1927. José Antonio Méndez is born in the Los Pinos neighborhood in Havana.

He became known in the musical world as "El Ronco de Oro", the "King" or "El Rey del feeling". It wasn't his voice that stood out about him, but the way he played, with a fairly deep timbre. From a very young age he showed interest in music and had a self-taught training. His father used to get together to sing the old trova with his friends. Already at the age of twelve he competed in a radio program called La Corte Suprema del Arte, in which he interpreted a Mexican corrido. In the 1940s he began to study the guitar and linked up with other young music lovers, and it was through the composer and guitarist Ñico Rojas that he went to the house of Angelito Díaz in Callejón de Hammel. Later he was part of the Loquibambia group with the teacher Frank Emilio and performed on the Mil Diez radio station. In 1949 he left for Mexico where he performed in cabarets and in the most famous salon in the Federal District, “El Cardini Internacional”. In this country he linked up with other Cuban artists who were successful there.

Many of his musical creations have reached great popularity both in Cuba and abroad. Just mention these titles: The glory is you, my girlfriend, You my adoration, My best song, That feeling called love, If you understood me, Love me and you'll see, I'm so happy, Because of our cowardice, Cement, Brick and Arena, just like I was missing you.

This popular Cuban artist had sincerity and authenticity as a premise in all his work and performance in his life. His death occurred in Havana due to a traffic accident on June 10, 1989.

2001. The historian and professor Dr. Hortensia Pichardo Viñals dies in Havana.

She graduated first from the Escuela Normal de Maestros and then from the University of Havana in the specialties of Pedagogy and Philosophy and Letters. She taught for almost two decades at the Instituto de la Víbora and from 1961 she worked at the University of Havana. She is considered a cornerstone in Cuban historiography. She educated in the classroom, in the archive, even in her house when she was visited by students and friends. She was also cataloged as a paradigm of a teacher in the history of Cuba, not only for her consecration to teaching but also for the dissemination of historical knowledge that she assumed as a true apostolate. She reflected her research and knowledge in works that are a must for specialists and others interested in knowing aspects of Cuba. His main contributions to education are presented in research papers on Cuban issues in map libraries and archives in the United States, in the National Archives, in the Library of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, in the Municipal Archives and in the Museum of Santiago de Cuba, whose results she published together with her husband Fernando Portuondo.

For her meritorious work, she received numerous awards and decorations from the Cuban Government, mass organizations and scientific and academic institutions. In 1997 he was awarded the National Prize for History. Her birth took place in the Cuban capital on January 22, 1904.