The town of Puerto Madryn in the province of Chubut in Argentine Patagonia was founded on July 28, 1865, when 150 Welsh immigrants arriving aboard the clipper Mimosa named the natural port Porth Madryn in honour of Sir Love Jones-Parry, whose estate in Wales was named "Madryn".

Towards the end of 1862, Captain Love Jones-Parry financed a trip, accompanied by Lewis Jones, to Patagonia to decide whether it was a suitable area for Welsh emigrants. Having first visited Buenos Aires for discussions with the Interior Minister, they headed south and reached Patagonia in a small ship named the Candelaria. An unexpected storm drove them into a bay which was later named "Porth Madryn". Jones-Parry and Lewis Jones gave a glowing report of the area, and in 1865, a group of 162 Welsh emigrants departed for Patagonia in the ship Mimosa.

The settlement flourished especially after the opening of the Central Chubut Railway, built by Welsh, Spanish, and Italian immigrants. The railway, opened in 1888, linked Porth Madryn to Trelew through the lower Chubut River valley.

Puerto Madryn now has about 58,000 inhabitants and is twinned with Nefyn on the Llŷn Peninsula.

Today is the feast day of Saint Samson

Born in 486, Samson was the grandson of Meurig ap Tewdrig, King of Glamorgan and Gwent. He was educated by St Illtud at the Abbey of Llanilltud Fawr, where he was ordained a deacon and then a priest, but he fell out with Illtud's nephews and decided to move to the monastery on Caldey Island, where he became abbot after the death of Saint Pyr, who was killed when he fell down a well while drunk. Samson, who abstained from alcohol, considerably reformed the discipline of the enclave.

He then travelled extensively while carrying out his missionary work; first to Ireland, where he is said to have founded or revived a monastery, then to Cornwall, where he was consecrated a Bishop and appointed an abbot, then to the Scilly Isles where one of the islands was named after him and finally to Brittany where he founded the monasteries at Dol (Brittany) and Pental (Normandy), and is said to have defeated a dragon on the banks of the Seine.  He is regarded as one of the foremost evangelizers of the era and has long been venerated with enthusiasm in Wales and Brittany. In the 930s King Aethelstan of England acquired a number of his relics - including an arm and his crozier and proudly displayed them in Milton Abbey in Dorset.

A short history of the potato, including its introduction to Wales;

The potato is now regarded as an essential component of the diet, providing starch, vitamin C, potassium as well as being an excellent source of fibre.  But that has not always been the case; at first they were treated with suspicion and considered to be of little nutritional value.

The potato is thought to have been first cultivated in the area between the south of Peru and the northeast of Bolivia over three thousand years ago, though scientists believe they may have grown wild in the region as long as 13,000 years ago.

1532   The Spanish conquistadors first encountered the potato when they noted that the Incas had learned to preserve the potato for storage by dehydrating and mashing potatoes into a substance called chuñu which could be stored  for up to 10 years.  As well as using the potato for food, the Incas also thought that they made childbirth easier and also used it to treat injuries. 

1570   The potato arrived in Spain, although they were regarded with suspicion, unfit for human consumption and used only as animal fodder 

1589 ( 28th July )   Sir Walter Raleigh is reputed to have been the first to bring the potato to Ireland and planted them at his Irish estate at Youghal, near Cork.  However in Ireland and the UK many Protestants would not plant potatoes, as they had no mention in the Bible and Catholics would only grow them if their seed potatoes were sprinkled with holy water and planted on a GoodFriday.  

1776   It was reported that potato cultivation was widespread at Milford Haven. Up until this date, the British diet had consisted primarily of dairy produce, bread and meat. Vegetables were seldom consumed, being regarded as worthless and even harmful.

1801 - 1851   England and Wales experienced an unprecedented population explosion, due to the Industrial Revolution, their combined population doubling to almost 18 million. High yielding, easily prepared potato crops were the obvious solution to resulting increase in demand for food, which also helped mitigate the effects of such diseases as measles, dysentery, scurvy and tuberculosis. The higher birth rates and lower mortality rates that potatoes encouraged led to a tremendous population increase.

1801- 1809   In the USA,  potatoes did not become widely accepted until they received an aristocratic seal of approval from Thomas Jefferson, the Welsh speaking President, who served them to guests at the White House. 

1845   The Irish Potato Famine.  The most dramatic example of the potato's potential to alter population patterns occurred in Ireland. By 1800, potatoes were the staple crop, and the population doubled by 1841. There was no introduction of industry or change in farming methods, simply the cultivation of the high-yielding potato. By the early 1840s, nearly half of the Irish population had become dependent on the potato. When the crop was blighted, many thousands starved.

1922   The growing of Pembrokeshire Earlies on a field scale began.

1945   After the Second World War, consequential market and political pressures resulted in an increase in the acreage of potatoes being grown in Pembrokeshire, the majority being sold to markets in the large population centres of South Wales and the Midlands.

1950's - 1970's  saw an increase in the growing of the early potato sector, with Pembrokeshire farmers selling the majority of early potatoes to markets in the Midlands and North of England to meet growing consumer demand.

1980's   Thirty Pembrokeshire growers came together to form a Potato Marketing Group which ensured that only potatoes of sufficient quality were supplied to market. 

1995   A potato processing plant was built in Pembrokeshire which to grade and prepare potatoes for the mass market.

The Pembrokeshire potato is a brand that is in strong demand; it is regarded as a quality product with a distinctive taste that is used by many top chefs and appears as a named ingredient on their menus. 

Pembrokeshire Earlies is the name given to immature potatoes of the solanum tuberosum species of the Solanaceae family. They are small in size because the potatoes are young when harvested. The potato is round or oval in shape with a soft skin and distinctive strong nutty flavour. It has a creamy texture and is a bright white colour. The first crop in May is sold with the soil still on in order to protect the soft skin of the potatoes. As the season progresses the skin hardens sufficiently to allow washing. Pembrokeshire Earlies are harvested from the beginning of May until the end of July, after which they are called main crop potatoes. There are particular skills associated with growing Pembrokeshire Earlies, with stones being left in the soil to aid warming. Hand picking is necessary to minimise damage during the first two weeks of the harvest when the potatoes are very soft. As the season progresses, the potatoes harden sufficiently to allow careful machine harvesting. 

It is the short growing time and the mild climate of Pembrokeshire generated by the North Atlantic Drift of The Gulf Stream, which helps keep the western coast of Great Britain a couple of degrees warmer than the eastern side. This minimises the risk of frosts damaging the emerged crop, enabling Pembrokeshire Earlies to be grown and harvested earlier than in most areas in the UK.

On 28th July 1481 a copy of the Great Bible was sent out to every church in Wales and England.

This was during the Protestant Reformation, when in 1534, Henry VIII had broken from the papal authority of Rome in a dispute over the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and declared himself head of the Protestant Church of England. This was followed by The Acts of Union, which commenced in 1536 and was an attempt to absorb Wales into England.  The issuing of the Great Bible, which was only printed in English, can, therefore, be seen as Henry's attempt to uniform and consolidate his rule throughout his kingdom. The first Welsh translation of the Bible was not printed until 1567, under the rule of Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I.

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On 28th July 2004, the University of Wales admitted four new institutions as full members of the university;

*  Glyndŵr University, formerly known as North East Wales Institute of Higher Education.

*  Swansea Institute of Higher Education, later known as Swansea Metropolitan University.

*  Trinity College, Carmarthen, later known as Trinity University College.

*  Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff.

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Born this day 1966 in Neath

Andy Legg - former Wales soccer international, who was known for having the longest throw-in in football, being able to regularly throw the ball over 30 metres and once held the world record with a distance of 44.6m