born July 31, 1919, Turin, Italy died April 11, 1987, Turin Italian writer and chemist. Two years after obtaining a degree in chemistry, Levi, who was Jewish, was captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz as a slave labourer. His autobiographical works If This Is a Man, or Survival in Auschwitz (1947), The Reawakening (1963), and The Drowned and the Saved (1986) are restrained and moving accounts of and reflections on survival in the Nazi camps. His best-known work, The Periodic Table (1975), is a collection of 21 meditations, each named for a chemical element. The lingering effects of his wartime trauma may have led to his suicide
born Jan. 8, 1870, Cádiz, Spain died March 16, 1930, Paris, France Spanish general and dictator of Spain (1923-30). A military officer from 1888, he served as military governor of Cádiz (1915-19), Valencia (1919-22), and Barcelona (1922-23), where he firmly suppressed disorder. Believing the parliamentary system to be corrupt, he took power in a coup in 1923, dissolved the Cortes (parliament), and suspended constitutional guarantees. He successfully ended the Moroccan War (1927), settled labour disputes, and undertook public works, but he failed to implement agrarian reforms. Increasing discontent with his repressive government and lack of support from the army forced him to resign in 1930. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was his son