1966

09.03.1966 350 students arrange a sit-in at the University of Barcelona.
11.03.1966 Violent student demonstration breaks out after the Ministry of Education closes the University of Barcelona. The demonstration spreads to the streets in the city center. 1,000 students shout slogans and throw stones at the police, and riot police arrest students.
19.03.1966 The Spanish parliament (Cortes) passes Manuel Fraga’s new Press Law that relaxes censorship in some aspects. The opposition views the law as propaganda.
29.04.1966 Students at the Faculty of Social Science and Economy at the University of Madrid pass resolutions for a planned 24-hour general strike on May 2 to protest the closing of the University of Barcelona. Students in Madrid demonstrate in the streets, resulting in clashes with police.
29.04.1966 Students at the University of Navarra clash with police in the streets of Pamplona.
02.05.1966 1,500 students participate in a march at the University of Madrid. The police use batons against the protestors and arrest 50 participants. Among the protestors are 7 American students.
05.05.1966 2,000 students participate in a demonstration at the University of Madrid resulting in clashes with the police.
11.05.1966 Violent street fights between students and police in the center of Barcelona after the closing of the University by the Ministry of Education. 1,000 students shout slogans and throw stones at police.
December, 1966 After a referendum, the Spanish Parliament passes Franco’s new Constitution, known as “The Organic Law of the State” (Ley Orgánica del Estado). The law defines the constitutional structure of Franco’s regime. The leaders of the underground Labor Union are arrested.

1967

27.01.1967 Student demonstration in the streets of Madrid, Barcelona and other cities in Spain.  By February 6 the authorities close ten universities nationwide. The riots continue throughout the spring. Workers demonstrate in Madrid demanding higher salaries. 11 are arrested by the police.
31.01.1967 Student­ demonstration in Madrid.
02.02.1967 Spanish workers participate in protest march.
04.04.1967 More than 5,000 Spanish workers and students riot and fight with police in Bilbao.
12.04.1967 Student demonstration in Madrid.
14.04.1967 Student­ demonstra­tion in Madrid.
15.04.1967 Student demonstration in Madrid.
01.05.1967 Discontent among Spanish workers is evident as workers arrange demonstrations despite a ban by the authorities. May Day demonstrations are planned in at least 13 cities in Spain, including Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao and Barcelona. Several of the demonstrations gather more than 5000 demonstrators who throw stones at the police and overturn cars in the streets.
20.05.1967 Student­ demonstration in Madrid.
10.10.1967 By-election in Spain for 108 out of 564 seats in the Cortes (Parliament). This is the first direct parliamentary election in Spain since 1936. Independent candidates score an important victory and many new young technocrats are voted in. Many incumbent officials from Madrid are defeated in the provinces.
12.10.1967 14 Basque nationalists are imprisoned for refusing to pay fines, while 5 others are arrested for nationalist activities.
17.10.1967 12 political opposition leaders issue a joint declaration claiming that the parliamentary election of October 10 failed to open the way toward democratization. Only the regime’s National Movement was allowed to present candidates.
20.10.1967 The illegal Workers Commission held meetings at 30 Madrid plants in addition to 12 zonal assemblies involving delegates from plants in individual districts of Madrid. Police detain 200 workers and students to prevent anti-government disturbances. Among those arrested is Julian Ariza, a leader of the Workers Commission.
23.10.1967 - 27.10.1967 The illegal Workers Commissions arrange “Anti-repression Week” in Spain and plan a series of strikes and public disturbances, calling for demonstrations, work stoppages, and boycott of public transportation and food stores. The demonstrations are both economically and politically motivated.
23.10.1967 The police arrest workers’ leaders in Madrid in an attempt to prevent nationwide unrest and demonstrations. The government brings in the Guardia Civil to reinforce the riot police in Madrid.
26.10.1967 Spanish authorities warn workers that all attempted demonstrations or unrest will be put down by any means necessary.
27.10.1967 Thousands of workers participate in nationwide demonstrations. Students, intellectuals and professionals support the workers’ demonstrations. The students establish a “liason committee” to work with anti-regime labor groups. Several hundred workers and students are arrested by the police. Police open fire at 3,000-4,000 workers demonstrating in the Catalan city of Tarrase. Several are injured in the fights. Police hold students and worker demonstrators in Madrid and Barcelona under firm control.
28.10.1967 New student demonstration at the University of Madrid and among workers at 21 different plants. The students burn newspapers in protest against distorted articles in the pro-regime media and clashes occur between students and police. Workers’ demonstrations in Madrid also lead to clashes with police. The official press plays down the disturbances, but the independent press gives them top priority including detailed front page coverage. 
12.11.1967 The authorities crack down on an illegal communist group in Madrid. The group is blamed for the unrest among students and workers in Madrid.
17.11.1967 General Francisco Franco opens the new session of Cortes after the election. In his speech, he blames worker and student unrest on the Communists. He claims that the Workers Commission is Communist-directed.
30.11.1967 Student demonstration at the Faculty of Science at the University of Madrid in protest of damage caused to the office of the Free Students Union, an illegal opposition organization. Students shout slogans against Franco such as: “Franco no, liberty yes!” and sing republican songs from the days of the Civil War. About 30-40 students are arrested.
03.12.1967 The authorities close the weekly cultural magazine Destino. It reopens again February 3, 1968. Destino is regarded as a medium of the liberal opposition in Spain.
04.12.1967 Franco‘s 75th birthday is marked by student demonstrations with posters bearing slogans such as: “Franco, assassin, happy birthday!”
07.12.1967 Student demonstration at the School of Political and Economic Science at the University of Madrid. The students pass a resolution calling for an indefinite strike until arrested students are released. The professorial body at the Faculty of Medicine supports the demands.
11.12.1967 Student riots at the Faculty of Social Science and Economy at the University of Madrid. The students throw stones at the police and shout slogans like ”Freedom” and ”Death to Franco”. The riot spreads to the University of Salamanca.
12.12.1967 Student demonstration in Madrid. The Spanish Supreme Court rules that all labor strikes in Spain are illegal “in principle”. The ruling changes the interpretation that strikes for economic reasons are allowed.

1968

10.01.1968 - 01.03.1968 The Minister of Education, Manuell Loratamayo closes the Faculty of Social Science and Economy at the University of Madrid. The university confiscates students’ admission fees and students are forced to reapply for admission.
11.01.1968 Violent demonstrations in Madrid. Clashes between demonstrating university students and the police. Busses are overturned and students throw stones at the firefighters. Students go on indefinite strike.
12.01.1968 5 leaders of the illegal Workers Commission (Comisiones Oberas) are sentenced to imprisonment for participating in illegal meetings with 600 workers. They are charged with plans to establish an independent and free labor union in Spain with the right to strike. Among the convicted is Julian Ariza, vice-chairman of Comisiones Obreras. Student riots in Madrid include violent clashes between masked students and police as the students protest the closing of the Faculty of Social Science and Economy. The students throw stones and fireworks at the police. The police use horses to disperse the protestors.
15.01.1968 Riots to protest the closing of the Faculty of Social Science and Economy. The government deploys a permanent police force on the university campus. 35 police vehicles, 2 horse companies, and water canons are moved to university campus. Protesting students are photographed by the police. The Faculty of Philosophy closes after students throw desks, chairs and bricks out of windows at the police. Protest meeting at the Faculty of Law. A bus is set on fire and traffic is obstructed. The faculties at the University of Madrid are in practice closed until March 1 and the students have to apply for new admission.The Centre of Higher Studies and Sociology (1,500 students) is closed and the director fined by the authorities for giving French social scientist and professor Maurice Duverger permission to give lectures. The professors at the Faculty of Economical studies lead a meeting of 1,800 students. During the meeting an illegal independent Student Union is established. Students are on strike at the universities in Oviedo, Granada and Valencia. The Minister of Education presses charges against the editor of a Catholic journal who has labeled the closing of the university in Madrid as an illegal act.
23.01.1968 The liberal Catalan author Alfonso Carlos Comin is sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for writing an article critical of Franco in a French journal. He is not allowed a defense lawyer during his trial. The political process creates dismay in Spain and elsewhere.
25.01.1968 The Faculty of Natural Science at the University of Madrid closes for 24 hours as a result of illegal student meetings. 8 students in Barcelona are put on trial for dishonoring the Spanish flag.
26.01.1968 The police storm the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Madrid. The faculty is already paralyzed by strike and riots. The Polytechnical school (10,000 students) in Madrid closes after riots. Fights between students and police at the University of Barcelona result in 22 students being expelled. All 15,000 students at the university engage in lecture boycotts in protest against the exclusions.
28.01.1968 The Ministry of Education decides to deploy special police agents on campus. The agents are at the disposal of the Rector and the Deans. Seventy-five percent of teachers at Faculty of Law refuse to give lectures under such circumstances. 27 students receive some form of sanctions. The Spanish Law Association protests against university punishment without proper hearings.
02.02.1968 Spanish riot police attack hundreds of medical students outside the hospital on the university campus in Madrid after the students decided to boycott lectures.
03.02.1968 The Minister of Education gives orders to expel 137 students at the University of Barcelona after participating in a protest sit-in.  3 students are banned from all other Spanish universities for one to three years.
10.02.1968 - 11.02.1968 Exiled Spaniards, leaders from the illegal Labor Movement and the illegal student movement meet in Paris, France. The leader of the conference is Marcos Ana.
10.02.1968 8 men, among those 4 priests, are sentenced to imprisonment for oppositional activity and for taking part in an illegal workers demonstration on May Day 1967.
15.02.1968 Riots at the university in Madrid. The police chase students at the Faculty of Social Science and Economy through corridors and classrooms after an illegal meeting. 40 students from three faculties are arrested.
22.02.1968 16 students are arrested by the police during a raid at the Faculty of Law at the University of Madrid.
27.02.1968 The authorities withdraw police agents from university campus in Madrid.
28.02.1968 Students start normal lecture activity at the University of Madrid for the first time in five months.
03.03.1968 Bomb explosions outside the Spanish embassies in London and Haag. Mass trial in the Court of Public Order in Madrid. 10 men from Barcelona are charged with having participated in an “unauthorized meeting” during the “Day Against the Repression” of the Franco regime at the Faculty of Law at the University of Barcelona, October 26, 1966. Those charged include Catalan priests, intellectuals, professors, and students. Each is sentenced to 6 months to a year of imprisonment.
05.03.1968 Student demonstrations at universities in Seville, Saragossa and Pamplona protesting the arrest of several student leaders. 6 students are arrested in Pamplona. Students on strike at the University of Pamplona.
06.03.1968 The police use water cannons to attack 700 students outside the Faculty of Law at the University of Madrid to prevent a protest meeting.
10.03.1968 The University of Seville closes. Demonstrations in Madrid against the police actions in Seville and Pamplona. Police with horses used against students. Riots spread to Zaragoza and the private Catholic university of Opus Dei in Navara. Riots at the University of Bilbao after the rector hands over 13 students to the police. The police arrest student leaders. Hostile Falangists and extreme left-wing students attack the French editor and author Jean-Jacques Servant during and after his lecture at the Faculty of Law at the University of Madrid.
12.03.1968 Big bomb explosion outside the U.S. embassy in Madrid. 1,000 students dislodged from a three-day of sit-in at the University of Santiago de Compostela. The students protest expulsion of students during the latest disturbances and sing nationalist Galician songs. The students in Santiago de Compostela declare strike.
15.03.1968 Clashes between students and police after a protest meeting in Madrid against the American war in Vietnam. The students burn the American flag and throw stones at the police.
16.03.1968 A so-called university defense group (Fascist) attacks a student delegate at the Faculty of Law at the University of Madrid. Fights between different student groups at campus. Later clashes between students and police leave several students injured.
20.03.1968 9 men receive 1-3 years imprisonment for establishing a Communist party cell in Madrid and for distributing illegal propaganda.
22.03.1968 Clashes between police and students outside the Faculty of Law at the University of Madrid. The police use water canons and colored liquid.
24.03.1968 The police arrest 100 workers including several leaders of the illegal Labor Movement after their participation at a meeting of the Metal Workers Union of Madrid Province held at an industrial plant in Madrid two days earlier. 1,000 workers hold a rally to protest government measures against the students. They also protest the American war in Vietnam and U.S. bases in Spain. The workers carry posters reading, “The Yankees out of Spain”.
27.03.1968 The newspaper Nuevo Diario publishes an article by a student with statements about why the students are protesting. This was the first time during the unrest that Spanish media gave the students a public voice.
28.03.1968 Emergency meeting in the Franco Government. The brutal police conduct at the universities is regretted, especially that which caused injury to professors who attempted to protect students. General Franco’s government closes the university in Madrid indefinitely. The universities in Sevilla and Valencia close and 23 students are expelled.
28.03.1968 - 30.03.1968 Student and workers protest against government interference in an independent student organization, the American war in Vietnam, and U.S. bases in Spain. The students make anti-American posters such as: “Yankee Bases Get Out of Spain and the World!” Student riots at five of ten Spanish universities, including Madrid. The police use hard measures to put down the protest and 16 students are arrested in Madrid.
01.04.1968 Both leading newspapers in Madrid, ABC and YA, and other independent newspapers attack Franco for police brutality during the university demonstrations. 86 leaders in the illegal Workers’ Commission are arrested to prevent a strategy meeting in a church residence outside Madrid.
02.04.1968 Riot in Spanish court during a trial against Marcelino Camache and Julian Ariza, both leading figures in the illegal Workers’ Commission. Both were arrested during the workers demonstration of January 27, 1967. 600 demonstrators shout slogans for freedom inside the courtroom. 1,000 workers participate in a demonstration outside the court. Clashes with the police result in six arrests.
14.04.1968 Riot police prevent Basques from neighboring provinces from attending an ETA-organized celebration of Aberri Eguna, the National Day of Basque separatists, in San Sebastian.
16.04.1968 The regime in Madrid gives concessions to the students. Franco appoints a more liberal Minister of Education, professor Jose Luis Villar Palasi, a member of the pious Catholic laymen organization Opus Dei. He was the fourth member of the organization appointed to the government. Political reactions are varied and the students are silent.
19.04.1968 The rector and two vice-rectors at the university in Madrid resign in protest against the government’s policy of dealing with student unrest.
24.04.1968 Spanish authorities warn that they would use the army against any attempts to alter the political system.
24.04.1968 10 coal miners receive prison sentences in court trials. 
26.04.1968 - 01.05.1968 Four days of riots in Madrid in the aftermath of an economic slump and wage freeze. Agitation by the secret Communist party. Columns of workers organized by the illegal Workers Commission in fights with the Guardia Civil. Boycott of public transportation in Madrid. Heavy security forces in and around Madrid face mobile shock commandos in small cars driven by workers and students driven around in Madrid and coordinated by radio. Clashes between workers, students and police in several Spanish cities, including Seville, Bilbao and Alicante.
30.04.1968 The Franco regime warns workers against May Day demonstrations and the police are in state of emergency. 30 labor leaders arrested by the police in Spain.
01.05.1968 Despite the government’s warning, several demonstrations are arranged by workers in Madrid and in other Spanish cities. The mass mobilizations are arranged by distribution of pamphlets. It is the first May Day protest by the Spanish workers against Franco since the Civil War. The riot police are present in large numbers in the streets of Madrid. There are clashes between demonstrators and baton-swinging police. The police arrest about 250 in Madrid, and at least 50 in Barcelona. The Spanish police mistreat foreign journalists and arrest 3 foreign correspondents from the AFP, London Daily Express, and Paris Match. Spanish authorities had expelled 8 foreign correspondents in the last fifteen months.
10.05.1968 300 Fascists participate in a mass for Adolf Hitler in Madrid.
17.05.1968 - 20.05.1968 Four days of uninterrupted riots in Madrid. The red flag waves at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Madrid. The students use Molotov cocktails against the police. The police use batons, water canons and horses against the students.
18.05.1968 - 19.05.1968 More than 5,000 students participate in a concert with the Catalan protest singer Raimon at the Faculty of Social Science and Economics at the University of Madrid. Leaflets against Franco are spread during the concert. Demonstration and clashes between students and police. The students throw paving stones at the police, and both demonstrators and police are injured during the fights.
22.05.1968 More than 1,000 students build barricades at the Faculty of Philosophy after the arrest of the Marxist student leader Pedro Gilal. The police use water canons and water with color against the students. In some cases the students are drafted to military service after participating in demonstrations.The Spanish government announces reforms and establish three new universities in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao and two new Polytechnic schools. The police will withdraw from university campuses. All posters are legalized, with the exception of posters that criticize Franco directly. However, the reforms do not satisfy the students. Later the authorities also permit establishing independent student organizations. 73 students are brought to trial for participation in the Madrid riots.  
24.05.1968 Students are put on trial in the aftermath of the demonstrations in Madrid.
26.05.1968 The authorities ban the newspaper Madrid for two months after an article about president de Gaulle. The article is regarded an attack on Franco by proxy. The newspaper is published by the organization Opus Dei.
29.05.1968 1,000 students build barricades at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Madrid which leads to clashes between students and police. The police remove the students by using batons. Nestor Lujan, the Spanish editor of the weekly journal Destino in Barcelona, is put on trial for violating the Spanish press law.
31.05.1968 About 150 students occupy the Faculty of Social Science at the university in Madrid in protest against police brutality. The students demand the release of Pedro Gilal.
02.06.1968 The police storm the student union’s office and close the Faculty of Philosophy in search of radical literature. The Spanish government allows the International Labor Organization (ILO) to investigate Spain.
07.06.1968 Franco gives concessions to the students. The Spanish government gives students permission to establish representative bodies at three of the nation’s universities.
30.06.1968 A pantomime group in Barcelona gives a performance which communicates that the government ignores workers’ needs. The act is seen by 3,500 young workers; 40 police officers in plain clothes are also present.
11.07.1968 168 journalists in Madrid sign letter to the government protesting the growing series of fines and restriction on the press under the Press Law.
28.07.1968 Franco prolongs the suspension of the newspaper Madrid by two months.
05.08.1968 The Basque are active in the three northern provinces of Guipuzca, Alava and Viszcaya. Franco declares state of emergency in the province of Guipuzca after one officer in the secret police is killed by ETA. Franco gives the Basque his ultimatum.
06.08.1968 The police crack down on the Basque movement and arrest 50 in the Guipuzcoa province, including several priests.
16.08.1968 Basque nationalists try to blow up a television relay station outside San Sebastian in the province of Guipuzca.
21.08.1968 The International Lawyer Commission in Geneva criticizes Spain and warns against civil rights abuses in dealing with the Basque insurrection.
31.08.1968 The bishop of San Sebastian argues that the arresting of priests and searching of churches and monasteries in the Basque provinces violates the 1958 Concordat between Spain and the Vatican.
24.09.1968 Theoretical freedom of organization in Spain, including more freedom to the students.
27.09.1968 Break in the negotiations between the Spanish government and United States about renewal of the base agreement.
20.10.1968 Students in Madrid plan three days of demonstrations and a national plan for revolutionary activities in the upcoming year of studies.
29.10.1968 Spanish fascists demonstrate in Madrid to protest the reduced role of the Falangists in the Spanish society. The police disperse the demonstrators.
12.12.1968 A military court in San Sebastian sentences Basque nationalists.
12.12.1968 - 15.12.1968 Wives of 15 labor leaders imprisoned in the Carabanchel protest against the general prison conditions for their husbands in a sit-down strike. They stop their action after the Catholic Archbishop Casamiro Morcillo promises to give them his support.

1969

24.01.1969 State of emergency in Madrid.
22.03.1969 General Franco lifts the state of emergency in Guipuzca.
04.07.1969 Bomb explosions outside a Spanish travel agency and the Spanish embassy in Paris, France.