The Spanish civil war began on the night of the 17th/18th July 1936. The first signs of rebellion appeared at 4.20pm when the Melilla garrison in Morocco rose against the government, followed afterwards by troops in Tetuán. The following day, General Franco issued a manifesto to the nation seeking to justify the rebellion. By the morning of the 18th the whole of Spanish Morocco was in rebel hands. The Madrid government were initially confident of their ability to contain the rebellion. However, in the following days, further rebellions occurred and the civil war escalated. The Spanish civil war officially ended on the 1 April 1939 when Franco announced the victory of the Nationalist forces and proclaimed, "The war has ended", although anti-Franco "guerrilleros" continued to hold out in the mountains for some time.
Source:
Historical dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 edited by James W. Cortada. - Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1982. ISBN 0-313-22054-9