THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Jour­nal­ists love a good an­niver­sary. Need a sub­ject for a col­umn? It’s the 50th an­niver­sary of that painter’s death. Need a com­pan­ion piece for an in­ter­view? It’s the 150th com­mem­o­ra­tion of that in­sti­tu­tion’s foun­da­tion. Need po­lit­i­cal con­text? It’s the 200th an­niver­sary of the end of that war! I’m not run­ning an­niver­saries down. De­spite some­times seem­ing a bit ar­bi­trary re­mem­ber­ing this writer rather than this one, few I think would doubt the im­por­tance of re­mem­ber­ing key his­tor­i­cal fig­ures and events. We are where we are thanks to those who came be­fore us, their ex­am­ple can serve as in­spi­ra­tion or a warn­ing and, if noth­ing else, can help us in our next game of Triv­ial Pur­suit!

The one time when an­niver­saries are valid is at the start of a new year. With 2018 ahead of us, in this issue we look at some of the com­mem­o­ra­tions in the com­ing 12 months. Check out the re­port on pages 34 & 35, where we re­mem­ber im­por­tant fig­ures from the past and major past events, both at home and abroad.

If I have one com­plaint about our list, it is that we had to leave out some good an­niver­saries due to a lack of space. Here are a few that did not make the final cut but that I think are worth men­tion­ing.

For ex­am­ple, this year is the 100th an­niver­sary of the con­struc­tion of the Mari­cel Palace in Sit­ges. This build­ing de­signed by Miquel Utrillo and that houses the town’s mu­seum was su­perbly re­fur­bished in 2015 and looks re­splen­dent. I men­tion it be­cause I went there this sum­mer and it is well worth a visit, es­pe­cially in this its an­niver­sary year.

Mean­while, this year is the 25th an­niver­sary of the Maas­tricht Treaty com­ing into ef­fect, for­mally es­tab­lish­ing the Eu­ro­pean Union. It is an in­ter­est­ing date, be­cause the wide­spread cel­e­bra­tions one might ex­pect are likely to be muted given the major prob­lems, from the mi­gra­tion cri­sis to Brexit and even the Cata­lan po­lit­i­cal con­flict, that now beset the bloc.

Fi­nally, 2018 marks 450 years since the Nether­lands de­clared in­de­pen­dence from Spain. Given the local con­text, it might prove heart­en­ing for some that break­ing away from Spain has been done be­fore, al­beit a very long time ago.