23 JULY

1864 - Apolinario Mabini, the future "Brains of the Philippine   Revolution" and Foreign Minister of what would be the short-lived  Philippine Republic under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, is born in Talaga, Tanauan, Batangas to Dionisia Maranan and  Inocencio  Mabini during the Spanish colonial rule;  297 years earlier, Miguel  Lopez de Legaspi, the Spanish conquistador who forged a blood  compact  with the natives and deceived them into thinking that his people were friends, reports to King Philip II about how Chinese  and Japanese come yearly to some islands in the archipelago, such  as Luzon and Mindoro, to trade silk, wool bells, iron, tin, porcelains, perfumes, colored cotton cloths and other  small wares in exchange for gold and wax.

Image credit: National Historical Institute