June 12, 1898 — in history
Philippines struggles to cast off colonial rule
At the ancestral home of Emilio Aguinaldo, 98 delegates sign a Declaration of Independence asserting the end of Spain’s rule in the Philippines. Aguinaldo and US forces will overthrow the Spanish two months later, but the islands will then be ceded to the US at the end of the Spanish-American War.

The Philippine Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on 12 June 1898 in Cavite II el Viejo, Philippines. With the public reading of the Act of the Proclamation of Independence of the Filipino People, Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain.