16 FEBRUARY

Gat Andres Bonifacio monument

1921 - The day November 30, the birthday of Andres Bonifacio y de  Castro, the "Father of Philippine Revolution" is declared legal holiday under Act No. 2946 during the American colonial period; the declaration comes some 24 1/2 years  after Gat Andres, Generalissimo of the secret-turned-society-turned-revolutionary-government Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang  Bayan (KKK) was ousted from revolutionary leadership through the  controversial Tejeros Convention and then executed by the same mutineer camp of Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo; Act No. 2946 effectively makes Bonifacio a national hero, although in an unofficial sense, in contrast to the imperialist American government's official declaration of Jose P. Rizal as national hero in the early 1900s; the law making every November 30th of each year Araw ni Bonifacio [Bonifacio Day] began as a bill sponsored by Senator Lope K. Santos.

World War II comes to the Philippines

1945 - United States troops land on the Bataan Peninsula, Philippines in the bid to recapture the former American colony during World War II; the  Southeast Asian country, colonized by America at the turn of the 19th century, was invaded by Japan in 1941.


Photo credit: http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/axis-conquers-philippines.htm/printable

Photo art (Bonifacio monument):
Jesusa Bernardo