Key Events: Benito Mussolini

DATE	BRIEF DESCRIPTION

1883	Born July 29 in Predappio, Italy.
1912	Editor of the Socialist Party newspaper Avanti!
1914	Denounces World War I, but quickly changes his mind, calling for Italy's entry on the Allied side. Expelled from the Socialist Party. Starts his own newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.
1915	Enlists in the Italian Army.
1919	Forms the nationalistic, anti-liberal, anti-socialist movement, 'Fasci di Combattimento', its name taken from the fasces, a symbol of Roman discipline.
1922	Fascists threaten to march on Rome. Invited to form a government by King Victor Emmanuel III. Sets about establishing a totalitarian regime.
1929	Lateran Treaty with the Vatican stabilizes relations between Church and State.
1935	Italy invades Abyssinia.
1936	Signs agreement with Hitler creating the 'Axis powers'.
1940	Italy enters World War II on the fall of France; joins Germany in its war against the British in Africa and invades Greece.
1943	Military defeats lead to King Victor Emmanuel dismissing him from power. Imprisoned, but rescued by the Germans, who force him to establish a puppet Social Republic in northern Italy.
1945	With the Allied advance, he attempts escape to Switzerland, but is captured and shot by Italian partisans, April 28.