10 June

Carlo Ancelotti - football manager

Five-times winner of the Champions League

Carlo Ancelotti, a former top-level player who has become one of football’s most accomplished managers, was born on this day in 1959 in Reggiolo, a small town in Emilia-Romagna.  With Real Madrid's defeat of Liverpool in the 2022 final, he became the only manager to have won the UEFA Champions League four times - twice with AC Milan and twice with Real Madrid. He went on to win the competition for a sixth time in 2024, again with Real Madrid.  Ancelotti, who has managed title-winning teams in five countries, is also one of only seven to have won the European Cup or Champions League as a player and gone on to do so as a manager too. He became an international team manager for the first time in 2025, taking over as head coach of Brazil on a deal that came with a €5 million bonus promised if he could turn the South American side into World Cup winners for the first time since 2002.  Read more…

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Italy enters the Second World War

Mussolini sides with Germany against Britain and France

One of the darkest periods of Italian history began on this day in 1940 when the country's Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, declared war on Great Britain and France, ending the possibility that Italy would avoid being drawn into the Second World War.  Mussolini made the declaration from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, where he had his office. The balcony enabled him to address a large crowd in the Piazza Venezia and he ordered his Blackshirts to ensure that the square was full of enthusiastic supporters.  Italy had already signed a Pact of Steel with Germany but had been reluctant to enter the conflict. Mussolini had a strong navy but a relatively weak army and a lack of resources across the board.  By June 1940, however, Germany was on the point of conquering France and it was thought that Britain would soon follow. Read more...

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Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara – politician and cardinal

Lawyer and strategist dreamt of a united Europe ruled by the Emperor

Influential statesman and political adviser Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara was born on this day in 1465 in Gattinara in Piedmont.  Gattinara became Grand Chancellor to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and, despite being a layman who had never been ordained as a priest, he was created a cardinal. He was one of the most important men active in politics of his time and he set out to centralise power in Germany and make the Holy Roman Empire a moral and political arbiter for all the kingdoms and principalities in Europe.  Born in his family’s home in Gattinara, he was the eldest son of Paolo Arborio di Gattinara and Felicità Ranzo, who was from an important family in Vercelli.  After his father’s death, Gattinara had to interrupt his studies for financial reasons and went to Vercelli to practise with his father’s cousin, who was a notary.  Read more…

Bruno Bartoletti – operatic conductor

Florentine maestro conquered hearts in Chicago

Internationally acclaimed operatic conductor Bruno Bartoletti, who was an artistic director, as well as conducting, at Lyric Opera Chicago for more than 50 years, was born on this day in 1926 in Sesto Fiorentino in Tuscany.  Bartoletti is recognised as having shaped the excellent reputation of Lyric Opera Chicago for staging great productions of Italian opera masterpieces, as well as modern works. He also directed Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and was principal conductor at the Danish Royal Opera.  His father, Umberto, was a blacksmith who played the clarinet in a band, and as a young boy Bruno Bartoletti played the piccolo. One of his teachers recognised his musical talent, and her husband, who was the sculptor Antonio Berti, recommended him to the Cherubini conservatory, where he studied the flute and the piano.  Read more…

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Arrigo Boito – writer and composer

Death of a patriot who fought for Venice

Arrigo Boito, who wrote both the music and libretto for his opera, Mefistofele, died on this day in 1918 in Milan.  Of all the operas based on Goethe’s Faust, Boito’s Mefistofele is considered the most faithful to the play and his libretto is regarded as being of particularly high quality.  Boito was born in Padua in 1842, the son of an Italian painter of miniatures and a Polish countess. He attended the Milan Conservatory and travelled to Paris on a scholarship.  It was there he met Giuseppe Verdi, for whom he wrote the text of the Hymn of the Nations in 1862.  He fought under the direction of Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1866 in the seven weeks of the Third Italian War of Independence, against Austria, after which Venice was ceded to Italy.  While working on Mefistofele, Boito published articles, influenced by the composer Richard Wagner, in which he vigorously attacked Italian music and musicians.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches, by Carlo Ancelotti, with Chris Brady and Mike Ford

One of the greatest football managers of our time tells the story of his illustrious career through his record-breaking seven Champions League wins - five as a coach, twice as a player. Carlo Ancelotti has won domestic titles in all of Europe's top five leagues, with teams including AC Milan, Juventus, Paris St Germain, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Real Madrid. Yet his approach could not be further from the aggressive theatricals favoured by many of his rivals. His understated style has earned him the fierce loyalty of players such as David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.  In Quiet Leadership, Ancelotti reveals the full, riveting story of his managerial career - his methods, mentors, mistakes and triumphs - and takes us inside the dressing room to trace the characters, challenges and decisions that have shaped him. The result is both a scintillating memoir and a rare insight into the business of leadership.

As well as being the most successful head coach in the history of the Champions League, Carlo Ancelotti has managed a star-studded roll call of players including Andrea Pirlo, Rui Costa, Filippo Inzaghi, Andrey Shevchenko, John Terry, Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo.  Chris Brady is professor of management studies and Director of the Centre for Sports Business at Salford University. Mike Forde is former director of football operations and executive board member at Chelsea FC.

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9 June

Luigi Fagioli - racing driver

Man from Le Marche is Formula One's oldest winner

Racing driver Luigi Fagioli, who remains the oldest driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix, was born on this day in 1898 at Osimo, an historic hill town in the Marche region.  Fagioli was a highly skilled driver but one who was also renowned for his fiery temperament, frequently clashing with rivals, team-mates and his bosses.  It was typical of his behaviour after recording his historic triumph at the F1 French Grand Prix at Reims in 1951 he announced in high dudgeon that he was quitting Formula One there and then.  He was furious that his Alfa Romeo team had ordered him during the race to hand his car over to Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine who would go on to win the 1951 World Championship, which meant the victory was shared rather than his outright.  Nonetheless, at 53 years and 22 days, Fagioli's name entered the record books as the oldest F1 Grand Prix winner.  Read more…

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The death of Nero

Brutal emperor killed himself with help of aide

The Roman emperor Nero, whose rule was associated with extravagance and brutality, died on this day in 68 AD in what would now be described as an assisted suicide.  Effectively deposed as emperor when simultaneous revolts in the Gallic and Spanish legions coincided with the Praetorian Guard rising against him, with Galba named as his successor, Nero fled Rome, seeking refuge from one of his few remaining loyalists.  Phaon, an imperial freedman, gave him the use of a villa four miles outside Rome along Via Salaria, where he hastened, under disguise, along with Phaon and three other freedmen, Epaphroditos, Neophytus, and Sporus.  Nero had hoped to escape to Egypt but realised there was no one left to provide the means and asked the four freedmen to begin digging his grave, in readiness for his death by suicide.  Read more…

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Luigi Cagnola - architect

Designer of Milan’s neoclassical Arch of Peace

The architect Luigi Cagnola, among whose most notable work the monumental Arco della Pace - Arch of Peace - in Milan stands out, was born in Milan on this day in 1762.  The Arco della Pace, commissioned when Milan was under Napoleonic rule in 1807, can be found at Porta Sempione, the point at which the historic Strada del Sempione enters the city, about 2km (1.2 miles) northwest of the Duomo. Cagnola’s original commission a year earlier was for a triumphal arch for the marriage of Eugenio de Beauharnais, viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy, with Princess Amalia of Bavaria. The arch was made of wood, and not intended as a permanent structure, but Cagnola’s design was of such beauty that the Milan authorities asked him to reconstruct it in marble. His other major works include the Porta Ticinese, another of the main gates into Milan. Read more…

The Maestà of Duccio

Masterpiece influenced the course of Italian art history

A magnificent altarpiece by the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna was unveiled in the cathedral in Siena on this day in 1311.  Duccio’s Maestà was to set Italian painting on a new course, leading away from Byzantine art towards using more realistic representations of people in pictures.  The altarpiece was commissioned by the city of Siena from the artist and was composed of many individual paintings.  The front panels made up a large picture of an enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels.  At the base of the panels was an inscription, which translated into English means: ‘Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus.’  When the painting was installed in the cathedral on June 9, 1311, one witness to the event wrote: ‘…on that day when it was brought into the cathedral, all workshops remained closed. Read more…

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Nedo Nadi - Olympic record-breaker

Five-medal haul at 1920 Antwerp Games included unique treble

Nedo Nadi, the Italian fencer regarded as among the greatest of all time, was born on this day in 1894 in Livorno, the port on the Tuscan coast. Born into a fencing family - his father, Giuseppe, was a renowned fencing master - Nadi won five gold medals at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, which remained the most by any athlete at a single Games until Mark Spitz won seven swimming titles.  Nadi’s own distinction is that he was and still is the only fencer to have won a gold medal with all three weapons, winning the individual championship in both foil and sabre and a team gold in the épée. His quintuple of medals was completed with team golds in both the sabre and foil.  His younger brother, Aldo, was also part of the winning Italian team in the épée and sabre events.  Their total of seven golds is the most won by members of the same family at a single Games.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: 75 Years of Formula One, by Iain Spragg

The pinnacle of motorsport, Formula One was born in 1950 at the British Grand Prix and ever since the inaugural Silverstone race has repeatedly delivered drama, unforgettable drives and controversy both on and off the track. Celebrating three quarters of a century of high-octane thrills and spills in 2025, it boasts a global fan base of millions and remains a byword for entertainment and petrol-infused exhilaration. 75 Years of Formula One charts the fascinating history of Grand Prix racing over its first eight decades of action, telling the unique story of how F1 grew irresistibly from a modest, predominantly European event with only seven races into a worldwide sporting phenomenon. The book also profiles the F1 World Championship’s legendary drivers from iconic Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio to the inimitable Ayrton Senna, Jackie Stewart to the unstoppable Michael Schumacher, all the way up to modern greats Lewis Hamilton and reigning world champion Max Verstappen. A glorious tribute to the mastery, magic and mayhem of the world’s premier form of motorsport for its milestone anniversary season.

The author of Lewis Hamilton - The Rise of Formula One's New Superstar, Iain Spragg is a journalist with more than 25 years experience in sports media. A biographer of sporting greats including Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Anthony Joshua, he has worked extensively for the UK print and digital media and has also written official titles for clients including World Rugby, Tottenham Hotspur and the British Olympic Committee.

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8 June

Giuseppe Fiorelli - archaeologist

The man whose painstaking work saved Pompeii

Giuseppe Fiorelli, the archaeologist largely responsible for preserving the ruins of Pompeii, was born on this day in 1823, in Naples.  It was due to Fiorelli’s painstaking excavation techniques that much of the lost Roman city on the Neapolitan coast was preserved as it had looked when, in 79 AD, it was totally submerged under volcanic ash following the eruption of Vesuvius.  He also hit upon the idea of filling the cavities in the hardened lava and solidified ash left behind by long-rotted bodies and vegetation with plaster to create a model of the person or plant that had been engulfed.  This became known as the Fiorelli process.  Little is known of Fiorelli’s early life apart from some details of his academic career, which clearly show him to be precociously clever.  He studied law from the age of 11 and obtained a degree in legal studies at the age of 18. Read more…

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Luigi Comencini – film director

Movies helped create an international audience for Italian cinema

Award winning director and screenwriter Luigi Comencini was born on this day in 1916 in Salò, a town on the banks of Lake Garda in Lombardy.  He is considered to have been one of the masters of the commedia all’italiana genre, a type of film produced between the 1950s and the 1970s that dealt with social issues such as divorce, contraception and the influence of the Catholic Church in a sardonically humorous way.  After studying architecture in Milan, Comencini worked as a newspaper film critic. He began his career as a filmmaker in 1946 with a short documentary, Bambini in città, about the hard life of children in post-war Milan.  His first successful movie was L’imperatore di Capri in 1949, featuring the comedian Totò.  Comencini’s 1953 film, Pane, amore e fantasia, starring Vittorio De Sica and Gina Lollobrigida, is considered a prime example of neorealismo rosa -  pink neorealism. Read more…

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Beatrice Portinari – Dante’s inspiration

Florentine beauty was immortalised in verse

Beatrice ‘Bice’ di Folco Portinari, who has been identified as the lifelong love of the poet Dante Alighieri, died on this day in 1290 in Florence, at the age of 25.  Dante is believed to have met Beatrice only twice, but was said to have been so affected by the encounters that he loved her for the rest of his life.  Many scholars believe Beatrice was the inspiration for Dante’s work, Vita Nuova, that she also acted as his guide in the last book of his narrative poem, The Divine Comedy, and was the symbol of divine grace and theology in his poetry.  Beatrice was the daughter of a rich banker, Folco Portinari. She lived near Dante’s home in Florence. They first met when they were both just nine years old at a May Day party given by her family.  But by the time Dante was 12, he had been promised by his parents in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati, who was from another powerful, local family.  Read more…

Benedetto Alfieri – architect

Talented designer behind the Teatro Regio in Turin

Baroque architect Benedetto Innocenzo Alfieri was born on this day in 1699 in Rome.  He was a member of the Alfieri family who originated in Piedmont and he became the uncle of the dramatist, Vittorio Alfieri. Benedetto was also the godson of Pope Innocent XII.  Alfieri was sent to be educated in mathematics and design by the Jesuits. He later moved to Piedmont and lived in both Turin and Asti, where he practised as a lawyer and an architect.  Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia, one of his patrons, commissioned him to design the Royal Theatre in Turin, originally assigned to Filippo Juvara, but who died before work began. The building was acknowledged as his masterpiece, but it burned down in 1936 and the theatre did not reopen until 1973.  Benedetto also helped with the decoration of the interior of the Basilica of Corpus Domini in Turin. Read more…

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Tomaso Albinoni - Venetian composer

Prolific writer of operas and instrumental music

The composer Tomaso Albinoni, perhaps best known for the haunting and powerful Adagio in G Minor, was born on this day in 1671 in Venice.  Albinoni was a contemporary of two other great Venetian composers, Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi, and was favourably compared with both.  It is his instrumental music for which he is popular today, although during his own lifetime he was famous for his operas, the first of which was performed in Venice in 1694.  He is thought to have composed some 81 operas in total, although they were not published at the time and the majority were lost.  His first major instrumental work also appeared in 1694. With the support of sponsorship from noble patrons, he published nine collections - in Italy, Amsterdam and London - beginning with Opus 1, the 12 Sonate a Tre, which he dedicated to his fellow Venetian, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the grand-nephew of Pope Alexander VIII.  Read more…

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Guido Banti – physician

Doctor was the first to define leukaemia

The innovative physician and pathologist Guido Banti was born on this day in 1852 in Montebicchieri in Tuscany.  His work on the spleen led him to discover that a chronic congestive enlargement of the spleen resulted in the premature destruction of red blood cells. Closely related to leukaemia, this was later named 'Banti’s disease' in his honour.  Banti’s father was a physician and sent him to study medicine at the University of Pisa and the Medical School in Florence.  He graduated in 1877 and was appointed an assistant at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and also as an assistant in the laboratory of Pathological Anatomy.  The ability to observe patients in bed and then carry out post mortem examinations was to prove fundamental to his work.  Within five years he had become chief of medical services. Read more…

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Book of the Day: The World of Pompeii (Routledge Worlds), by John J Dobbins and Pedar W Foss

This all embracing survey of Pompeii provides the most comprehensive survey of the region available. With contributions by well-known experts in the field, this book studies not only Pompeii, but also – for the first time – the buried surrounding cities of Campania. The World of Pompeii includes the latest understanding of the region, based on the up-to-date findings of recent archaeological work.  Accompanied by downloadable resources with the most detailed map of Pompeii so far, this book is instrumental in studying the city in the ancient world and is an excellent source book for students of this fascinating and tragic geographic region.  The World of Pompeii contains a full chapter on Fiorelli’s reforms, methods, and the transformation of excavation practice in the late 19th century. It includes his introduction of stratigraphic excavation, the plaster-cast technique for voids left by decomposed bodies, his system of numbering houses by region and insula, and his role in shifting Pompeii from treasure-hunting to scientific archaeology.

John J Dobbins is a former Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Virginia. He has excavated in Spain, Greece, Syria and Italy.  Pedar W Foss is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of DePauw.

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7 June

NEW - Lateran Treaty comes into effect

When the Vatican became an independent state

Benito Mussolini was helped to gain more power and any public opinion against him was effectively neutralised by the Lateran Treaty when it came into effect in Italy on this day in 1929.  The Catholic Church had effectively given legitimacy to fascism when the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See had signed the treaty earlier in the year, recognising the Vatican as an independent state within Italy. The Church was perceived as openly inviting Catholics to support the Fascist regime.  When the Treaty was ratified by the Italian Parliament on June 7, 1929, it finally settled what had been known as ‘The Roman Question’, a dispute regarding the power of the popes as rulers of civil territory within a united Italy.  Although Italy was then under a Fascist government, the Lateran Treaty was incorporated into the new, democratic Italian constitution in 1947. Read more…

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Pippo Baudo - TV presenter

Record-breaking host of Sanremo festival

The television presenter Pippo Baudo, who became one of the most recognisable personalities on Italian television in a broadcasting career spanning six decades, was born on this day in 1936 in Militello in Val di Catania, in Sicily.  Baudo, who died in 2025, presented numerous shows for the national broadcaster Rai and for private networks but is probably best known as the host of the annual Sanremo Music Festival and the presenter of the immensely popular Sunday afternoon magazine show Domenica In.  He was the face of Sanremo a record 13 times between 1968 and 2008, eclipsing another much-loved TV host, Mike Bongiorno, who presented the prestigious song contest on 11 occasions.  Baudo anchored or co-hosted Domenica In for 13 seasons.  His appearance in the 2016-17 edition of the show came 37 years after he presented the programme for the first time in 1979.  Read more…

Federico da Montefeltro – condottiero

Patron of the arts made money through war

Federico da Montefeltro, one of the most successful of the Italian condottieri, was born on this day in 1422 in Gubbio.  He has been immortalised by the famous portrait painted of him by Piero della Francesca, where he was dressed in red and showing his formidable profile.  Federico ruled Urbino from 1444 until his death, commissioning the building of a large library where he employed his own team of scribes to copy texts.  He was the illegitimate son of Guidantonio da Montefeltro but he was legitimised by the Pope with the consent of Guidantonio’s wife.  Federico began his career as a condottiero - a kind of mercenary military leader - at the age of 16. When his half-brother, who had recently become Duke of Urbino, was assassinated in 1444, Federico seized the city of Urbino.  To bring in money he continued to wage war as a condottiero. Read more…

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Gaetano Berenstadt – operatic castrato

Italian-born performer who specialised in roles created by Handel

Gaetano Berenstadt, an alto castrato who sang many roles in George Frideric Handel’s operas, was born on this day in 1687 in Florence.  His parents were German and his father played the timpani - kettle drums - for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.  Berenstadt was sent to be a pupil of Francesco Pistocchi, a singer, composer and librettist who founded a singing school in Bologna.  After performing in Bologna and Naples, Berenstadt visited London where he performed the role of Argante in a revival of Handel’s Rinaldo. The composer created three new arias especially for Berenstadt’s voice.  On a later visit to London, Berenstadt sang for the composers of the Royal Academy of Music. On this visit he created the roles of Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, the title role in Flavio, and the role of Adalberto in Ottone.  Read more…

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Book of the Day:  The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929-32: A Study in Conflict, by John F Pollard

The Vatican and Italian Fascism is a study of relations between the Vatican and the Fascist regime in Italy in the most troubled and crucial phase of their relationship, the period 1929–32. It is the first time that any historian, either in Italy or elsewhere, has carried out a detailed and comprehensive study of the conflicts between the Vatican and Italian Fascism in these years; nor has there been any detailed analysis of the causes and the consequences of the crisis of 1931. As well as considering the various causes of conflict in this period, the author sets out what he believes to be the long-term consequences of the 1931 crisis, and in so doing challenges a number of previously accepted interpretations.

John Francis Pollard is a British historian specialising in the political and religious history of modern Italy, with a particular focus on Fascism, the Papacy, and the interaction between Church and state. He is a former Professor of Modern European History at Anglia Polytechnic University (later Anglia Ruskin University).

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