29 Oct 1922: Mussolini appointed Italian PM

On this day in 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Benito Mussolini as Italian prime minister.

Mussolini with Adolf Hitler. Wikimedia Commons

Here are some more details about Mussolini:

• known as Il Duce, Italian for “the leader”
• set up his headquarters at the Venezia Palace
• abolished all parties other than his Fascist Party in 1926
• agreed to an alliance with Hitler in the 1939 “Pact of Steel”
• his military protection was known as the Blackshirts
• in 1943, was broken out of prison by Nazi Otto Skorzeny on Hitler’s direct orders
• tried to escape by dressing as a German soldier, but was caught by Italian partisans at the Austrian border
• executed with his mistress, Clara Petacci, in April 1945