Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres served (briefly) as the first Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then - from 1931 to 1936 - as its President. He was succeeded in the latter office by Manuel Azaña. Alcalá-Zamora was born in Priego de Cordoba, Spain. A lawyer by profession, from a very young age he was active in the Liberal Party. Chosen as a deputy, he quickly gained fame for his eloquent interventions in the Congress of Deputies, …

José Canalejas y Méndez was a Spanish politician, born in Ferrol. He graduated in 1871 from the University of Madrid, took his Galicia doctor's degree in 1872 and became a lecturer on literature in 1873. He later studied railway problems, but continued his literary work, publishing a history of Latin literature in two volumens. He was elected deputy for Soria in 1881, became undersecretary for the prime minister's department under Posada Herrera in 1883, …

Gonzalo Queipo de Llano y Sierra was a Spanish Army Officer who fought for the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. He was born in Tordesillas, Spain. Educated at a seminary, he ran away and enlisted in the Spanish Army as a gunner. He later entered the Royal Cavalry Academy of Valladolid as a cadet, fought in Cuba (during the Spanish-American War) and then in the Rif War as a cavalry officer. Queipo de Llano attained the rank of brigadier general in 1923.

Dámaso Berenguer y Fusté was a Spanish soldier and politician. Berenguer was born in San Juan de los Remedios, Cuba, while that island nation was still a Spanish province. He enlisted in the army in 1889, served in Cuba and Morocco, and was promoted to general in 1909. In 1918, he was appointed Minister of War under Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto. From January 1919 to July 1922 he was the High Commissioner of Spanish Morocco.

José Sanjurjo Sacanell Marquess of the Rif and general, was a Spanish Army Officer who was one of the chief conspirators of the military uprising that led to the Spanish Civil War. Born in Pamplona, he served in Cuba (1896) and in several campaigns in Morocco (1909), among them the reconquest of the lost territory in Melilla after the Battle of Annual (1921). In 1922, in the front of the separate military command of Larache, …

María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés ; (age 87) was Francisco Franco's wife and a member of the Spanish nobility as Señora de Meirás Grandee of Spain with the title of Doña, as well as a descendant of a privileged Puerto Rico family. She was the daughter of Felipe Polo-Vereterra y Florez and his wife Ramona Martínez-Valdés y Martínez-Valdés. She did not play a major role in her husband's regime, except in the election of Carlos Arias Navarro, …

Maria Christina, Princess Imperial and Archduchess of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia ("Maria Christina Désirée Henriette Felicitas Rainiera von Habsburg-Lothringen", 21 July 1858 – 6 February 1929) was the second Queen consort of King Alfonso XII of Spain and was Queen Regent of Spain during the minority of her son Alfonso XIII and during the abeyancy of the throne before his birth, from November 25 1885 - 7 May 1902.

Juan Bautista Aznar Cabañas was a Spanish admiral who was made Prime Minister at a time of intense crisis, in the first months of 1931, when the monarchy was on the verge of falling under popular pressure for a republic. His attempts to save the crown failed, and king Alfonso had to go to exile.

José Enrique Varela Iglesias (born in San Fernando, Cadiz, Spain, April 17, 1891 - died in Tangier, Spanish Morocco, March 24, 1951) was a Spanish military commander and an important figure in the Spanish Civil War. Varela started his military career as an enlisted man and fought in the colonial wars in the Rif for three years starting in 1909. He rose to the rank of sergeant and then enrolled in infantry school in Spain and graduated as a lieutenant.

César Ritz was a famous Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously The Ritz Hotel. His nickname was "king of hoteliers, and hotelier to kings," and it is from his name and that of his hotels that the term "ritzy" derives. Ritz began his career at Le Splendide, a hotel in Paris and was maître d'hôtel at Chez Voisin, a restaurant which closed following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

Doña María de las Mercedes de Bórbon-Dos Sicilias y Orléans, Princess of the Two Sicilies, Infanta of Spain, Countess of Barcelona (María de las Mercedes Cristina Genara Isabel Luísa Carolina Victoria) (Madrid, December 23, 1910- Lanzarote, January 2, 2000) was the mother of current King Juan Carlos I of Spain. She was known in Spain as "Doña María de las Mercedes de Borbón-Dos Sicilias y Orléans".

Juan March i Ordinas was a Spanish financier and British agent on the side of Francisco Franco's forces during and after the Spanish Civil War. He was born in Santa Margalida on the island of Mallorca, and initially he was involved with the business of smuggling tobacco between North Africa and Spain. During World War I, he was supplying goods to ships of both sides, avoiding the blockade.

The Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia (June 23, 1908- March 20, 1975), was the second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his wife Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. He was born in the royal palace of Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia. Because he was deaf-mute as the result of a childhood operation, he renounced his rights to the Spanish throne for himself and his descendants on June 23, 1933. He then became Duke of Segovia.

Jan Szczepanik (April 13, 1872 in Rudniki (near Mostyska), Ukraine - April 18, 1926 in Tarnów, Poland) was a Polish inventor. Szczepanik held several hundred patents and made over 50 discoveries, many of which are still used today, especially in motion picture industry, photography and television. Some of the ideas influenced the development of television, …

Antenor Patiño was a Bolivian tycoon, heir to Simón I. Patiño, called "the King of Tin". He married María Cristina de Borbón y Bosch-Labrus (1913-2002), Duchess of Dúrcal, a relative of Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. The couple had two daughters, Cristina and María Isabel. The latter had a short and tragic marriage with James Goldsmith. In 1947, he made a successful effort to rid his company of organized labor.

Alfonso XIII (May 17, 1886 - February 28, 1941), King of Spain, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886-1931. His mother, Queen Maria Christina, was appointed regent during his minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed control of the state. He was a promoter of tourism in Spain. The problems with the lodging of his wedding guests prompted the construction of the luxury Hotel Palace in Madrid.

George 'Professor' Burchett (also styled the 'King of Tattooists') was born George Burchett-Davis on August 23, 1872, in the English seaside town of Brighton, East Sussex and became one of the most famous tattoo artists in the world. Having been expelled from school at 12 for tattooing his classmates, he joined the Royal Navy at 13, developing his skills while travelling overseas as a deckhand on the HMS Vincent. After absconding from the Navy, he returned to England, …