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1925

1925

1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-May

- January 3 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
- January 5 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
- January 27–February 1 - The 1925 serum run to Nome, or the "Great Race of Mercy", relays diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled across the U.S. territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic
- February 21 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- March 4 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcasted on radio.
- March 6 - Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in Europe, is founded
- March 13 - Scopes Trial: A law in Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution.
- March 18 - The Tri-State Tornado raked through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana and killed 695 people.
- March 31 - WOWO radio station in Ft. Wayne, Indiana begins broadcasting.
- May 5 - Scopes Trial: Dayton, Tennessee, biology teacher John Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
- May 25 - Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
- May 25 - The National Forensics League is founded.
- May 29 - Last communication from the British explorer Percy Fawcett, a telegram to his wife, before he disappears in the Amazon

June-September

- June 1 - Percy and Florence Arrowsmith were married. Celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary June 1, 2005 - Percy is now 105, and wife Florence is 100. Guinness_Book_of_Records said the pair held records for the longest marriage for a living couple and the oldest aggregate age of a married couple
- June 6 - The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
- June 13 - Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines, and a mechanical system. A 10-minute film of a miniature windmill in motion is sent across 5 miles from Anacostia to Washington, DC. The images were viewed by representatives of the Bureau of Standards, the U.S. Navy, the Commerce Department, and others. Jenkins called this "the first public demonstration of radiovision".
- July 10 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
- July 18 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
- July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
- September 3 - US dirigible Shenandoah breaks up en route to Scottfield, St. Louis - 14 crewmen dead

October-December

- October - Major money forgery and fraud of Alves Reis exposed in Portugal
- October 30 - John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter.
- November 28 - Country-variety show Grand Ole Opry makes its radio debut on station WSM (it would later become the longest-running live music show).

Unknown dates

- Thompson submachine gun sells for $175 in the Sears mail order catalog.
- Vladimir Zworykin takes out the first patent for colour television.
- Introduction of London's first double decker buses.
- The Royal Tweed Bridge in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, is completed.
- The National Football League adds five teams: New York Giants, Detroit Panthers, Providence Steam Roller, a new Canton Bulldogs team, and Pottsville Maroons

Births

January-April

- January 6 - John De Lorean, American car maker (d. 2005)
- January 7 - Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (d. 1995)
- January 11 - Grant Tinker, American television executive
- January 25 - Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
- January 26 - Paul Newman, American actor
- January 30 - Dorothy Malone, American actress
- February 8 - Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director (d. 2001)
- February 17 - Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
- February 17 - Hal Holbrook, American actor
- February 18 - George Kennedy, American actor
- February 20 - Robert Altman, American film director
- February 21 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
- February 27 - Samuel Dash, American Congressional counsel (d. 2004)
- March 12 - Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 23 - David Watkin, British cinematographer
- March 26 - Pierre Boulez, French composer
- April 14 - Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1974)
- April 14 - Rod Steiger, American actor (d. 2002)
- April 25 - Kay E. Kuter, American actor (d. 2003)

May-July

- May 2 - Yogi Berra, baseball player
- May 19 - Pol Pot, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader (d. 1998)
- May 19 - Malcolm X, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
- May 22 - James King, American tenor (d. 2005)
- May 23 - Joshua Lederberg, American molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- May 25 - Jeanne Crain, American actress (d. 2003)
- June 3 - Tony Curtis, American actor
- June 8 - Barbara Bush, First Lady of the United States
- June 14 - Pierre Salinger, John F. Kennedy's White House Press Secretary (d. 2004)
- July 1 - Farley Granger, American actor
- July 6 - Merv Griffin, American game show developer and host
- July 6 - Bill Haley, American musician (Bill Haley and the Comets) (d. 1981)
- July 10 - Mahathir bin Mohamad, fourth Prime Minister of Maylasia
- July 28 - Baruch S. Blumberg, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

August-September

- August 3 - Dom Um Romão, Brazilian jazz drummer
- August 7 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
- August 8 - Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (d. 2003)
- August 12 - Norris McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 2004)
- August 12 - Ross McWhirter, Scottish co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records (d. 1975)
- August 21 - Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (d. 2003)
- August 27 - Nat Lofthouse, English footballer
- August 28 - Donald O'Connor, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 2003)
- August 30 - Laurent de Brunhoff, French writer and illustrator
- September 8 - Peter Sellers, English comedian and actor (d. 1980)
- September 10 - Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (d. 1996)
- September 24 - Autar Singh Paintal, Indian medical scientist (d. 2004)
- September 28 - Arnold Stang, American actor

October-December

- October 13 - Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- October 16 - Angela Lansbury, American actress
- October 23 - Johnny Carson, American comedian and television host (d. 2005)
- October 24 - Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d. 2003)
- October 24 - Al Feldstein, American artist and comic book creator
- October 27 - Albert Medwin, American inventor
- October 31 - John Anthony Pople, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- November 11 - Jonathan Winters, American actor and comedian
- November 18 - Gene Mauch, baseball manager (d. 2005)
- November 20 - Robert Kennedy, American politician and Attorney General of the United States (d. 1968)
- November 24 - William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and commentator. Founder of National Review Magazine
- November 24 - Simon van der Meer, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 26 - Eugene Istomin, American pianist (d. 2003)
- November 27 - John Maddox, Welsh science writer
- December 1 - Martin Rodbell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1998)
- December 3 - Kim Daejung, President of South Korea, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- December 8 - Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, musician, and actor (d. 1990)
- December 11 - Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- December 13 - Dick Van Dyke, American actor
- December 14 - Gloria Malgarini, American actress, spokesperson

Unknown

- Charles Mangin, French general (b. 1866)
- William H. Gates, Sr., American attorney, father of Bill Gates
- Gildo Massó, Puerto Rican housebuilder.

Deaths

- January 4 - Nellie Cashman, Irish-born actress (b. 1845)
- January 8 - George Bellows, American artist (b. 1882)
- January 14 - Camille Decoppet, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1852)
- January 31 - George Washington Cable, American writer (b. 1844)
- February 2 - Jaap Eden, Dutch speed skater (b. 1873)
- February 3 - Oliver Heaviside, English mathematician (b. 1850)
- February 4 - Robert Koldewey, German architect and archaeologist (b. 1855)
- February 10 - Aristide Bruant, French singer and nightclub owner (b. 1851)
- February 18 - James Lane Allen, American writer (b. 1849)
- February 24 - Hjalmar Branting, Prime Minister of Sweden, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
- February 25 - Louis Feuillade, French silent film director (b. 1873)
- February 28 - Friedrich Ebert, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1871)
- March 2 - Luigj Gurakuqi, Albanian freedom fighter (assassinated) (b. 1879)
- March 4 - John Ward, baseball player (b. 1860)
- March 7 - Georgy Evgenyevich Lvov, Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1861)
- March 12 - Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1866)
- March 14 - Walter Camp, American football coach (b. 1859)
- March 20 - George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India (b. 1859)
- March 25 - Tikhon of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (b. 1865)
- March 28 - Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson, British general (b. 1864)
- April 14 - John Singer Sargent, American artist (b. 1856)
- April 15 - Fritz Haarmann, German serial killer (b. 1879)
- April 19 - John Walter Smith, American politician (b. 1845)
- April 22 - André Caplet, French composer and conductor (b. 1878)
- April 23 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
- May 2 - Johann Palisa, Austrian astronomer (b. 1848)
- May 2 - Antun Branko Simic, Croatian poet (b. 1898)
- May 10 - William Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b.1856)
- May 12 - Amy Lowell, American poet (b. 1874)
- May 14 - H. Rider Haggard, English writer (b. 1856)
- May 20 - Elias M. Ammons, Governor of Colorado (b. 1860)
- May 22 - John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, British World War I field marshal (b. 1852)
- June 1 - Thomas R. Marshall, Vice President of the United States (b. 1854)
- June 2 - James Ellsworth, American mine owner and banker (b. 1849)
- June 16 - Emmett Hardy, American jazz cornetist (b. 1903)
- June 18 - Robert M. La Follette, Sr., American politician (b. 1855)
- June 29 - Christian Michelsen, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1857)
- July 1 - Erik Satie, French composer (b. 1866)
- July 26 - Antonio Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1888)
- July 26 - William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician (b. 1860)
- July 26 - Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and philosopher (b. 1848)
- August 17 - Ioan Slavici, Romanian writer (b. 1848)
- August 25 - Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austrian field marshal (b. 1852)
- September 7 - René Viviani, Prime Minister of France (b. 1863)
- September 16 - Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman, Russian mathematician (b. 1888)
- September 29 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1851)
- October 7 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player (b. 1880)
- October 31 - Mikhail Frunze, Russian Bolshevik leader (b. 1885)
- October 31 - Max Linder, French silent film actor (b. 1883)
- November 20 - Alexandra of Denmark, queen of Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1844)
- November 25 - Vajiravudh, King of Siam (b. 1880)
- December 5 - Wladyslaw Reymont, Polish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
- December 9 - Pablo Iglesias, co-founder of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (b. 1850)
- December 15 - Battling Siki, Senegalese boxer (b. 1897)
- December 19 - Jose Ignacio Quinton, Puerto Rican composer and pianist (b. 1881)
- December 21 - Jules Méline, Prime Minister of France (b. 1838)
- December 22 - Alice Heine, American wife of Albert I of Monaco (b. 1858)
- December 25 - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (b. 1877)
- December 27 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet (b. 1895)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz
- Chemistry - Richard Adolf Zsigmondy
- Physiology or Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - George Bernard Shaw
- Peace - Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes
- ko:1925년 ms:1925 ja:1925年 simple:1925 th:พ.ศ. 2468

Common year starting on Thursday

This is the calendar for any common year starting on Thursday (dominical letter D). e.g. 2009 (A common year is a year with 365 days -- in other words, not a leap year.) This kind of year has 53 weeks in the ISO 8601 week - day format.

Millennium	Century	Year
2nd Millennium:	19th century:	1801	1807	1818	1829	1835	1846	1857	1863	1874	1885	1891
2nd Millennium:	20th century:	1903	1914	1925	1931	1942	1953	1959	1970	1981	1987	1998
3rd Millennium:	21st century:	2009	2015	2026	2037	2043	2054	2065	2071	2082	2093	2099
3rd Millennium:	22nd century:	2105	2111	2122	2133	2139	2150	2161	2167	2178	2189	2195

Category:Thursday Category:Weeks ko:목요일로 시작하는 평년 th:ปีปกติสุรทินที่วันแรกเป็นวันพฤหัสบดี

Benito Mussolini

:For other people called Mussolini, see Mussolini (disambiguation). Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (Predappio near Forlì, July 29, 1883 – Giulino di Mezzegra near Como, April 28, 1945) led Italy from 1922 to 1943. He created a fascist state through the use of state terror and propaganda. Using his charisma, total control of the media and intimidation of political rivals, he disassembled the existing democratic government system. His entry into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany made Italy a target for Allied attacks and ultimately led to his downfall and death.

Early years

Mussolini was born in a medium sized village named Predappio in the province of Forlì, in Emilia-Romagna. His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith. His mother, Rosa Maltoni, was a teacher who believed education was extremely important. He was named Benito after Mexican reformist President Benito Juárez. Like his father, Benito became a socialist. By age eight, he was banned from his mother's church, and a few years later he was expelled from school, due to stabbing a fellow student and throwing an ink pot at a teacher. He did, however, receive good grades, and he qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In 1902 he emigrated to Switzerland. Unable to find a permanent job there and arrested for vagrancy, he was expelled and returned to Italy to do his military service. After further trouble with the police, he joined the staff of a newspaper in the Italian town of Trento in 1908. At this time he wrote a novel, subsequently translated into English as The Cardinal's Mistress. Mussolini had a brother, Arnaldo, who would later become the editor of Il Popolo d'Italia, the official newspaper of Benito Mussolini's regime.

Birth of Fascism

The word "Fascio" had existed in Italian politics for some time. A section of revolutionary syndicalists broke with the Socialists over the issue of Italy's entry into the First World War. Mussolini agreed with them. These syndicalists formed a group called Fasci d'azione rivoluzionaria internazionalista in October 1914. Massimo Rocca and Tulio Masotti asked Mussolini to settle the contradiction of his support for interventionism and still being the editor of Avanti and an official party functionary in the Socialist Party. (1) Two weeks later, he joined the Milanfascio. In November, 1914, supported by his then mistress Margherita Sarfatti, he founded a new newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, (The Italian People) and the pro-war group Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria. Mussolini was attracted to fasces, the ancient Roman symbol of the life-and-death power of the state, bundles of the lictors' rods of chastisement which, when bound together, were stronger than when they were apart — presaging the renewed Roman imperium Mussolini promised to bring about. Mussolini claimed that it would help strengthen a relatively new nation (which had been united only in the 1860s in the Risorgimento), although some would say that he wished for a collapse of society that would bring him to power. Italy was a member of the Triple Alliance, thereby allied with Imperial Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It did not join the war in 1914 but did in 1915 — as Mussolini wished — on the side of Britain and France. 1915 Called up for military service, Mussolini was wounded in grenade practice in 1917 and returned to edit his paper. Fascism became an organized political movement following a meeting in Milan on March 23, 1919 (Mussolini founded the Fasci di Combattimento on February 23, however). After failing in the 1919 elections, Mussolini at last entered parliament in 1921. The Fascisti formed armed squads of war veterans called squadristi to terrorize socialists and communists. The government seldom interfered. In return for the support of a group of industrialists and agrarians, Mussolini gave his approval (often active) to strikebreaking, and he abandoned revolutionary agitation. When the liberal governments of Giovanni Giolitti, Ivanoe Bonomi, and Luigi Facta failed to stop the spread of anarchy, and after Fascists had organised the demonstrative and threatening Marcia su Roma ("March on Rome") (October 28th 1922), Mussolini was invited by Vittorio Emanuele III to form a new government. He became the youngest Premier in the history of Italy on October 31. Although many people believe that Mussolini became prime minister because of the march on Rome, this is not true. The King, Victor Emmanuel III, knew that if he did not choose a government under either the Fascist or Socialist party, Italy would be in a civil war in the near future. So, he asked Mussolini to become Prime Minister. This obviated the need for the march on Rome, but all of the fascists were already coming, from all around Italy. He knew he could not send them back, so he decided to go on with the march, even though he did not need it. Mussolini's Fascist state, established nearly a decade before Adolf Hitler's rise to power, would provide a model for Hitler's later economic and political policies. Both a movement and a historical phenomenon, Italian Fascism was, in many respects, an adverse reaction to both the perceived failure of laissez-faire economics and fear of international Bolshevism (a short-lived Soviet influence was established in Bavaria just about this time), although trends in intellectual history, such as the breakdown of positivism and the general fatalism of postwar Europe were also factors. Fascism was a product of a general feeling of anxiety and fear among the middle-class of postwar Italy, arising out of a convergence of interrelated economic, political, and cultural pressures. Italy had no long-term tradition of parliamentary compromise, and public discourse took on an inflammatory tone on all sides. Under the banner of this authoritarian and nationalist ideology, Mussolini was able to exploit fears in an era in which postwar depression, the rise of a more militant left, and a feeling of national shame and humiliation stemming from its 'mutilated victory' at the hands of the World War I peace treaties seemed to converge. Italian influence in the Aegean and abroad seemed impotent and disregarded by the greater powers, and Italy lacked colonies. Such unfulfilled nationalistic aspirations tainted the reputation of liberalism and constitutionalism among many sectors of the Italian population. In addition, such democratic institutions had never grown to become firmly rooted in the young nation-state. And as the same postwar depression heightened the allure of Marxism among an urban proletariat even more disenfranchised than their continental counterparts, fear regarding the growing strength of trade unionism, communism, and socialism proliferated among the elite and the middle class . Fascism emerged as a "third way" — as Italy's last hope to avoid imminent collapse of 'weak' Italian liberalism or communist revolution. While failing to outline a coherent program, it evolved into new political and economic system that combined corporatism, nationalism, and anti-communism in a state designed to bind all classes together under a capitalist system. It was a new capitalist system in which the state seized control of the organization of vital industries. The appeal of this movement, the promise of a more orderly capitalism during an era of interwar depression, however, was not isolated to Italy, or even Europe.

Fascist dictatorship

At first Mussolini was supported by the Liberals in parliament. With their help, he introduced strict censorship and altered the methods of election so that in 1925–1926 he was able to assume dictatorial powers and dissolve all other political parties. Skillfully using his absolute control over the press, he gradually built up the legend of Il Duce, the title he bestowed upon himself: a man who never slept, was always right, and could solve all the problems of politics and economics. He introduced the Press Laws in 1925 which stated that all journalists must be registered Fascists. However, not all newspapers were taken into public ownership and Corriere della Sera sold on average 10 times as many copies as the leading Fascist newspaper 'Il Popolo D'Italia'. Italy was soon a police state. The assassination of the prominent Socialist Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, began a prolonged political crisis in Italy, which did not end until the beginning of 1925 when Mussolini asserted his personal authority over both country and party to establish a personal dictatorship. Mussolini's skill in propaganda was such that he had surprisingly little opposition to suppress. At various times after 1922, Mussolini personally took over the ministries of the interior, of foreign affairs, of the colonies, of the corporations, of the army and the other armed services, and of public works. Sometimes he held as many as seven departments simultaneously, as well as the premiership. He was also head of the all-powerful Fascist party (formed in 1921) and the armed local Fascist militia, the MVSN or Blackshirts that terrorized incipient resistances in the cities and provinces. He would later form an institutionalised militia that carried official state support, the OVRA. In this way he succeeded in keeping power in his own hands and preventing the emergence of any rival. But it was at the price of creating a regime that was overcentralized, inefficient, and corrupt. OVRA Most of his time was spent on propaganda, whether at home or abroad, and here his training as a journalist was invaluable. Press, radio, education, films — all were carefully supervised to manufacture the illusion that fascism was the doctrine of the 20th century, replacing liberalism and democracy. The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on fascism, written by Giovanni Gentile and signed by Mussolini that appeared in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Italiana. In 1929, a concordat with the Vatican was signed, by which the Italian state was at last recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, and the independence of Vatican City was recognized by the Italian state. Under the dictatorship, the effectiveness of parliamentary system was virtually abolished though its forms were publicly preserved. The law codes were rewritten. All teachers in schools and universities had to swear an oath to defend the Fascist regime. Newspaper editors were all personally chosen by Mussolini himself, and no one could practice journalism who did not possess a certificate of approval from the Fascist party. The trade unions were also deprived of any independence and were integrated into what was called the "cooperative" system. The aim (never completely achieved), inspired by medieval guilds, was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or "corporations", all of them under governmental control. Mussolini played up to his financial backers at first by transferring a number of industries from public to private ownership. But by the 1930s he had begun moving back to the opposite extreme of rigid governmental control of industry. A great deal of money was spent on highly visible public works, and on international prestige projects such as The Rex, Blue Riband ocean liner [http://www.greatoceanliners.net/rex.html], but the economy suffered from his strenuous efforts to make Italy self-sufficient. A concentration on heavy industry proved problematic, because Italy lacked the basic resources. In foreign policy, Mussolini soon shifted from the pacifist anti-imperialism of his lead-up to power, to an extreme form of aggressive nationalism. An early example of this was his bombardment of Corfu in 1923. Soon after this he succeeded in setting up a puppet regime in Albania and in ruthlessly consolidating Italian power in Libya, loosely a colony since 1912. It was his dream to make the Mediterraneanmare nostrum ("our sea" in Latin). In 1935, at the Stresa Conference, he helped create an anti-Hitler front in order to defend the independence of Austria. But his successful war against Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935–1936 was opposed by the League of Nations, this eventually led to Hitler seeking an alliance with fascist Italy. His active intervention in 1936-1939 on the side of Franco in the Spanish Civil War ended any possibility of reconciliation with France and Britain. As a result, he had to accept the German annexation of Austria in 1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in 1939. At the Munich Conference in September 1938 he posed as a moderate working for European peace. But his "axis' with Germany was confirmed when he made the "Pact of Steel" with Hitler in May 1939. Clearly the subordinate partner, Mussolini followed the Nazis in adopting a racial policy that led to persecution of the Jews and the creation of apartheid in the Italian empire. Before this, Jews were not specifically persecuted by Mussolini's government, and were permitted to be high members of the Party. In fact, Mussolini has been said to have saved more Jews than even Oskar Schindler. Later, he would refuse to allow Jews to be deported to concentration camps until Germany occupied Italy during the war (a period depicted in the movie, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis). Members of TIGR, a Slovene anti-fascist group, plotted to kill Mussolini in Kobarid in 1938, but this was unsuccessful.

The Axis of Blood and Steel

The term "Axis Powers" was coined by Mussolini, in November 1936, when he spoke of a Rome-Berlin axis in reference to the treaty of friendship signed between Italy and Germany on October 25, 1936. Later, in May 1939, Mussolini would describe the relationship with Germany as a "Pact of Steel", something he had earlier referred to as a "Pact of Blood".

World War II

October 25] As World War II (WWII) approached, Mussolini announced his intention of annexing Malta, Corsica, and Tunis. He spoke of creating a "New Roman Empire" that would stretch east to Palestine and south through Libya and Egypt to Kenya. In April 1939, after a brief war, he annexed Albania, a campaign which strained his military. His armed forces are generally considered to have been unprepared for combat when the German invasion of Poland led to World War II. Mussolini thus decided to remain 'non-belligerent' until he was quite certain which side would win. On June 10, 1940, as the Germans under General Guderian reached the English Channel, Mussolini declared war on Britain and France. In October, Italy attacked Greece and lost in result 1/3 of Albania, until Germany attacked Greece as well. In June 1941, he declared war on the Soviet Union and in December he declared war on the United States. Following Italian defeats on all fronts and the Anglo-American landing in Sicily in 1943, most of Mussolini's colleagues (Count Galeazzo Ciano, the foreign minister and also Mussolini's son-in-law, included) turned against him at a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council on July 25, 1943. King Vittorio Emanuele III called Mussolini to his palace and stripped the dictator of his power. Upon leaving the palace, Mussolini was swiftly arrested. He was then sent to Gran Sasso, a mountain recovery in central Italy (Abruzzo), in complete isolation. Mussolini was replaced by the Maresciallo d'Italia, General Pietro Badoglio, who immediately declared in a famous speech "La guerra continua a fianco dell'alleato germanico" ("The war continues at the side of our Germanic allies"), but was instead working to negotiate a surrender; in a few days (September the 8th) Badoglio would sign an armistice with Allied troops. Rescued by the Germans several months later in a spectacular raid commanded by General Kurt Student, Mussolini set up the Italian Social Republic, a Republican Fascist state (RSI, Repubblica Sociale Italiana) in northern Italy. He lived in Gargnano during this period. But he was little more than a puppet under the protection of the German Army. In this "Republic of Salò", Mussolini returned to his earlier ideas of socialism and collectivization. He also executed some of the Fascist leaders who had abandoned him, including his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. During this period he wrote his memoirs entitled My Rise and Fall.

Death

memoir On April 27, 1945, in the afternoon, near the village of Dongo (Como Lake), just before the Allied armies reached Milan, Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci, were caught by the Italian partisans as he headed for Chiavenna to board a plane for escape to Switzerland. The day after, April 28, they were both executed along with their sixteen-man train, mostly ministers and officials of the Italian Social Republic. The execution took place in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra, and was conducted by "Colonnello Valerio", the partisan commander charged by the CLN (National Liberation Committee) with the task of executing the death sentence issued against Mussolini. The next day the bodies of Il Duce and his mistress were hung, upside down, in Piazzale Loreto (Milan) along with those of other fascists, to be abused by the crowds. Mussolini's body was then buried in an unmarked grave in a Milan cemetery until the 1950s, when his body was moved back to Predappio. It was actually stolen briefly in the late '50s by new-fascists, then again returned to Predappio. Here he was buried in a crypt (the only posthumous honor granted to Mussolini; his tomb is flanked by marble fasces and a large idealized marble bust of himself sits above the tomb.) fasces Mussolini was survived by his wife, Donna Rachele Mussolini, by two sons, Vittorio and Romano Mussolini, and his daughters Edda, the widow of Count Ciano and Anna Maria. A third son, Bruno, had been killed in an air accident while testing a military plane. Mussolini's granddaughter Alessandra, daughter of Romano Mussolini, is currently a deputy in the Republican Chamber and Member of the European Parliament for the right party Alternativa Sociale. After his death, an Italian proverb was created that refers to him: "Those who are always right, always end up in Loreto Square".

Trivia

- In December 2004 he was voted the 34th greatest Italian in a television poll.

References

#The Birth of Fascist Ideology, From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Zeev Sternhell, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, trans. by David Maisel, Princeton University Press, NJ, 1994. pg 214. #Mussolini, Torino : Einaudi, Renzo De Felice, 1995.

Writings of Mussolini

- Giovanni Hus (Jan Hus), il verdico Rome (1913) Published in America under John Hus (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, l929) Republished by the Italian Book Co., NY (1939) under John Hus, the Veracious.
- The Cardinal's Mistress (trans. Hiram Motherwell, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1928)

External links

- [http://home.comcast.net/~lowe9101/mussolini/ Mussolini In Pictures]
- [http://www.comandosupremo.com/Mussolini.html Comando Supremo: Benito Mussolini]
- [http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.htm Did Mussolini really make the trains run on time?]
- [http://www.phpsolvent.com/images/mussolini.jpg Photograph of Mussolini's corpse and article about the theft of his body]
- [http://www.ilduce.net/ Site about Benito Mussolini] In Italian
- [http://www.publiceye.org/fascist/corporatism.html Is Mussolini quote on corporatism accurate?] Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini, Benito ja:ベニート・ムッソリーニ simple:Benito Mussolini

January 5

January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 360 days (361 in leap years) remain in the year after this day.

Events

- 1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
- 1477 - Battle of Nancy, Charles the Bold killed, Burgundy becomes part of France.
- 1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
- 1527 - Martyrdom of Felix Manz, a Swiss Anabaptist.
- 1554 - Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
- 1675 - Battle of Colmar, French army beats Brandenburg.
- 1757 - Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert–François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty used for regicides.
- 1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
- 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
- 1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
- 1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, 300 dead.
- 1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
- 1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- 1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
- 1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
- 1912 - Prague Party Conference
- 1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
- 1919 - Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace founded, which would become the Nazi party.
- 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
- 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
- 1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
- 1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- 1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
- 1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
- 1956 - Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel."
- 1957 - Major league baseballer Jackie Robinson retires.
- 1961 - Television: Mr. Ed debuts.
- 1964 - Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
- 1968 - Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
- 1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
- 1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
- 1973 - Netherlands recognizes East Germany.
- 1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru kills six, and damages 100s of houses.
- 1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
- 1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Campuchea.
- 1980 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer.
- 1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
- 1987 - President of the United States Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
- 1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands spilling 84,700 tonnes of oil.
- 1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
- 1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- 1997 - Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
- 2000 - The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
- 2002 - Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.
- 2006 - Expected activation of Sober worm.

Births

- 1209 - Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1272)
- 1587 - Xu Xiake, Chinese writer and geographer (d. 1641)
- 1592 - Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1666)
- 1614 - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (d. 1662)
- 1717 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (d. 1793)
- 1779 - Stephen Decatur, American naval officer (d. 1820)
- 1779 - Zebulon Pike, American explorer (d. 1813)
- 1846 - Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926)
- 1855 - King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d. 1932)
- 1865 - Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (d. 1920)
- 1874 - Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
- 1876 - Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1967)
- 1880 - Nikolay Medtner, Russian composer (d. 1951)
- 1893 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru (d. 1952)
- 1900 - Yves Tanguy, French painter (d. 1955)
- 1902 - Stella Gibbons, English novelist (d. 1989)
- 1904 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
- 1909 - Stephen Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
- 1910 - Hugh Brannum, American actor (d. 1987)
- 1910 - Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (d. 1949)
- 1913 - Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (d. 2001)
- 1914 - George Reeves, American actor (d. 1959)
- 1915 - Arthur H. Robinson, Canadian-born American cartographer (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (d. 1995)
- 1921 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)
- 1921 - Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
- 1923 - Sam Phillips, American country music producer (d. 2003)
- 1926 - Hosea Williams, American religious leader and civil rights activist (d. 2000)
- 1928 - Ali Bhutto, President of Pakistan (d. 1979)
- 1928 - Walter Mondale, U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate
- 1931 - Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
- 1931 - Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
- 1931 - Robert Duvall, American actor and director
- 1932 - Umberto Eco, Italian philologist and writer
- 1932 - Chuck Noll, American football coach
- 1938 - King Juan Carlos I of Spain
- 1938 - Jim Otto, American football player
- 1938 - Ngugi wa Thiongo, Kenyan writer
- 1940 - Michael O'Donoghue, American writer (d. 1994)
- 1941 - Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese animated film maker
- 1942 - Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
- 1942 - Charlie Rose, American talk show host
- 1946 - Diane Keaton, American actress
- 1948 - Ted Lange, American actor
- 1950 - Chris Stein, American guitarist (Blondie)
- 1953 - Pamela Sue Martin, American actress
- 1953 - George Tenet, American Central Intelligence Agency director
- 1954 - Alex English, American basketball player
- 1956 - Chen Kenichi, Japanese-born chef
- 1960 - Phil Thornalley, English bass guitarist (The Cure)
- 1961 - Suzy Amis, American actress
- 1962 - Joe Monzo, American composer
- 1968 - Ricky Paull Goldin, American actor
- 1969 - Marilyn Manson, American singer
- 1972 - Sakis Rouvas, Greek singer
- 1975 - Bradley Cooper, American actor
- 1982 - Janica Kostelic, Croatian skier
- 1985 - Richard Butler, English footballer
- 1985 - Michael Cuccione, Canadian actor and singer (d. 2001)

Deaths

- 842 - Al-Mu'tasim, Abbasid caliph (b. 794)
- 1400 - John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, English politician (executed)
- 1465 - Charles, Duke of Orléans, French poet (b. 1394)
- 1477 - Charles, Duke of Burgundy (killed in battle) (b. 1433)
- 1524 - Marko Marulić, Croatian poet (b. 1450)
- 1588 - Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (b. 1528)
- 1589 - Catherine de Medici, queen of Henry II of France (b. 1519)
- 1655 - Pope Innocent X (b. 1574)
- 1740 - Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)
- 1762 - Empress Elizabeth of Russia (b. 1709)
- 1771 - John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, British statesman (b. 1710)
- 1846 - Alfred Thomas Agate, American artist (b. 1812)
- 1858 - Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (b. 1766)
- 1891 - Emma Abbott, American soprano (b. 1849)
- 1922 - Ernest Shackleton, Irish explorer (b. 1874)
- 1929 - Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievich of Russia (b. 1856)
- 1933 - Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States (b. 1872)
- 1941 - Amy Johnson, English pilot (1903)
- 1943 - George Washington Carver, American educator, activist, and botanist (b. 1860)
- 1951 - Andrei Platonov, Russian writer (b. 1899)
- 1956 - Mistinguett, French singer (b. 1875)
- 1963 - Rogers Hornsby, baseball player (b. 1896)
- 1970 - Max Born, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- 1970 - Roberto Gerhard, Catalan composer (b. 1896)
- 1971 - Douglas Shearer, Canadian film sound engineer (b. 1899)
- 1979 - Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
- 1981 - Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
- 1981 - Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet, and activist (b. 1901)
- 1982 - Hans Conried, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1988 - Pete Maravich, American basketball player (b. 1947)
- 1990 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor (b. 1914)
- 1991 - Vasko Popa, Yugoslav poet (b. 1922)
- 1994 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1912)
- 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist

1925

Events

January-May

June-September

October-December

Unknown dates

Births

January-April

May-July

August-September

October-December

Unknown

Deaths

Nobel Prizes

Common year starting on Thursday

Benito Mussolini

Early years

Birth of Fascism

Fascist dictatorship

The Axis of Blood and Steel

World War II

Death

Trivia

References

Writings of Mussolini

See also

External links

January 5

Events

Births

Deaths