in Manila, two days before the Senate approved the treaty by a single vote.

Where was Emilio Aguinaldo captured by forces under Frederick Funston in March 1901?

Palanan, Isabela. Funston and his officers got into the remote headquarters by posing as prisoners of their own Macabebe scouts; Aguinaldo then swore allegiance to the United States and retired on an American pension.

In 1902 the United States declared the Philippine–American War over on which American holiday?

The Fourth of July. Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed a general amnesty and declared the war over that day, though uprisings against American rule kept flaring in the years that followed.

What did American colonial authorities make illegal in the Philippines in 1907?

Flying the national flag. The Flag Law, urged on by Americans living in Manila, also outlawed Katipunan banners and emblems, and it stood for more than a decade before Filipino legislators repealed it.

US farm lobbies backed the 1934 Tydings–McDuffie Act, promising independence in ten years, to curb tariff-free imports of which crop?

Sugar. Independence meant the end of free entry for Philippine sugar into the American market, so Depression-era growers dressed a tariff fight in the cause of Philippine freedom.

Who defeated Emilio Aguinaldo in the 1935 election to become the Commonwealth's first president?

Manuel L. Quezon. He won more than two-thirds of the vote, then led a government in exile in the United States during the Japanese occupation and died there in 1944, two years before independence.

In 1937, the Commonwealth chose which language as the basis of the national language?

Tagalog. The standardized form was later renamed Pilipino to distance it from one ethnic group, and the 1987 constitution calls the national language Filipino.

The Bataan Death March of April 1942 forced prisoners toward which destination?

Camp O'Donnell. Some 76,000 Filipino and American prisoners were marched north for days, packed into boxcars, then walked the last miles to the camp, a former Philippine army training centre.

As Japanese forces closed in during December 1941, what did MacArthur declare Manila in a bid to spare it?

An open city. The declaration was meant to spare it, and it took little damage in the invasion; the ruin came in 1945, when the month-long battle to retake it levelled the city and killed at least 100,000 civilians.

Which 1944 battle, fought as MacArthur returned to the Philippines, is by some measures the largest naval battle in history?

Leyte Gulf. Japan sent its fleet against the American landings and lost so heavily that its navy never again sailed in comparable force; the battle also saw the first organized kamikaze attacks.

Who became the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines in 1946?

Manuel Roxas. Sworn in weeks earlier as the Commonwealth's last president, he simply carried on as the republic's first, and died of a heart attack in 1948 after a speech at an American air base.

Which president moved Independence Day from July 4 to June 12?

Diosdado Macapagal. He made the switch in 1962, in response to the US House rejecting a bill to pay the Philippines war damages, and July 4 was kept as Republic Day.

Which defense secretary, later president, put down the Hukbalahap rebellion?

Ramon Magsaysay. He offered land and tools to rebels who came over, sacked corrupt officers, and rode the victory to the presidency in 1953; he died in a plane crash four years later.

Marcos justified martial law in 1972 by citing an ambush on which official, who later called it staged?

Juan Ponce Enrile. The defense chief's car was riddled with bullets on the night of September 22; in 1986, after breaking with Marcos, Enrile said the attack had been staged to justify the decree.

Where was Ninoy Aquino assassinated on August 21, 1983?

Manila International Airport. He was shot moments after soldiers led him off the plane that brought him home; the airport now bears his name, and the killing set off the protests that brought Marcos down.

EDSA, where the 1986 People Power crowds gathered, stands for what?

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. The highway is named for a historian and scholar; in February 1986 Cardinal Sin went on the radio to call Filipinos onto it to shield a band of rebel soldiers.

To which U.S. state did the Marcos family flee after the 1986 revolution?

Hawaii. American aircraft flew the family out by way of Guam to Honolulu, where Marcos died in exile three years later.

Who became the first female president of the Philippines in 1986?

Corazon Aquino. She and Marcos were each sworn in as president on the same day in February 1986; he fled the country hours later, and she went on to restore the congress he had abolished.