NEW - Armistice of Cassibile
Document hastened end of World War II for Italy
A secret agreement to end hostilities between Italy and the Allies during World War II was signed at Cassibile in Sicily on this day in 1943. The Armistice of Cassibile was approved by both King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio. It was signed by Brigade General Giuseppe Castellano for Italy, and Major-General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies. The signing took place at a Sicilian military camp that had been occupied by the Allies, but the news about the agreement was not announced by Italy for another five days. Germany responded to the announcement when it was made on September 8 by immediately attacking Italian forces in Italy, southern France, and the Balkans. Four days after the news of the armistice was made public, the Germans freed dictator Benito Mussolini from his captivity in the Gran Sasso mountain range in Abruzzo. Read more…
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Pietro Locatelli – musician
Violinist astonished his listeners with his ability
Virtuoso violinist and Baroque composer Pietro Antonio Locatelli was born on this day in 1695 in Bergamo. He showed an astonishing talent for playing the violin while he was still a young boy and began playing with the orchestra at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo when he was 14. In 1711, when he was 16 years old, he left to go to Rome and although it is not known whether he studied with Arcangelo Corelli before the composer’s death in 1713, he would have absorbed a lot of his influence by studying with the other eminent musicians in the city. In 1714 Locatelli wrote to his father, telling him that he was a member of the band of household musicians working for Prince Michelangelo I Caetani, a notable political figure and scholar. While in Rome he made his debut as a composer, producing his XII Concerto Grossi Op I in 1721. Read more…
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Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina – racing driver
The first Formula One world champion
Emilio Giuseppe Farina, driving an Alfa Romeo, became the first Formula One world champion on this day in 1950. The 43-year-old driver from Turin - usually known as Giuseppe or 'Nino' - clinched the title on home territory by winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He was only third in the seven-race inaugural championship going into the final event at the Lombardy circuit, trailing Alfa teammates Juan Manuel Fangio, of Argentina, by four points and his Italian compatriot, Luigi Fagioli, by two. Under the competition’s complicated points scoring system, Fangio was hot favourite, with the title guaranteed if he was first or second, and likely to be his if he merely finished in the first five, provided Farina did not win. He could have been crowned champion simply by picking up a bonus point for the fastest lap in the race, provided Farina was no higher than third. Read more…
Giuseppe Bottai - Fascist turncoat
Ex-Mussolini minister who fought with Allies
Giuseppe Bottai, who served as a minister in the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini but finished the Second World War fighting with the Allies against Germany, was born on this day in 1895 in Rome. Bottai helped Mussolini establish the National Fascist Party and served as Minister of National Education under Mussolini between 1936 and 1943. He supported Mussolini’s anti-semitic race laws and founded a magazine that promoted the idea of a superior Aryan race. However, in 1943, following Italy’s disastrous fortunes in the Second World War, he was among the Fascist Grand Council members who voted for Mussolini to be arrested and removed from office. Later, after Mussolini was freed from house arrest by German paratroopers and established as head of the Italian Social Republic, Bottai was handed a death sentence and hid in a convent before escaping to join the French Foreign Legion. Read more…
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San Marino - world's oldest sovereign state
Republic founded in 301 as Christian refuge
The Most Serene Republic of San Marino, an independent state within Italy, was founded on this day in 301. Situated on the north east side of the Apennine mountains, San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. Of the world's 196 independent countries, it is the fifth smallest, covering an area of just 61 square kilometres or 24 square miles. It is also the sole survivor of Italy's once all-powerful city state network, having outlasted such mighty neighbours as Genoa and Venice. San Marino grew from a monastic community, taking its names from Saint Marinus of Alba in Croatia, a Christian who had been working as a stonemason in Rimini when he was forced to flee Roman persecution and escaped to Mount Titano, where he built a church and founded both the city and state of San Marino. Read more…
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Book of the Day: The Battle for Italy: One of the Second World War's Most Brutal Campaigns, by John Strawson
Major-General John Strawson CBE was a British Army officer, best known for his service during the Second World War in the Middle East and Italy, and afterwards in Germany and Malaya. He was a prolific author, writing around a dozen books of military history and biography.
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