Clara "Claretta" Petacci was a mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. She was killed by Italian partisans during Mussolini's summary execution.
Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist politician and secretary of the Partito Socialista Unitario. He was elected deputy of the Chamber of Deputies three times, in 1919, 1921 and in 1924. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Italian fascists committed fraud in the 1924 general election, and denounced the violence they used to gain votes. Eleven days later, he was kidnapped and killed by the secret political police of Benito Mussolini.
Renzo De Felice was an Italian historian, who specialized in the Fascist era, writing, among other works, a 6000-page biography of Mussolini. He argued that Mussolini was a revolutionary modernizer in domestic issues but a pragmatist in foreign policy who continued the Realpolitik policies of Italy from 1861 to 1922. Historian of Italy Philip Morgan has called De Felice's biography of Mussolini "a very controversial, influential and at the same time problematic re-reading of Mussolini and Fascism" and rejected the contention that his work rose above politics to "scientific objectivity", as claimed by the author and his defenders.
The Aventine Secession was the withdrawal of the parliament opposition, mainly comprising the Italian Socialist Party, Italian Liberal Party, Italian People's Party and Italian Communist Party, from the Chamber of Deputies in 1924–25, following the murder of the deputy Giacomo Matteotti by fascists on 10 June 1924.
Giovanni Agnelli was an Italian businessman. He cofounded Fiat S.p.A, an automotive industrial company, in 1899.
The Italian Civil War was a civil war in the Kingdom of Italy fought during the Italian campaign of World War II between Italian fascists and Italian partisans and, to a lesser extent, the Italian Co-belligerent Army.
Luigi Federzoni was an Italian nationalist and later Fascist politician.
Ettore Ovazza was an Italian Jewish banker. He was an early financer of Benito Mussolini, whom he was a personal friend of, and a strong supporter of Italian fascism. He founded the anti-Zionist journal La nostra bandiera. Believing that his position would be restored after the war, Ovazza stayed on after the Germans occupied Italy. Together with his wife and children, shortly after the Fall of Fascism and Mussolini's government during World War II, he was killed near the Swiss border by SS troops in 1943.
The Acqui Award of History is an Italian prize. The prize was founded in 1968 for remembering the victims of the Acqui Military Division who died in Cefalonia fighting against the Nazis. The jury is composed of seven members: six full professors of history and a group of sixty (60) ordinary readers who have just one representative in the jury. The Acqui Award Prize is divided into three sections: history, popular history, and historical novels. A special prize entitled “Witness to the Times,” given to individual personalities known for their cultural contributions and who have distinguished themselves in describing historical events and contemporary society, may also be conferred. Beginning in 2003 special recognition for work in multimedia and iconography--”History through Images”—was instituted.
Giuseppe Cobolli Gigli was an Italian engineer and politician. From 1935 to 1939, he was member of Benito Mussolini's Italian fascist government as minister of public works.
Sergio Romano is an Italian diplomat, writer, journalist, and historian. He is a columnist for the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Romano is also a former Italian ambassador to Moscow.
Mauro Canali is a full professor of contemporary history at the University of Camerino in Italy. He is considered to be one of the most important scholars of the events leading to the crisis of the liberal Italian state and the rise of fascism. He has also researched and published extensively on the totalitarian structure of Mussolini's regime, its repressive mechanisms and its system of informants. He studied under Renzo De Felice, and has published in the Journal of Modern Italian Studies, the Italian dailies la Repubblica and Cronache di Liberal.
Giordano Bruno Guerri is an Italian historian, writer, and journalist. He is an important scholar of twentieth-century Italy, in particular of the Fascist period and the relationship between Italians and the Catholic Church.
Leopoldo "Leo" Longanesi was an Italian journalist, publicist, screenplayer, playwright, writer, and publisher. Longanesi is mostly known in his country for his satirical works on Italian society and people. He also founded the eponymous publishing house in Milan in 1946 and was a mentor-like figure for Indro Montanelli.
Giovanni Fabrizio Bignami was an Italian physicist. From March 2007 until August 2008, he was Chairman of the Italian Space Agency. Between 2010 and 2014, he was the first Italian to chair the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), and from 2011 until 2015, he was President of INAF. He was also the chairman of the SKA project. He was married to fellow Italian astrophysicist Patrizia A. Caraveo.
The Sword of Islam was a ceremonial weapon given in 1937 to Benito Mussolini, who was pronounced as the Protector of Islam.
Antonio Scurati is an Italian writer and academic. A professor of comparative literature and creative writing at the IULM University of Milan, mass media scholar, and editorialist for the Corriere della Sera, Scurati has won the main Italian literary prizes. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Strega Prize for his novel M: Son of the Century (2018), which is part of a planned tetralogy dedicated to Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism. It was at the top of the charts for two consecutive years, was translated into over forty languages, and is set for a television series produced by Sky Original in 2024.
Francesco Salata was a Dalmatian Italian senator, politician, journalist, historian and writer. Salata was an irredentist, although he had a more legalistic approach than other contemporaries, as well as being more liberal. He was panned and attacked by the fascists, although, after they took power, he was employed by the fascist government, and wrote books apologizing for the fascist politics. Very fond of his native Istria, Salata opposed what he saw as the slavicisation carried out by Croatian priests in Istria, the Kvarner and Dalmatia. He accused the Slovenian and Croatian clergy of carrying out the slavicisation of Istria and the Kvarner. Salata upheld the idea that Dalmatia, Istria and the Kvarner were, historically, Italian lands.
The Lista del molibdeno was a list of requests of raw materials and military materiel which Benito Mussolini sent to Adolf Hitler's Germany as condition for Italy's entry into World War II.
The Dongo Treasure was the valuables in Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's possession at the time of his capture and execution.
