The increased speed and size of the merchant ships of the late 19th century allowed the spread in Puerto Rico of a little-remembered pandemic, the bubonic plague.

Francisco Oller y Cestero was the first Puerto Rican painter educated in Europe.

The history of African influences in Puerto Rican music begins long before 1508, the year in which the Spanish settled the island, and 1492, when Christopher Columbus made Europeans aware of the New World.

On April 25, 1898, the United States declared war on Spain, which began the expansion of the country beyond North America.

On March 22, 1873, the Spanish Cortes approved the law that eliminated slavery in Puerto Rico.