On April 30, 1605, it was separated by the Augustinians from Arayat and attained township status due to the bajo de la campana system.Magalang was initially called Magalo, derived from the Kapampangan word "Galo", which means wavy and moving, describing the dangerous flow of the Parua River.Magalang was where Juan Severino Mallari, the first Filipino serial killer who killed at least 57 people, served as the town's parish priest from 1816 to 1826 and committed his murders.[5] The town proper was located in Macapsa, but due to the natural calamities and revolts led by Andres Malong and his subordinate Melchor de Vera against the Spanish in 1660, it was nearly abandoned.On December 28, 1963, Mayor Benedicto T. Dayrit was assassinated by the alleged men of Commander Sumulong during a night ball in the town plaza.These solar-sun telegraphs are made of fine laryu (red bricks) and huge cut stones of pumiceous rocks and volcanic tuff.The 1896 description states: “An instrument called the heliograph, or sun telegraph, constructed with small mirrors made to turn upon both a horizontal and vertical axis, mounted upon a tripod, so arranged as to make the flashes appear and disappear in rapid succession, is to a limited extent in use in the army; and by it, messages may be transmitted much faster than with flags or torches, and it can be used at longer ranges.In a letter dated May 8, 1898, Monet informed the Comandancia General del Centro de Luzon of the destruction of activities of the detachment of Camansi located at Mount Arayat, transforming it into a blok-haus constructed at Magalang with some torre heliografico located in the 10 towns of Magalang and Concepcion, Tarlac with a height of 20 meters and made under the charge of the Engineering Corps.St. Bartholomew Parish Church (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Fernando, Vicariate of St. John the Beloved) was established by the Augustinians on April 30, 1605.Interplay of arches, as seen on the main entrance, doors and niches, pediments and fenestrations, including those of the belltowers and adjacent convent suggest a touch of baroque.The Magalang sweets are distinct in their unique taste because of the quality of the milk from water buffalo (carabao) that feed on green grass growing on the fresh well-irrigated pastureland of the agricultural section of the town.During the visit of the governor in the remote barangay of Turu in Magalang, she announced the concrete pavement of the one kilometer farm to market road in the said village amounting to P6-million.[34] On January 10, 2012, Governor Lilia Pineda led the inauguration of the P35-million Andres Luciano District Hospital (ALDH) in Barangay San Pablo.