Rizal Days in History
On his Rizal Day address on December 30, 1937, President Manuel L. Quezon declared through Commonwealth Act No. 184 the adoption of Tagalog as the national language. Under Japanese occupation during World War II, the Rizal Day program of 1942 attended by Benigno Aquino, Sr., and President José P. Laurel included the recital of Rizal's final poem Mi último adiós in Japanese and the inauguration of the KALIBAPI.
Starting in 1936, Rizal Day was also the inauguration day of the incoming president. Presidents usually chose Independence Grandstand (now known as Quirino Grandstand) as the inauguration venue because it faces the spot where Rizal was buried, and also the site of the independence ceremony in 1946, according to historian Manuel L. Quezon III. In the inauguration of Ramon Magsaysay after winning the 1953 presidential election via a landslide, around 300,000 to 500,000 people attended the ceremonies.
In the centenary of Rizal's death on December 30, 1996, the program included retracing Rizal's footsteps from his cell at Fort Santiago to the spot where he was executed, followed by the reenactment of his execution and flag-raising at Rizal Park.
On December 30, 2000, in what was subsequently called as the "Rizal Day bombings," Muslim separatists bombed five areas in Metro Manila that caused 22 deaths and about a hundred injured.
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