July 29, 1883 - Benito Mussolini
His trajectory from socialist journalist to architect of Italian fascism traces one of the twentieth century's most consequential political reinventions. The movement he founded in 1919 became a template for authoritarian nationalist politics across Europe, and his two decades in power reshaped Italy through suppression of political opposition, imperial warfare in Africa and the Balkans, and eventual alliance with Nazi Germany. The machinery of the fascist state — the party apparatus, the cult of leadership, the subordination of institutions to ideological ends — drew on his particular skill at channeling postwar disillusionment into mass political energy.
From Wikipedia
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was a fascist dictator who was the prime minister of Italy from 1922 until his deposition in 1943. Known as Il Duce during his rule, he established a totalitarian dictatorship led by the National Fascist Party (PNF) in the Kingdom of Italy.
Born in Predappio, Mussolini originally worked as a journalist for the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) newspaper Avanti!. He was expelled from the party for advocating military intervention in World War I and called up for the Royal Italian Army in 1915, where he served until his discharge after being wounded in 1917. During the war, Mussolini turned to nationalism and denounced the PSI. He founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919, which opposed egalitarianism and class conflict and instead promoted a form of revolutionary nationalism transcending class lines. The Combattimento are often considered the world's first fascist movement.
The Combattimento were reorganised into the PNF in 1921. Fascist militants marched on Rome and Mussolini was appointed prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1922.
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