José Mª Jover Zamora was born in Cartagena in 1920. Spanish historian.

He studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Murcia, and later moved to the Central University of Madrid, where he graduated in the specialty of History in 1942.
In 1945 he obtained the chair of Economic Geography at the School of Commerce of Ciudad Real. Between the years 1946 and 1948 he was a fellow at the Jerónimo Zurita Institute of the CSIC.
After his doctorate in 1947, and until 1949, he was assistant of practical classes of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the Central University, attached to the chair of History of Spain in the Modern Age. In 1949 he was assigned to the chair of the same name of the University of Valencia.

He was vice-dean and taught at the University of Valencia. In 1963 he won the Chair of History of Spain in the Modern Age at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Madrid, which he joined the following year. He was director of the Department of Modern History of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and in 1974 he took up the Chair of Contemporary Universal History at the same Faculty.

In 1978 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy of History and in 1979 he was appointed Professor of History of International Relations at the Diplomatic School of Madrid.
He was invested as Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universities of Murcia and Valencia, was named Academician of Merit of the Portuguese Academy of History and member of the Royal Academy of History of Spain since 1982.
He was appointed Professor Emeritus of the Complutense University in 1987 and permanent advisor of the same university in 1995.

Awards:

    National Literature Prize, 1973
    National Prize of the History of Spain, 1981
    Gold Medal of the Region of Murcia, 1992
    Favorite Son of Cartagena, 1993
    Menéndez Pelayo International Award, 2000