24 JUNE

1898 - Gregorio del Pilar y Sempio liberates the town of Bulakan, Bulakan province from  the Spanish forces during the second phase of the Philippine  Revolution against Spain; Filipino revolutionaries some weeks ago earlier scored major victories in the province,  capturing and taking the station in Bigaa, Bulacan, which was garrisoned by 24 men of the Spanish Infantry and Rural Guards and taking control of nine (9) other Bulacan towns; earlier in 1897, he gained some level of revolutionary fame when he led an assault on the Spanish barracks in the town convent of Paombong in Bulakan, permitting him to gain the confidence of, and be included in the circle of revolutionary leaders by, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, leader of the second phase of the Himagsikan;  Gregorio took part in the earlier Propaganda Movement, such as in  helping his uncle Marcelo H. del Pilar clandestinely circulate anti-friar materials and copies of the illegal propaganda periodical, La Solidaridad and then later joined the  secret-society-turned-revolutionary-government Kagalanggalangang Katipunan  nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) then led by Supreme President Andres Bonifacio y de Castro who was subsequently deposed and then ordered assassinated/executed by Aguinaldo in May 1897; one of the youngest generals of the  Filipino forces, Gregorio del Pilar will soon be promoted  brigadier-general and will also be responsible for the  successful repulsion of the imperialist United States invaders in  the Battle of Quingua (Plaridel) where Bald Eagle enemy officer Col. John M.  Stotsenberg  will be killed by valiant Filipino freedom-fighters in April 1899 during the early phase of the bloody and protracted Philippine-American War (1899-1914).