José Rizal’s 158th Birthday

Google Dooles 18.06.2019 19:06  Date: June 19, 2019 Today’s Doodle celebrates Filipino author and physician José Rizal, whose passionate writings and selfless devotion inspired the Philippine nationalist movement. Born in Calamba on this day in 1861, Rizal learned to read and write by age five and grew up to become a Filipino national hero. Educated in Manila, Rizal traveled overseas to study philosophy and medicine at the University of Madrid, the University of Paris, and the University of Heidelberg. Inspired by his mother's failing eyesight, he trained under prominent European ophthalmologists Louis de Wecker and Otto Becker and became an accomplished eye surgeon. While living in Europe for a decade, he began publishing a series of works—including Noli Me Tangere and El filibusterismo —that established him as a leading voice for reform in his homeland. His translation of Antonio De Morga’s 1609 Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas highlighted the achievements of Filipino society prior to Spanish colonization. A frequent contributor to La Solidaridad, a newspaper published in Barcelona, Rizal advocated for the Philippines to be integrated as a province of Spain, represented in the Spanish parliament, and for its citizens to be granted such basic rights as freedom of assembly and expression, and equality under the law. A monument in Rizal’s honor still stands in Manila’s Rizal Park. Location: Tags: