12 February

Claudia Mori 

Film star who married pop icon Adriano Celentano

The actress, singer and later television producer Claudia Mori, married for more than half a century to Italy’s all-time biggest-selling recording artist, Adriano Celentano, was born on this day in 1944 in Rome.  She and Celentano married in 1964 when she was 20 and they remain together. Mori, who made her big screen debut at the age of 15 and went on to make more than 20 movies, shared a Sanremo Festival win with Celentano in 1970. Read more…

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Franco Zeffirelli – film director

Shakespeare adaptations made director a household name

A director of film, opera and television, Franco Zeffirelli, was born on this day in Florence in 1923. Zeffirelli, who received an honorary knighthood in Britain in 2004, first became famous after his 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, casting two teenagers in the title roles and filmed Shakespeare’s tragedy against the backdrop of 15th century buildings in Serravalle in the Veneto region. Zeffirelli’s first film as a solo director had been Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in 1967.  He later began working in the theatre, directing Maria Callas in La Traviata and Tosca. Read more…

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Michelangelo Cerquozzi – painter

Battle scenes brought fame and riches to Baroque artist

Michelangelo Cerquozzi, the Baroque painter, was born on this day in 1602 in Rome.  He was to become famous for his paintings of battles, earning himself the nickname of Michelangelo delle Battaglie - Michelangelo of the Battles.  Born into the wealthy family of a leather merchant, he began his artistic training in the studio of Giuseppe Cesari, with whom the young Caravaggio trained.  Read more…

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Lazzaro Spallanzani – priest and scientist

18th century biologist who pioneered artificial insemination 

Lazzaro Spallanzani, the first scientist to interpret the process of digestion and the first to carry out a successful artificial insemination, died on this day in 1799 in Pavia.  Spallanzani made important contributions to the experimental study of bodily functions and animal reproduction. His investigations into the development of microscopic life in nutrient culture solutions paved the way for the later research of Louis Pasteur.  Read more… 

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Claudia Mori - actress and singer

Film star who married pop icon Adriano Celentano

Claudia Mori is half of what was at one time
Italy's golden celebrity couple

The actress, singer and later television producer Claudia Mori, married for more than half a century to Italy’s all-time biggest-selling recording artist, Adriano Celentano, was born on this day in 1944 in Rome.

She and Celentano met in 1963 on the set of Uno strano tipo (A Strange Type) a comedy film in which they were both starring. The two were married the following year at the Church of San Francesco in Grosseto in Tuscany, having kept their intentions secret to avoid publicity.

Mori was only 20 when she and Celentano - six years her senior - were married but she had already made several films.

Born Claudia Moroni, she made her film debut in Raffaello Matarazzo’s romantic comedy Cerasella at the age of just 15 in 1959, featuring as the title character opposite Mario Girotti, the actor who would later change his name to Terence Hill and become famous as the parish priest Don Matteo in the long-running television series of the same name.

The following year she had a supporting part a laundry worker colleague of Alain Delon in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) and over the next two years played another supporting part in the Robert Aldrich’s biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah, starring Stewart Granger and Pier Angeli, as well as co-starring as a beautiful princess in Giorgio Simonelli’s Ursus nella terra di fuoco (Ursus in the Land of Fire). 

A 15-year-old Mori on the beach at Vietri-sul-Mare with
co-star Mario Girotti during her movie debut in 1959

In 1964, she co-starred with her new husband in Super rapina a Milano (Super-robbery in Milan), the first film Celentano also directed.

At the same time, she was developing a singing career, releasing her first record - Non guardarmi (Don’t look at me) - in 1964.  Her career was boosted by teaming up with Celentano in a number of duets, notably with Chi non-lavora non-fa l'amore (Those who don't work don't make love), with which they won the 1970 Sanremo Festival.

In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Mori alternated between acting and singing. More movie success came with Rugantino, L’emigrante (The Emigrant) and Culastrisce Nobile Veneziano (released in the United States as Lunatics and Lovers), in which she starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni. 

All were comedies, as was Yuppi Du, the 1975 movie in which she again starred with Celentano, who also directed the film. The English actress Charlotte Rampling was among her co-stars and the film was an Italian entry at the Cannes Film Festival.

Claudia Mori and Adriano Celentano
celebrate their 1970 Sanremo victory

During the same decade, Mori enjoyed her biggest solo recording success with Buonasera Dottore.  She became CEO of her husband’s record label, Clan Celentano, producing her husband's celebrated album of duets with Mina, Italy’s all-time biggest selling female artist, which sold more than two million copies.

Celentano himself - now 81 - can look back on a career in which he has sold in excess of 200 million records, well ahead of any other Italian recording artist.

More recently, Mori developed a television career. She was a judge on the Italian version of The X-Factor and her television production company Ciao ragazzi (Hello Boys) has turned out several successful mini-series of drama and drama-documentary films.

She and Celentano are still together, although they separated for a period in the 1980s following Celentano’s affair with another actress.  They had three children, Rosita, Giacomo and Rosalinda. Rosita is a television presenter, Rosalinda an actress.

Positano, with its dramatic cliffside setting, is one of
the jewels of the Amalfi Coast

Travel tip:

Claudia Mori’s debut movie Cerasella was filmed on location in Naples and on the Amalfi Coast, the 50km (31 miles) stretch of Campania coastline between the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula and Vietri-sul-Mare, the resort just outside Salerno. Notable for its steep cliffs and rocky inlets and coves, with a winding road that seems to cling to the cliff face, the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising a string of villages and towns, the most famous of which are Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. The town of Amalfi, which occupies a dramatic setting at the foot of the cliffs, attracts huge numbers of visitors each year. Its ninth-century Duomo dominates the town's central piazza, sitting at the top of a wide flight of steps.

Find accommodation in Amalfi with Booking.com

Galbiate, where Claudia Mori and Adriano Celentano have
a house, has views over Lago di Annone

Travel tip:

Mori and Celentano’s main home is in Galbiate, a small town in Lombardy about 50km (31 miles) northeast of Celentano’s home city of Milan and close to the small lakeside city of Lecco. Galbiate is close to Lago di Annone and Lago di Garlate, two small lakes to the south of Lake Como.  The area between the lakes includes the Natural Park of Monte Barro, which is the home of more than 1,000 varieties of plants in a climate of biodiversity probably unique in Lombardy. The area is also the habitat of birds of prey such as the the kestrel, buzzard, brown kite and peregrine falcon and the rare royal albanella.

Stay in Galbiate with Booking.com


More reading:

How Adriano Celentano became Italy's biggest selling pop star of all time

Terence Hill - from spaghetti westerns to parish priest

Luchino Visconti, the aristocrat of Italian cinema

Also on this day:

1602: The birth of Baroque painter Michelangelo Cerquozzi

1799: The death of Lazzaro Spallanzani, biologist who pioneered artificial insemination

1923: The birth of film director Franco Zeffirelli

(Picture credits: Positano by Glen MacLarty; Lago di Annone by Cantakukuruz; via Wikimedia Commons)

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11 February

Louis Visconti - architect

Roman who made his mark on Paris

The architect Louis Visconti, who designed a number of public buildings and squares as well as numerous private residences in Paris, was born on this day in 1791 in Rome.  Visconti was the architect chosen to design the tomb to house the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte after King Louis Philippe I obtained permission from Britain in 1840 to return them from Saint Helena, the remote island in the South Atlantic where the former emperor had died in exile in 1921. Read more...

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Lateran Treaty

How the Vatican became an independent state inside Italy 

The Lateran Treaty, an agreement between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, recognising the Vatican as an independent state within Italy, was signed on this day in 1929.  The treaty was named after the Lateran Palace, where the agreement was signed on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius IX.  The Italian parliament ratified the treaty on June 7, 1929. Although Italy was then under a Fascist government, the succeeding democratic governments have all upheld the treaty. Read more…

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Carlo Carrà - Futurist artist

Painter hailed for capturing violence at anarchist's funeral

The painter Carlo Carrà, a leading figure in the Futurist movement that gained popularity in Italy in the early part of the 20th century, was born on this day in 1881.  Carrà counted himself as an anarchist in his youth and his best known work emerged from that period, when he attended the funeral of a fellow anarchist, Angelo Galli, who was killed by police during a general strike in Milan in 1906. Carrà made sketches of the violence that erupted between anarchist mourners and the police, which became the basis for his 1911 painting, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli. Read more…

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Carlo Sartori – footballer

Italian was first foreigner to play for Manchester United

Carlo Sartori, the first footballer from outside Great Britain or Ireland to play for Manchester United, was born on this day in 1948 in a mountain village in Trentino. The red-haired attacking midfielder made his United debut on October 9, 1968, appearing as substitute in a 2-2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur at the London club’s White Hart Lane ground in a United team that included seven members of the side that had won the European Cup for the first time the previous May, including George Best and Bobby Charlton, as well as his boyhood idol, Denis Law.  Read more...

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Louis Visconti - architect

Roman who made his mark on Paris

The French painter Théophile Vauchelet's
portrait of  the architect Louis Visconti 

The architect Louis Visconti, who designed a number of public buildings and squares as well as numerous private residences in Paris, was born on this day in 1791 in Rome.

Notably, Visconti was the architect chosen to design the tomb to house the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte after King Louis Philippe I obtained permission from Britain in 1840 to return them from Saint Helena, the remote island in the South Atlantic where the former emperor had died in exile in 1921.

Born Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti, he came from a family of archaeologists. His grandfather, Giambattista Antonio Visconti was the founder of the Vatican Museums and his father, Ennio Quirino Visconti, was an archaeologist and art historian.

Ennio had been a consul of the short-lived Roman Republic, proclaimed in February 1798 after Louis Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded Rome, but was forced to leave with the restoration of papal control.

He and his family moved to Paris and were naturalised as French citizens, with Ennio becoming a curator of antiquities and paintings at the Musée du Louvre. 

Visconti's magnificent tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte, in
red porphyry on a granite base, standing 16ft high

In 1808, Louis enrolled at Paris's École des Beaux-Arts.  He excelled in architecture and secured second prize in the architecture section of the Prix de Rome in 1814 and the architecture department prize at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1817.

He was was appointed by the city in 1826 to oversee building works in the 3rd and 8th arrondissements and subsequently as curator of the 8th section of public monuments, which comprised the Bibliothèque Royale, the monument on Place des Victoires, Porte Saint-Martin, Saint-Denis and the Colonne Vendôme.

He became divisional architect in 1848, and government architect in 1849.

In May 1848, he produced a first-draft design for completing the Palais du Louvre. He was made architect to the Palais des Tuileries in July 1852 and architect to Napoleon III the following year.

The Hôtel de Pontalba in Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré,
now home to the US Ambassador to France

Visconti built a number of Renaissance-style public fountains in Paris, including the Fontaine Gaillon, the Fontaine Louvois, the Fontaine Molière, the Fontaine Quatre Evèques and the Fontaine Saint-Sulpice. He was an important participant in the revival of the Picturesque and Gothic styles, as is reflected in the Château de Lussy (1844), which is modelled after an English cottage.

Among several large houses he designed, the Hôtel de Pontalba in Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, built in 1839, is an outstanding example.

Hôtel de Pontalba is an example of an hôtel particulier, a type of large townhouse. It was commissioned by New Orleans-born Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba. Nowadays, it is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France.

During his time as the official architect for the Louvre under Napoleon III, he was commissioned to design the tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte.

Louis Philippe had arranged for Napoleon’s remains to be brought to France in 1840 and they were first buried in the Chapelle Saint-Jérôme in Hôtel des Invalides, the complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris that contains museums and monuments relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose.

The buildings include the Dôme des Invalides, the tallest church in Paris at a height of 107m (351ft), which contains the tombs of some of France's war heroes. It became Napoleon’s final resting place in Visconti’s magnificent, dramatic tomb, crafted in red porphyry on a green granite base, circled by a crown of laurels, standing 5m (16 feet) high and 4.5m wide.

The remains of the Forum of ancient Rome attract some
4.5 million visitors every year

Travel tip:

When the new Roman Republic was declared in 1798, its supporters symbolically gathered in the Foro Romano, the remains of the Forum of ancient Rome, a rectangular piazza (square) surrounded by important government buildings at the centre of the city. For centuries the Forum was the centre of day-to-day life in Rome, a market place but also the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, elections and triumphal processions. Statues and monuments were built to commemorate the city's great men. Located between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today attracts some 4.5 million visitors every year.

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Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ
is among the Vatican's art treasures 

Travel tip:

The Vatican Museums, located inside the Vatican City, display works from the immense collection amassed by popes throughout the centuries including several renowned Roman sculptures and some of the most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums, founded by Pope Julius II in the 16th century, contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display. The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo, and the Stanze di Raffaello, decorated by Raphael, are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums, which are visited by some six million people each year, making in the fifth most visited art museum in the world. The museums employ a full-time staff of 640 people.

More reading:

Why Luigi Vanvitelli was the 18th century's most celebrated architect

How architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini reshaped Catania in Sicily

The founding of the papal Swiss Guard

Also on this day:

1881: The birth of Futurist painter Carlo Carrà

1917: The birth of film director Giuseppe De Santis

1929: The Lateran Treaty declares the Vatican an independent state

1948: The birth of footballer Carlo Sartori

1995: The birth of singer Gianluca Ginoble


(Picture credits: Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb by Son of Groucho; Hôtel de Pontalba by Mouloud47; Rome Forum by Rennett Stowe; via Wikemedia Commons)

(Paintings: Portrait of Visconti - Musée Carnavalet, Paris; Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ - Pinacoteca Vaticano, Rome)

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10 February

Andrea Silenzi - footballer

Forward was the first Italian to play in the English Premier League

The footballer Andrea Silenzi, who made history in 1995 when he became the first Italian to be signed by an English Premier League club, was born on this day in 1966 in Rome. A 6ft 3ins centre forward, Silenzi joined Nottingham Forest for £1.8 million - the equivalent of about £3.5 million (€4 million) today - and although he was not a success in England, he paved the way for stars such as Gianfranco Zola, Gianluca Vialli and Paolo Di Canio to make their mark in the Premier League. Read more…

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Ernesto Teodoro Moneta – Nobel Prize winner

Supporter of Garibaldi was also an ‘apostle for peace’

Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, who was at times both a soldier and a pacifist, died on this day in 1918.  Moneta was only 15 when he was involved in the Five Days of Milan uprising against the Austrians in 1848 and supported Garibaldi’s unification battle, but in later life he became a peace activist. Even after he won the Nobel Peace prize in 1907, he publicly supported Italy’s entry into the First World War. On the Nobel Prize official website, however, he is described as ‘a militant pacifist’. Read more…

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ENI – oil and gas multinational

Italian energy company 66 years old today

The Rome-based multinational oil and gas company ENI, one of the world’s largest industrial concerns, was founded on this day in 1953. The company, which operates in 79 countries, is currently valued at $52.2 billion (€47.6 billion) and employs almost 34,000 people.  It is the 11th largest oil company in the world.  Its operations include exploration for and production of oil and natural gas, the storage and distribution of petroleum products and the production of base chemicals and plastics. Read more…

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Raffaele Lauro – author and politician

Sorrentine's talents include writing, film directing and song

Italian Senator and journalist Raffaele Lauro was born on this day in 1944 in the resort of Sorrento in Campania.  A prolific writer, Lauro has also been an important political figure for more than 30 years.  A prominent figure in local government in Sorrento, Lauro was appointed a Senator for Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party in 2008, representing Campania, but still had time to pursue his interests in a diverse range of subjects, including writing three books about the singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla. Read more…

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Andrea Silenzi - footballer

Forward was the first Italian to play in the English Premier League

Andrea Silenzi was a leading striker for
Torino before joining Nottingham Forest

The footballer Andrea Silenzi, who made history in 1995 when he became the first Italian to be signed by a Premier League club, was born on this day in 1966 in Rome.

A 6ft 3ins centre forward, Silenzi had enjoyed Serie A success with Torino in particular, his form persuading Nottingham Forest to offer £1.8 million - the equivalent of about £3.5 million (€4 million) today - to bring him to England.

When Forest manager Frank Clark proudly announced his new man before the 1995-96 season, it was seen as an important moment for the fledgling Premier League, then only three seasons old.

The Italian League at the time was the most glamorous in Europe, wealthy enough to hire stars from all around the world, including many British players; it was rare for Italian players to move abroad. Yet Silenzi, a teammate of Diego Maradona during a two-year stay with Napoli who had won a call-up to the Italian national team after his 17 goals for Torino in the 1993-94 season, had agreed to come to England.

Forest gave Silenzi a contract worth £360,000 a year, a considerable sum at that time. Was the tide now turning, with the money flooding in from lucrative television contracts putting the Premier League clubs on an equal footing?

Silenzi made a limited impact at Nottingham Forest but
was still a trailblazer for Italians in the Premier League

In the event, Silenzi was unable to make the impact that Forest had hoped from him, making only 12 Premier League appearances in his two seasons in England. His only goals - just two - came against smaller clubs in the cup competitions and he went back to Italy in October 1996, joining Venezia on loan before Forest cancelled his contract.

Yet although Silenzi was branded a flop, his arrival did mark the beginning of a trend and within a couple of years fans of the Premier League were able to watch high-quality Italian players at a number of clubs.

Chelsea signed three Italians in Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Di Matteo, Middlesbrough recruited Gianluca Festa and Fabrizio Ravanelli and Sheffield Wednesday brought in Benito Carbone and Paolo Di Canio.

Derby County joined the trend by signing Francesco Baiano and Stefano Eranio, Crystal Palace landed Attilio Lombardo and Tottenham attracted Nicola Berti.

Silenzi had begun his career in the youth team of Pescatori Ostia, a junior club based at the beach resort of Lido di Ostia, 30km (19 miles) outside Rome, before beginning his professional career with Lodigiani, now extinct but then the capital’s third-biggest club after AS Roma and Lazio.

Paolo Di Canio joined Sheffield Wednesday in the wave of
Italians that followed Silenzi to the Premier League

His goals for Lodigiani earned him a move to Tuscan club Arezzo, then in Serie B, and although he was not successful there his next move, back to Serie C to play for Reggiana, paid dividends.  His nine goals in his first season for the Reggio Emilia team helped them win promotion to Serie B, and he was the top scorer for the whole of Serie B in 1989-90 with 23 goals.

That led to interest from Napoli, who were then the best team in Italy, winners of both Serie A and the Coppa Italia in 1990. Silenzi made a immediate impact, scoring twice against Juventus in the Supercoppa Italia on his debut.

In the event, competing with such stars as Maradona, Zola and the Brazil forward Careca, Silenzi’s opportunities were limited in Naples, yet the move to Torino confirmed his talent, which is why Forest, who had finished third in the Premier League in 1994-95, saw him as a player worth signing.

Silenzi was treated harshly by the English press, with one national newspaper recently listing him as one of the “10 worst foreign signings” in Premier League history. Yet in a recent interview he insisted he enjoyed the experience of playing in England.

After resuming his career in Italy, Silenzi retired from playing in 2000. Since then, he has worked for a number of clubs in the role of sporting director and appeared as a pundit on television but is no longer involved in football, devoting his energies to running an expanding construction business in his home city.

One of his two children - his son Christian - followed him into football, however. Aged 21, he plays for Albissola, a third-tier team from Liguria, as a winger.

The beach at Ostia Lido attracts many visitors from
nearby Rome during the summer months

Travel tip:

The seaside resort of Ostia Lido, where Silenzi was a youth player, lies 30km (19 miles) to the southwest of Rome, situated just across the mouth of the Tiber river from Fiumicino, home of Rome’s largest international airport. It is the only district of the Rome municipal area on the sea. It adjoins the archeological site of the ancient Roman city of Ostia Antica, once the harbour city of Rome, which has many well preserved remains. Many Romans spend their summer holidays in the modern town, swelling the population of 85,000.

Hotels in Ostia Lido by Booking.com

The Basilica di San Prospero, built between the 16th and
18th centuries, is a notable building in Reggio Emilia 

Travel tip:

The city of Reggio Emilia, where Silenzi played for the local Reggiana team, may lack the cultural wealth of neighbouring Parma and is consequently less visited, yet it has an attractive historic centre with a number of notable buildings, including the Basilica della Ghiara and the 10th century Basilica di San Prospero, which overlooks the elegant Piazza of the same name. The province is also believed to have given Italy its tricolore national flag, with evidence that a short-lived 18th century republic, the Repubblica Cispadana, had a flag of red, white and green.  It can also claim to be the home of Italy's world famous hard cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is thought to have originated in the commune of Bibbiano, about 15km (9 miles) to the southeast of the city.

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More reading:

Why Chelsea fans voted Gianfranco Zola their all-time greatest player

The Juventus star who became a favourite at Middlesbrough

How AC Milan made Gianluca Lentini the world's most expensive player

Also on this day:

1482: The death of sculptor Luca della Robbia

1791: The birth of painter Francesco Hayez

1918: The death of Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Nobel Peace Prize winner

1944: The birth of author and politician Raffaele Lauro

1953: The founding of energy giant ENI

(Picture credits: Beach at Ostia by Bats,N.; Basilica by Lspigon)

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9 February

Ferdinando Carulli - classical guitarist and composer

Neapolitan wrote first guide to playing the instrument

The composer Ferdinando Carulli, who published the first complete method for playing the classical guitar as well as writing more than 400 works for the instrument, was born on this day in 1770 in Naples.  Carulli was also influential in changing the design of the guitar, which had a smaller body and produced a less resonant sound when he started out, to something much more like the classical guitars of today. Read more...

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Pope Gregory XV

Legally-trained pontiff was against witchcraft and for secret ballots

Gregory XV, who was christened Alessandro Ludovisi, became pope on this day in 1621. He was the last pope to issue a papal ordinance against witchcraft with his ‘Declaration against Magicians and Witches’, put out in March 1623. He was also the last pontiff to be elected by acclamation rather than through a secret ballot.  Already 67 years of age and in a weak state of health when he was chosen as pope, he relied heavily on his 25-year-old nephew, Ludovico Ludovisi, to assist him in his duties. Read more…

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Ezechiele Ramin – missionary

Priest from Padua who was murdered in Brazil

Ezechiele Ramin, a Comboni missionary who was shot to death by hired killers after standing up for the rights of peasant farmers and traditional tribesmen in a remote rural area in Brazil, was born on this day in 1953 in Padua.  An easy-going and popular man who played the guitar, Ramin was only 32 when he was murdered in July 1985, having worked in the South American country for about a year and a half.  Read more…

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Vito Antuofermo - world champion boxer

Farmer's son from deep south who won middleweight title 

Vito Antuofermo, who went from harvesting grapes, olives and almonds in the fields as a boy to becoming a world champion in the boxing ring, was born on this day in 1953 in Palo del Colle, a small town in Apulia. He took up boxing after his family emigrated to the United States in the mid-1960s.  After turning professional in 1971, he became European light-middleweight champion in January 1976 and world middleweight champion in June 1979. Read more...