Timeline Italy 1930-2009
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1930 Feb 18,
Luigi Pirandello's "Come Tu Mi Vuoi," premiered in Milan.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1930 Apr 21, Silvana Mangano,
actress (Death in Venice, Barabbas), was born in Rome, Italy.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1930 Jun 29, Oriana Fallaci,
Italian journalist, was born.
(HN, 6/29/01)
1930 Jul 23, Earthquake struck
Ariano, Italy, and some 1,500 were killed.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1930 Gino Severini, artist,
published Fleurs et Masques in London.
(SFEM, 2/1/98, p.6)
1930 Futurist Italian poet,
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti denounced pasta as obsolete and urged
Italians to try more avant-garde combinations like cooked salami sauced
in espresso and spiked with eau de Cologne.
(WSJ, 12/29/95, p.A-11)
1930 In Italy Battista “Pinin”
Farina founded Pininfarina SpA, a car design firm.
(SFC, 8/8/08, p.B5)
1930 Mt. Stromboli in Italy
erupted and hurled 30-ton rocks onto houses 3 km away and caused a
tidal wave as the entire island mountain rose.
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.30)
1932 Jan 5, Umberto Eco, Italian
novelist who wrote "The Name of the Rose," was born.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1932 Apr 17, Graziella Sciutti,
Italian opera singer, was born.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1932 Aug 4, Luigi Beccali
(1907-1990), Italian athlete, won Olympic gold in the 1500 meters. He
gave a Fascist salute at the winners’ podium.
(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.R2)(http://tinyurl.com/6al4up)
1932 Sep 11, Valentino, fashion
designer for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1932 Oct 25, Mussolini promised to
remain dictator for 30 years.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1932 Nov 5, Mussolini freed 16,000
criminals.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1933 Mar 19, Italy's dictator
Benito Mussolini proposed a pact with Britain, France and Germany.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1933 Jun 26, Claudio Abbado,
composer, conductor (London Symph-1982), was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1933 Giulio Einaudi (d.1999 at 87)
founded the Giulio Einaudi Editore in Turin, a publishing house that he
built into a wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and
political theory. In 1994 the firm became part of Mondadori, part of
the media empire of Silvio Berlusconi.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C5)
1933 Mussolini decided to
transform Campione, a destitute fisherman’s village, into a showcase
for Italy’s prosperity. Subsidies were curtailed in 2001.
(WSJ, 1/16/00, p.A1)
1933 Francesco Illy founded
Illycafe in Trieste, Italy. He invented the compressed air coffee
machine (patented in 1934), the predecessor of the espresso machine as
we now know it.
(http://indiacoffee.org/newsletter/2005/august/in_the_news1.html)
1934 Feb 18, Aldo Ceccato,
conductor (Detroit Symph Orch 1973-77), was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1934 Feb 24, Renata Scotto,
soprano (Violetta, La Traviata), was born in Savona, Italy.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1934 Jun 23, Italy gained the
right to colonize Albania after defeating the country.
(HN, 6/23/98)
1934 Sep 20, Sophia Loren, actress
(Desire Under the Elms, Black Orchid), was born in Rome.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1934 Dec 5, Italian and Ethiopian
troops clashed at the Ualual on disputed Somali-Ethiopian border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1934 Attilio Bertolucci
(1912-2000) published his 1st collection of poems "November Fires."
(SFC, 6/15/00, p.A34)
1934 The Italian film "La Signora
di Tutti" starred Isa Miranda and was directed by Max Ophuls.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, DB p.50)
1934 Charles Ponzi, Italian
immigrant, check forger and scam artist, was deported from the US to
Italy where he got work in Mussolini’s treasury and embezzled money
from the fascists.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.G2)
1935 Feb 18, Rome reported sending
troops to Italian Somalia.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1935 Feb 27, Mirella Freni, lyric
soprano (Madame Butterfly), was born in Modena, Italy.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1935 Mar 23, France, Italy and
Britain agreed to present a unified front in response to Germany.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1935 Jul 18, Ethiopian King Haile
Selassie urged his countrymen to fight to the last man against the
invading Italian army. He had previously warned the League of Nations
of the dangers of appeasement.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1935 Oct 3, Italy invaded
Ethiopia.
(DoD, 1999,
p.237)(www.onwar.com/aced/data/india/italyethiopia1935.htm)
1935 Oct 6, Italian army occupied
Adua, Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
(MC, 10/6/01)
1935 Oct 11, The League of Nations
met and voted 50 to 4 (Austria, Hungary, Italy and Albania opposed) to
condemn Italy for the attack on Ethiopia.
(http://nazret.com/history/)
1935 Oct 12, Luciano Pavarotti,
Italian opera tenor, was born in Modena, Italy.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1935 Dec 30, Italian bombers
destroyed a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1935 Mussolini presented a gift
of 3,000,000 gold francs to Albania; other economic aid followed.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1935 Mussolini exiled Carlo Levi
(1902-1975), Italian journalist, artist and doctor. As a Jew and for
his antifascist activities he was exiled until 1936 to two isolated
villages in the province of Lucania.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/clevi.htm)
1935 Bruno Ducati (d.2001) and his
brothers Adriano and Marcello began producing condensers and radio
equipment in Italy. They switched to motorcycle production after WW II.
(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A25)
1935-1936 The Italian army used chemical warfare
against Ethiopia in violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
(NH, 10/98, p.18)
1936 Jan 5, Daggha Bur, Ethiopia,
was bombed by the Italians.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1936 Mar 1, Giulio Bargellini
(b.1869), Italian artist, died in Rome.
(www.comune.calenzano.fi.it/redaz/web/I/3B0241D3.htm)
1936 Mar 23, Italy, Austria and
Hungary signed Pact of Rome.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1936 Mar 29, Italy firebombed the
Ethiopian city of Harar.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1936 Apr 18, Ottorino Respighi
(56), Italian composer (Pines of Rome), died.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1936 May 2, With the Italian
invasion Ethiopia’s Emp. Haile Selassie left for French Somaliland. He
went into exile for 5 years during which time he was based in Bath,
England.
(http://tinyurl.com/ahqhm)
1936 May 5, Italian troops
occupied Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1757 Italians and 1593 Eritreans were
killed, more than 275,000 Ethiopians were killed.
(http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Prelude05.html)(http://nazret.com/history/)
1936 May 9, Fascist Italy took
Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia as Benito Mussolini celebrated in Rome.
(AP, 5/9/97)(HN, 5/9/98)
1936 Jun 30, Haile Selassie asked
the League of Nations for sanctions against Italy.
(www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_400.html)
1936 Jul 4, The League Council
voted to end economic sanctions against Italy with the collapse of
Ethiopia. The cancellation of economic sanctions against an aggressor
state marked the failure of collective security under the League and
was a harbinger of conflict in the upcoming years.
(http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1936.htm)
1936 Sep 29, Silvio Berlusconi,
later 2-time PM of Italy, was born to middle-class parents in Milan.
(WSJ, 3/30/06, p.A12)
1936 Nov 1, In a speech in Milan,
Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and
Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin after Count
Ciano’s visit to Germany.
(AP, 11/1/97)(HN, 11/1/98)
1936 Nov 18, Germany and Italy
recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
(AP, 11/18/97)
1937 Jan 9, Italian regime banned
marriages between Italians and Abyssinians.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1937 Apr 27, Antonio Gramsci
(b.1891), Italian communist, philosopher and political theorist, died.
He said that to eliminate the bourgeois state one must seize the
institutions that reproduce the dominant class’s thought patterns.
(Econ, 8/22/09,
p.33)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci)
1937 Jun 10, Luciana Paluzzi
(Fiona Volpe), actress (Five Fingers, Thunderball), was born in Rome,
Italy.
(www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/bond-villains/luciana)
1937 Jul 20, Guglielmo Marconi
(b.1874), Italian engineer, inventor of wireless telegraphy, marquis
(radio, Nobel 1909), died in Rome.
(ON, 11/99, p.10)(MC, 7/20/02)
1937 Sep 6, The Soviet Union
accused Italy of torpedoing two Russian ships in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1937 Sep 25, German Chancellor
Adolf Hitler met with Italian Premier Benito Mussolini in Munich.
(HN, 9/25/98)
1937 Dec 11, Italy withdrew from
the League of Nations.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1937 Dec 23, London warned Rome to
stop the anti-British propaganda in Palestine.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1937 Italy occupied Albania. [see
Apr 8, 1939]
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20)
1937 An Italian Alfa Romeo 8C
2900B Cabriolet, later called one of the finest classic cars in
existence, was produced. In 1999 it sold for $4 million.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A26)
1937 The 1,700 year-old Axum
Obelisk was dismantled and removed from Ethiopia by Italian forces.
Mussolini used it to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his march on
Rome. In 1998 Italy agreed to return it. The border war delayed the
return to 2003.
(AM, 5/01, p.10)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A2)
1938 Jul 14, Mussolini published
anti-Jewish and African manifest.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1938 Sep 1, Mussolini cancelled
the civil rights of Italian Jews.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1938 Sep 29, British, French,
German and Italian leaders signed the Munich Agreement, which was aimed
at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of
Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, inhabited by a German-speaking minority.
The treaty ceded three areas of Czechoslovakia to other powers: the
Sudetenland was annexed into Germany, the Teschen district was given to
Poland, and parts of Slovakia went to Hungary. British PM Neville
Chamberlain gained a brief peace agreement from Hitler at Munich and
without consulting the Czechs agreed that Nazi forces could occupy
Sudetenland. Some mark this "appeasement policy" as the decisive event
of the century. Chamberlain predicted "peace in our time." French PM
Edouard Daladier was very depressed from the meeting. In 1980 Telford
Taylor published "Munich: The Price of Peace." It is a detailed
political & diplomatic history of the 1930's in Europe, culminating
in the Munich conference. Taylor later helped write the rules for
Nuremberg Trials. In 2008 David Vaughan authored “Battle for the
Airwaves: Radio and the 1938 Munich Crises.”
(http://www.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/chluplinks/munich.html)(SFC,
6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(SFC, 6/16/96, Z1 p.6)(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A21)(AP,
9/29/06)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.B2)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.115)
1938 Nov 10, Fascist Italy enacted
anti-Semitic legislation.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1938 Nov 17, Italy passed its own
version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1938 Dec 17, Italy declared the
1935 pact with France invalid, because ratification's had not been
exchanged. France denied the argument.
(HN, 12/17/98)
1938 King Victor Emmanuel III
supported dictator Benito Mussolini and signed racial laws that
expelled Jews from government and university jobs and the military and
restricted their work, schooling and right to own property. Some 8,000
Jews were sent to concentration camps from which only about 600
survived.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11)
1938 In the Langhe region of Italy
Giacomo Morra initiated the Int’l. Truffle Fair in Alba.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, p.T4)
1938 In Italy Ugo Cerletti
(1877-1963), neurosurgeon, and psychiatrist Lucio Bini (1908-1980)
pioneered the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electric shock,
to cure patients of depression.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dh38el.html)
1938 Enrico Rebuschini, a northern
Italian priest, died. In 1997 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8)
1939 Feb 24, Hungary signed an
anti-Communist pact with Italy, Germany and Japan.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1939 Apr 7, Italy invaded Albania,
which offered only token resistance. Less than a week later, Italy
annexed Albania. [see Apr 8]
(AP, 4/7/99)
1939 Apr 8, Italy, under Fascist
dictatorship led by Benito Mussolini seized the country of Albania. The
Albanian parliament voted to unite Albania with Italy; King Zog fled to
Greece. Under Mussolini’s totalitarian rule Italy embarked on expansion
and military conquest. Ethiopia fell victim, conquered by Italy in
1936. Italy’s foreign policy cooperation with Germany began in 1936 and
both joined forces to intervene in the Spanish Civil War on the side of
Francisco Franco’s rebel forces. Italy’s military alliance with Germany
was struck in 1939. [see Apr 7]
(HN, 4/8/98)(www, Albania, 1998)
1939 May 7, Germany and Italy
announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin
Axis.
(AP, 5/7/97)
1939 May 22, The foreign ministers
of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed
a "Pact of Steel" committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance
forming the Axis powers.
(HN, 5/22/99)(AP, 5/22/07)
1939 The Italian film "Ossessione"
(Obsession) featured the debut of Massimo Giroti (d.2003 at 84). It was
a loose adaptation of "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and was directed
by Luchino Visconti.
(SFC, 1/11/03, p.A17)
1939 Italy passed a law for the
Protection of Artistic Patrimony. It required that art over 50 years
old be offered to the government for acquisition before export.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.64)
1940 Mar 5, The British surprised
Mussolini by taking seven Italian coal ships.
(HN, 3/5/98)
1940 Mar 9, Britain freed captured
Italian coal ships on the eve of German Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop's
visit to Rome.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1940 Mar 18, Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass across the Alps
during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war
against France and Britain.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1940 Apr 12, Italy annexed Albania.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1940 May 16, Bernardo Bertolucci,
director (1900, Last Emperor), was born in Parma, Italy.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1940 Jun 10, Italy declared war on
France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1940 Jun 11, The Italian Air Force
bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1940 Jun 24, France signed an
armistice with Italy after the axis country attacked a portion of
southern France during Germany's blitzkrieg.
(AP, 6/24/97)(HN, 6/24/99)
1940 Aug 11, Italian forces
attacked Observation Hill in British Somaliland. Capt. Wilson and
Somali gunners under his command beat off the attack and opened fire on
the enemy troops attacking Mill Hill, another post within his range.
The enemy finally overran the post at 5 p.m. on the 15th August when
Capt. Wilson, fighting to the last, was reportedly killed. 2 months
later he was awarded a Victoria Cross. In April 1941, however, Wilson
was found alive in a prisoner of war camp in Eritrea. Wilson died at
age 96 on Dec 23, 2008.
(AP, 12/30/08)
1940 Sep 12, Italian forces began
an offensive into Egypt from Libya.
(HN, 9/12/98)
1940 Sep 13, Italian troops under
Marshal Graziani attacked Egypt.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1940 Sep 27, Nazi-Germany, Italy
and Japan signed a formal alliance called Tripartite Pact, a 10 year
military and economic alliance strengthening the Axis alliance.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1940 Oct 4, Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass in the Alps, where the Nazi
leader sought Italy's help in fighting the British.
(AP, 10/4/97)
1940 Oct 25, The Greek Army beat
back an invasion by Mussolini’s forces.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A23)
1940 Oct 25, Hitler visited
Mussolini in Florence.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A23)
1940 Oct 28, Italy invaded Greece,
launching six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania. Greece
successfully resisted Italy's attack.
(AP, 10/28/97)(HN, 10/28/98)(MC, 10/28/01)
1940 Oct 28, A meeting between
Hitler and Mussolini took place in Florence.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1940 Nov 11, Britain’s Royal Navy
attacked the Italian fleet at Taranto.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1940 Dec 9, British troops opened
their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II and
seized 1,000 Italians in a sudden thrust in Egypt.
(AP, 12/9/97)(HN, 12/9/98)
1940 The film "Piccolo Mondo
Antico" was directed Mario Soldati.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A25)
1940 The film "St. John the
Baptist Beheaded" starred Toto.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1941 Jan 20, Hitler met with
Mussolini and offered aid in Albania and Greece.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1941 Jan 22, British and
Australian troops captured Tobruk from Italians.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1941 Feb 6, The RAF cleared the
way as British took Benghazi, Libya, trapping thousands of Italians.
(HN, 2/6/99)
1941 Feb 16, The Italians lost
their last position in the Sudan.
(HN, 2/16/98)
1941 Mar 21, The last Italian post
in East Libya fell to the British.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1941 Mar 28, The Italian fleet was
routed by the British at the Battle of Matapan.
(HN, 3/28/99)
1941 Mar 29, Terence Hill, actor
(Super Fuzz, They Call Me Trinity), was born in Venice, Italy.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1941 Mar 29, The British sank five
Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1941 Mar 30, The U.S. seized
Italian, German and Danish ships in 16 ports.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1941 Apr 6, Italian-held Addis
Ababa surrendered to British and Ethiopian forces.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1941 Apr 17, Yugoslavia
surrendered to Germany ending 11 days of futile resistance against the
invading German Wehrmacht. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and
soldiers were taken prisoner. Italian and Albanian forces attacked and
jointly occupied Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A20)(AP, 4/17/97)(MC, 4/17/02)
1941 May 18, Italian army under
General Aosta surrendered to Britain in Ethiopia.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1941 Jul 28, Riccardo Muti,
conductor (Philadelphia Orch), was born in Napoli, Italy.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1941 Nov 18, Mussolini's forces
left Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
(MC, 11/18/01)
1941 Dec 9, China declared war on
Japan, Germany and Italy.
(AP, 12/9/97)
1941 Dec 11, The US declared war
on Germany and Italy. Germany and Italy declared war on the United
States; the U.S. responded in kind.
(WUD, 1944, p.1683)(TL, 1988, p.112)(AP, 12/11/97)
1941 The British seized Eritrea
from the Italians.
(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.A22)
1942 Jan 29, German and Italian
troops took Benghazi in North Africa.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1942 Aug 27, Cuba declared war on
Germany, Japan and Italy.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1942 Dec 4, U.S. bombers struck
the Italian mainland and Naples for the first time in World War II.
(AP, 12/4/97)(HN, 12/4/98)
1942 Dec 18, Hitler met with
Mussolini and Pierre Laval.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1942 The film "Malombra" was
directed Mario Soldati.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A25)
1942 Lev Nussimbaum (37),
Orientalist and writer (aka Essad Bey or Kurban Said), died in Italy,
while researching a biography of Mussolini. In 2005 Tom Reiss authored
“The Orientalist,” a biography of Nussimbaum, whose books included the
novel “Ali and Nino” (1937), translated to English in 1970.
(WSJ, 2/17/05, p.D8)(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.B3)
1943 Jan 14, Italian occupation
authorities refused to deport any Jews living on their territories in
France.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1943 Jan 22, Battle of Anzio:
Italy.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1943 Apr 7, Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini met for an Axis conference in Salzburg.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1943 Apr 28, German-Italian forces
launched a counter offensive in North-Africa.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1943 May 18, Allied bombers
attacked Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1943 Jun 2, 99th Pursuit Squadron
flew its 1st combat mission over Italy.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1943 Jun 11, The Italian island of
Pantelleria surrendered after a heavy air bombardment.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1943 Jul 9, American and British
forces made an amphibious landing on Sicily. The 'man who never was'
pulled off one of the greatest deceptions in military history--after
his death.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1943 Jul 10, During World War II,
U.S. and British forces completed their amphibious landing in Sicily.
(AP, 7/10/97)(HN, 7/10/01)
1943 Jul 19, More than 150 B-17
and 112 B-24 Allied bombers attacked Rome for the first time.
(AP, 7/19/97)(HN, 7/19/98)
1943 Jul 22, The American Seventh
Army forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily. Gen
Patton moved his troops across Sicily through August.
(TMC,1994,p.1943)(WSJ,12/8/95,p.A-14)(AP, 7/22/07)
1943 Jul 25, Benito Mussolini was
dismissed as premier of Italy by King Victor Emmanuel III and placed
under arrest. Mussolini was later rescued by the Nazis and re-asserted
his authority.
(AP, 7/25/97)(HN, 7/25/98)(news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday)
1943 Jul 26, Otto Skorzeny's
commando group arrived in Rome.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1943 Aug 13, The British bombed
Milan. Elmer Alifano was an injured American held captive in a Milan
hospital during the bombing where he received more injuries and where a
third of the Allied prisoners were killed.
(SFC, 9/29/97, p.A19)
1943 Aug 17, The Allied conquest
of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.
(AP, 8/17/97)(HN, 8/17/98)
1943 Aug 28, Mussolini was
transferred from La Maddalena Sardinia to Gran Sasso.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1943 Aug, Italy's surrender to
Allied forces weakened Italian hold on Albania; Albanian resistance
fighters overwhelmed five Italian divisions.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1943 Sep 3, The British Eighth
Army invaded Italy, landing at Calabria, during World War II. Italy
signed a secret armistice with the Allies, but it was not announced
until Sep 8.
(AP, 9/3/97)(HN, 9/3/98)
1943 Sep 4, British 8th army
landed at Taranto in South Italy.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1943 Sep 8, Italy surrendered to
the Allies in WW II.
(www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsItaly.htm)
1943 Sep 9, Allied forces in
operation Avalanche landed at Salerno and Taranto during World War II.
They encountered strong resistance from German troops.
(AP, 9/9/97)(HN, 9/9/98)(MC, 9/9/01)
1943 Sep 10, German troops
occupied Rome and took over the protection of Vatican City.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1943 Sep 12, German paratroopers
took Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held by Italian
resistance forces. Waffen-SS troops under Otto Skorzeny freed Mussolini
at Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains.
(AP, 9/12/97)(SFC, 4/25/97, p.A15)
1943 Sep 13, Germans counter
attacked at Salerno.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1943 Sep 14, German troops
abandoned the Salerno front in Italy.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1943 Sep 23, Benito Mussolini
formed a rival fascist government in Italy.
(www.cifr.it/Chapter_05.html)
1943 Sep 29, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice
aboard the British ship Nelson off Malta.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1943 Sep, Trieste was occupied by
the Germans and held until the end of the war. Many of the city’s Jews
perished at the nearby Risiera di San Sabba Nazi death camp.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1943 Sep, Pope Pius XII offered
Vatican assets to ransom Jews from the Nazis and in Italy ran an
extensive network of hideouts for escaping Jews.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)
1943 Oct 1, Allied forces captured
Naples during World War II. British troops in Italy entered Naples and
occupied Foggia airfield.
(HFA, '96, p.38)(AP, 10/1/97)(HN, 10/1/98)
1943 Oct 12, The U.S. Fifth Army
began an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1943 Oct 13, During World War II,
Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis partner.
(AP, 10/13/97)
1943 Oct 16, In Italy the Nazi SS
police and Waffen SS began rounding up the Jews of Rome. There was an
anti Jewish riot in Rome as the Jewish quarter was surrounded by Nazis,
and Jews were evacuated to Auschwitz. Pope Pius XII made no public
protest, though he did send some messages of disapproval through
intermediaries.
(WSJ, 10/18/99, p.A46)(MC, 10/16/01)
1943 Dec 3, Battle of Monte
Cassino, Italy began.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1943-1947 Thousands of Italians were killed by
Yugoslav partisans in and around the Istrian peninsula, which had
fallen to Italy after the 1st world war. Mussolini’s fascists had
brutally Italianized the peninsula prior to the arrival of the
partisans.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.48)
1944 Jan 4, The British Fifth Army
attacked Monte Cassino, Italy.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1944 Jan 6, In Italy lava began
flowing from the conelet of Mount Vesuvius. Lava flows continued into
March with several explosions thru the end of March.
(http://vulcan.fis.uniroma3.it/vesuvio/1944eng.html)
1944 Jan 15, The U.S. Fifth Army
successfully broke the German Winter Line in Italy with the capture of
Mount Trocchio.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1944 Jan 20, Allied forces began
unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino,
Italy.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1944 Jan 22, US troops under Major
General John P. Lucas made an amphibious landing behind German lines at
Anzio, Italy, just south of Rome. Major General Lucas commanded
Operation Shingle, a surprise landing behind German lines in Italy.
General Lucas harbored grave doubts about the chances for success in
this, the most daring operation of the Italian campaign. The seaborne
operation was planned as a way of outflanking German strength on
Italy’s Gustav Line and swiftly capturing Rome, but almost nothing went
according to plan.
(HNQ, 4/4/01)(AP, 1/22/08)
1944 Feb 2, The Germans stopped an
Allied attack at Anzio, Italy.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1944 Feb 7, The Germans launched a
[counteroffensive] second attack against the Allied beachhead at Anzio,
Italy. They hoped to push the Allies back into the sea.
(AP, 2/7/97)(HN, 2/7/99)
1944 Feb 15, American bombers
attacked the Abbey of Monte Cassino in central Italy in an effort to
neutralize it as a German observation post. In 2003 Matthew Parker
authored "Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II."
(HN, 2/15/99)(Econ, 9/20/03, p.80)
1944 Mar 2, A train disaster
killed 521 people in Salerno, Italy.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)
1944 Feb 15, American bombers
attacked the Abbey of Monte Cassino in an effort to neutralize it as a
German observation post in central Italy.
(HN, 2/15/99)
1944 Mar 1, Massive strikes took
place in Northern Italian towns.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1944 Mar 2, In Salerno, Italy,
fumes from a locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocated 521 people.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1944 Mar 4, Anti-German strikes
took place in North Italy.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1944 Mar 15, Allied bombers again
raided German-held Monte Cassino, Italy.
(AP, 3/15/07)
1944 Mar 23, A bomb assassination
against Southern Tirol congregation in Rome killed 33.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1944 Mar 24, In occupied Rome, the
Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by
Italian partisans, who the day before killed 32 [33] German soldiers
[policemen]. The Ardeatine Cave massacre near Rome, Italy, took place.
In retaliation to the systematic murder of Nazi officers by the Italian
underground, an SS officer ordered that 10 Italian civilian men be shot
for every Nazi officer killed. The age of the civilians did not matter
and so many teenagers and boys were among the dead found in the caves.
Argentina extradited former Nazi officer, Erich Priebke, to Rome in
1995 to face trial for his role in the Ardeatine Caves massacre.
(AP, 3/23/97)(WSJ, 10/3/95, p.A-21) (WSJ, 11/21/95,
p.A-1)(HN, 3/24/98)
1944 Apr 22, Hitler and Mussolini
met at Obersalzburg.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1944 May 11, Allied forces
launched a major offensive against German lines in Italy.
(AP, 5/11/07)
1944 May 13, Allied forces in
Italy broke through the German Gustav Line into the Liri Valley.
(HN, 5/13/99)
1944 May 15, A partisan attack on
a movie theater killed 5 German soldiers in Genoa. 4 days later SS
Officer Friedrich Engel ordered the killing of 59 Italian prisoners in
reprisal. In 2002 Engel (93) was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the
order.
(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A14)(AP, 2/14/06)
1944 May 18, The Allies in Italy
finally captured Monte Cassino, Europe's oldest Monastic house, after a
four-month struggle that claimed some 20,000 lives. The Polish 2nd Army
corps, at a staggering loss of life, captured the convent of Monte
Cassino.
(HN, 5/18/99)(AP, 5/18/02)(SC, 5/18/02)
1944 May 19, The Gustav line, the
German defense line in Italy, collapsed under heavy assault by Allied
troops.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1944 May 19, Friedrich Engel
(1909-2006), a Nazi SS officer, oversaw the massacre of 59 Italian
prisoners near Genoa. An Italian military court convicted Engel in
absentia in 1999 and sentenced him to life for war crimes connected to
a total of 246 deaths. In 2002 a German court convicted Engel of 59
counts of murder and handed him a suspended seven-year term.
(AP, 2/14/06)
1944 May 29, British troops
occupied Aprilia, Italy.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1944 May 30, Caligula’s ships,
extracted from Lake Nemi, were set ablaze and destroyed. Blame was cast
on German soldiers and American artillery.
(AM, 5/01, p.31)
1944 Jun 3, Nazis pulled out of
Rome.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1944 Jun 4, The US Fifth Army
under Gen. Mark Clark, entered Rome, beginning the liberation of the
Italian capital during World War II.
(AP, 6/4/97)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.94)
1944 Jun 7, Italian partisans shot
at least one German soldier in a radio transmitter unit that included
Matthias Defregger. Eventually, 17 men, ranging from 17 to 65, were
shot in retaliation, and much of the village of Filetto di Camarda was
burned. Defregger later became a Bishop and faced charges in 1969 for
the murders. The charges were dropped in 1970.
(www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901076,00.html)
1944 Jun 26, German troops near
the Italian village of Falzano di Cortona herded 11 civilians into a
barn and blew it up. Gino Massetti (15) survived and in 2008 testified
in the trial of former Wehrmacht Lt. Josef Scheungraber, the company
commander accused of ordering the reprisal killings and four others
after two German soldiers were killed. In 2009 Scheungraber (90) was
convicted of 10 murders and jailed for life.
(AP, 10/7/08)(AFP, 8/11/09)
1944 Jun, German soldiers in the
Hermann Goering division, named after the head of Adolf Hitler's air
force, shot and killed more than 200 civilians and destroyed most of
the homes in the Tuscan town of Civitella to avenge a deadly attack by
partisans. In 2008 Italy's Court of Cassation ordered Berlin to pay a
total of euro1 million (US$1.3 million) to nine family members of
victims of the massacre. Germany rejected the ruling.
(AP, 10/22/08)
1944 Aug 4, British 8th army
reached the suburbs of Florence, Italy.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1944 Aug 11, German troops
abandoned Florence, Italy, as Allied troops closed in on the historic
city.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1944 Aug 12, Churchill and Tito
met in Naples.
(MC, 8/12/02)
1944 Aug 28-1944 Sep 9, In Italy
10 citizens from Forli were killed "without need and without any
justified motive" by a platoon led by German officer Heinrich Nordhorn.
In 2006 an Italian military tribunal convicted Nordhorn (86) in
absentia in the killings of the 10 civilians.
(AP,
11/4/06)(http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/1175818.php)
1944 Aug 31, The British Eighth
Army penetrated the German Gothic Line in Italy.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1944 Aug, Some 300 SS troops
surrounded Sant'Anna, Italy, which had been flooded with refugees,
ostensibly to hunt for partisans. Instead, they rounded up and shot
villagers, according to survivors. Others were herded into enclosed
areas such as basements and killed with hand grenades. In 2005 a local
court convicted 10 Nazi SS in absentia.
(AP, 6/22/05)
1944 Sep 5, Flight Sgt. Maximilian
Volke, a German ace pilot, took off from a northern Italian air base
with three other fighters to intercept a group of American bombers. He
was shot down by gunners in one of the US planes. His plane and remains
were found in 2007.
(AP, 8/14/07)
1944 Sep 29-1944 Oct 5, Nazi
murders took place in Marzabotto, Italy, under SS-major Reder.
Retreating Nazi troops killed some 1,000 women, children and elderly
while allegedly pursuing resistance fighters. In 2002 German Pres. Rau
apologized for the massacre. In 2007 an Italian military tribunal gave
life sentences in absentia to 10 German former SS men for massacring
about 800 Italian villagers. They had laid waste to the villages of
Marzabotto, Grizzana and Vado di Monzuno near Bologna, as the Germans
retreated before Allied troops.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzabotto_massacre)(USAT, 4/18/02,
p.4A)(Reuters, 1/14/07)
1944 Dec 2, Filippo Tommaso Emilio
Marinetti (b.1876), Italian ideologue, poet, and editor, died in
Bellagio, Italy. He was main founder of the Futurist movement [see
1909]. In 2006 Gunter Berghaus edited “Critical Writings by F.T.
Marinetti,” translated by Doug Thompson.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7v7f3)(SFC, 10/24/06, p.E2)
1944 Dec 26, In Italy two platoons
of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division fought the German 14th Army at
Sommocolonia. Of 70 "Buffalo Soldiers" and 25 Italian Partisans only 18
survived. In 1977 Lt. John Fox and 6 other black Americans were awarded
the Congressional Medal of Honor. By the end of the war 2,916 Buffalo
soldiers fell breaking the Gothic Line.
(SFC, 7/13/00, p.A15)(Ind, 1/11/03, 5A)
1944 The US 10th Mountain Division
expelled the Nazis from the mountains of northern Italy.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.C3)
1944-1945 This period in Italy was covered by James
Holand in his 2008 book “Italy’s Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945.”
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.93)
1945 Mar 12, Italy's Communist
Party (CPI) called for armed uprising in Italy.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1945 Apr 17, Mussolini fled from
to Milan.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1945 Apr 23, US troops in Italy
crossed the river Po.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1945 Apr 27, US 5th army entered
Genoa.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1945 Apr 27, Italian partisans
captured Mussolini.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1945 Apr 28, Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by
Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country. In 1961
Charles F. Delzell, a historian at Vanderbilt Univ., wrote "Mussolini's
Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance.” In 2005 R.J.B. Bosworth
authored ”Mussolini’s Italy.” In 2007 Philip Morgan authored “The Fall
of Mussolini.
(AP, 4/28/97)(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)(Econ, 10/8/05,
p.92)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.89)
1945 Apr 29, The German Army in
Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Venice and Mestre were
captured by the Allies. In 1956 Norman Kogan, historian at the Univ of
Connecticut, wrote "Italy and the Allies."
(HN, 4/29/99)(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 May 2, German Army in Italy
surrendered.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, Yugoslav troops
occupied Trieste.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1945 May 2, The Soviet Union
announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of
Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.
(AP, 5/2/97)
1945 Aug 2, Pietro Mascagni (81),
Italian composer (Cavalleria Rusticana), died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1945 Carlo Levi (1902-1975),
Italian journalist, artist and doctor, authored “Christ Stopped at
Eboli,” his first documentary novel.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/clevi.htm)
1945 John Hersey won a Pulitzer
Prize for his novel "Bell for Adano." It was later made into a Broadway
play and a movie. The story was modeled on Major Frank E. Toscani
(d.2001 at 89), military governor of Licata, Italy.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A22)
1946 Apr 28, Domenico Leccisi
(d.2008 at 88) and 2 other Italians marked the first anniversary of the
death of Mussolini by digging up his body in a Milan cemetery. They
passed the body to 2 monks, who buried it in a nearby monastery. The
theft sparked a nationwide manhunt for the group. The body was later
returned for burial in Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace.
(SFC, 11/5/08, p.B15)
1946 May 9, King Victor Emmanuel
III of Italy abdicated and was replaced by his son, Umberto II. He
served until a June referendum abolished the monarchy.
(HN, 5/9/98)(SFC, 1/30/01, p.C2)
1946 May, The Teatro alla Scala
reopened under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. It closed at the end of
2001 for restoration to be completed in 2004.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C9)
1946 Jun 2, The Italian monarchy
was abolished by referendum in favor of a republic.
(AP, 6/2/97)(HN, 6/2/98)
1946 Jun 10, Italy replaced its
abolished monarchy with a republic.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1946 Nov 2, Giuseppe Sinopoli,
conductor, was born in Venice, Italy.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1946 Curzio Malaparte, an Italian
fascist intellectual, authored “Kaputt,” an autobiographical novel that
described the cruelty of Nazi fanaticism.
(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.W8)
1946 In Italy Umberto II (d.1983)
ruled for just 26 days before he was sent into exile. Italy established
itself as a republic.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)
1946 Enrico Piaggio designed the
1st Vespa motor scooter as a practical solution to transportation needs
in postwar Italy. Corradino D’Ascanio, helicopter pioneer, came up with
the idea for the 2-wheeled Vespa scooter.
(SFC, 8/16/03, p.F1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.64)
1946 In Italy the Carpigiani firm,
a maker of ice-cream making machines, was founded. Bruto Carpigiani
(d.1945) had designed the first machine and his brother Poerio did the
marketing.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.55)
1947 Dec 27, The new Italian
constitution was promulgated in Rome.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1947 Dec 28, Victor Emmanuel
(b.1869-1947), also known as Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy
(1900-1946), Emperor of Ethiopia (1939-1943) and King of Albania
(1939-1943), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Emmanuel_III_of_Italy)
1947 Georgio Strehler (d.1997)
founded the Piccolo Theater in Milan.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.B6)
1947 The Ferrari automobile began
to be manufactured.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A1)
1948 Feb 2, The United States and
Italy signed a pact of friendship, commerce and navigation.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1948 Mar 25, The Italians banned a
compromise with Yugoslavia and demanded the return of Trieste.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1948 Jun, In Rome Father Karol
Jozef Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, completed his thesis “The
Problems of Faith in the Works of St. John of the Cross” and earned a
doctorate in philosophy. In July he returned to Poland as an assistant
pastor at Niegowic.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A12)
1948 Italy’s new constitution
outlawed the Fascist Party.
(WSJ, 6/17/04, p.A15)
1949 Nov 21, The UN Assembly
decided for the eventual independence of Italy’s former colonies. In
the meantime they remained under UN supervision. United Nations granted
Libya its independence in the year 1952.
(EWH, 1968, p.1176)(HN, 11/21/98)
1949 The Italian film "Bitter
Rice" (Riso Amaro) starred Silvana Mangano. It was directed by Giuseppe
de Santis (d.1997).
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A24)(SFC, 2/11/06, p.E1)
1950 Nov 4, The European
Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome. 5 protocols were added
later. Alleged violations were handled by the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg, France.
(www.hri.org/docs/ECHR50.html)(WSJ, 4/26/06, p.A1)
1950 The Italian film "Mamma Mia,
Che Impressione!" starred Alberto Sordi in his first role.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1950 Giaur was formed in Italy by
the great Berardo Taraschi (previously of Urania) and the Giannini
brothers, the name coming from Giannini and Urania. The engines were
mainly Giannini units, although Fiat and Crosley items were also used.
(http://ferrariexperts.com/giaur.htm)(SSFC, 7/20/08,
p.J3)
1951 Jan 10, [Harry] Sinclair
Lewis (65), American author of 23 novels and 3 plays (Nobel 1930), died
in Rome of a nervous disorder. In 2002 Richard Lingeman authored
"Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street."
(HNQ, 5/18/98)(WSJ, 1/18/02, p.W8)(MC, 1/10/02)
1951 Sep 11, Stravinsky's opera
"Rake's Progress," premiered in Venice.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1951 Sep 19, Italian civil
servants struck for a pay increase.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1951 Nov 26, Illona Staller,
Italian member of Parliament (La Cicciolina), was born in Budapest,
Hungary.
(MC, 11/26/01)(AP, 11/26/02)
1952 May 6, Maria Montessori
(b.1870), Italian physician, educationist, died In Holland. She opened
her 1st school in San Lorenzo, Italy, in 1907.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)(SFC,
1/6/07, p.B1)
1952 The film "La Provinciale"
starred Gina Lollobrigida and was directed Mario Soldati and based on a
novel by Alberto Moravia.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A25)
1952 An Italian law made the
praise of fascism a crime.
(WSJ, 6/17/04, p.A15)
1953 Feb 20, Riccardo Chailly,
conductor (West Berlin Symph Orch), was born in Milan, Italy.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1953 Dec 5, Italy and Yugoslavia
agreed to pull troops out of the disputed Trieste border.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1953 The Italian film "I
Vitelloni" starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1953 Italy founded ENIPower, a
state attempt to break the oligopoly of the “Seven Sister,” the major
oil companies of the day.
(Econ, 8/21/04, p.53)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.64)
1954 Jul 31, Italians Lino
Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni first scaled Pakistan’s K-2, the
world's second-highest mountain.
(AP, 7/27/04)
1954 The Italian film "The Poor
and the Noble" starred Toto (Antonio de Curtis) and Sophia Loren.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1954 The film "Senso," a
historical romance, was made by Luchino Visconti.
(SFEM, 9/10/00, p.21)
1954 The film "La Strada" was
directed by Federico Fellini.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.42)
1954 Amintore Fanfani (d.1999 at
91) became the head of government. He resigned after 12 days following
a vote of no confidence in Parliament. He later became head of the UN
Gen'l. Assembly.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.C6)
1954 Italy regained Trieste, which
had been held by the United Nations. In 2001 Jan Morris authored
"Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere."
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.R2)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.R2)
1954 Ardito Desio (d.2001 at 104)
of Italy organized the 1st expedition to reach the top of K2 in
Kashmir, the world’s 2nd highest peak. In 1962 Desio became the 1st
Italian to reach the South Pole.
(SFC, 12/14/01, p.A33)
1955 Aug 16, Fiat Motors ordered
the 1st private atomic reactor.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1955 The film "Toto Against the
Four" starred Toto.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1956 Feb 2, Figure skater Tenley
Albright became the first American woman to win a gold medal at the
Winter Olympics in Italy. She achieved this despite an ankle injury.
(NYT, 2/3/1956, p. 26)
1956 Jul 25, The Italian liner
Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish passenger ship Stockholm off the
New England coast late at night and began sinking in 200 feet of water
50 miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Mass. 51 people died as a
result of the impact. The Dorea was headed from Genoa, Italy, to NY.
The Andrea Doria sank eleven hours after the crash.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A16)(SFC,
7/30/99, p.D5)(AP, 7/25/07)
1956 Nov
1, Pietro Badoglio (85), Italian general (1922-43), Premier of Italy
(1943-44), died.
(www.fact-index.com/p/pi/pietro_badoglio.html)
1956 Giorgio Bassani, author, won
the Strega literary award for his work: "Five Stories About Ferrara."
(SFC, 4/14/00, p.D5)
1957 Jan 16, Arturo Toscanini
(b.1867), Italian-US conductor (NBC), died in NYC. He led the NBC
Symphony from 1937-1954. In 1978 Harvey Sachs wrote his biography. In
2002 Sachs edited "The Letters of Arturo Toscanini," his correspondence
with Ada Mainardi.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9073009/Arturo-Toscanini)(HN,
3/25/01)(WSJ, 4/30/02, p.D7)
1957 Mar 10, Thousands of soccer
fans rioted in Italy.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1957 Mar 25, The Treaties
establishing the European Economic Community and the European Atomic
Energy Community were signed in Rome. The Treaty of Rome enabled
people, goods, services and money to move unchecked throughout the
Union. The Council of Ministers represents the governments of the
members. Major decisions are made by the Council of Foreign Ministers.
A 20-member Commission composed of appointed representatives of each
member state serves as the administrative arm and members represent the
Union. The Commission proposes and executes laws and policies. A
European Parliament is composed of 626 members elected by the
electorates of the member states and they sit in party groups. The
Commission proposes, the Parliament advises, and the Council decides.
The goal was to create a common market for all products but especially
coal and steel.
(AP, 3/25/97)(HN,
3/24/98)(http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/eec.htm)
1957 May 9, Ezio F. Pinza, Italian
bass (La Scala of Milan, NY Met Opera, Broadway musicals), died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1957 Jul 4, In Italy the new Fiat
500 was launched.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.69)
1957 Jul 23, Giuseppe Tomasi di
Lampedusa (b.1896), Sicilian aristocrat and writer, died. His classic
novel “Il Gattopardo” (The Leopard), was published in 1958. David
Gilmour later authored the biography “The Last Leopard” (1991).
(WSJ, 12/9/06, p.P24)
1957 Jul 28, The Situationist
International (SI) was formed at a meeting in the Italian village of
Cosio d'Arroscia with the fusion of several extremely small avant-garde
artistic tendencies: the Lettrist International, the International
Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (an off-shoot of COBRA), and the
London Psychogeographical Association. The groups came together
intending to reawaken the radical political potential of surrealism.
The group also later drew ideas from the left communist group
Socialisme ou Barbarie.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist_International)
1957 The Italian film "La Grande
Strada Azzurra" ("The Wide Blue Road") starred Yves Montand and Alida
Valli. The tale of a fishing community was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
(1919-2006).
(AP, 10/13/06)
1957 The film "Nights of Cabiria"
by Federico Fellini featured his wife, Giulietta Masina, as a Roman
prostitute.
(SFEC, 10/11/97, DB p.36) (WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W4)
1957 The Italian Mille Miglia
automobile race, begun in 1927, was cancelled following the crash of a
Ferrari driven by the Marquis de Portago. He and his co-driver were
killed along with 10 bystanders when the car ran off the road at 90 mph.
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A13)
1957 At this time only 2% of
Italian homes had refrigerators. By 1974 this increased to 94%.
(Econ, 12/13/08, p.63)
1958 Domenico Modugno made a hit
with "Volare." The Italian song won the 1958 Eurovision contest.
(SFC, 11/30/02, p.D1)(Econ, 5/14/05, p.57)
1958 The film "Big Deal on Madonna
Street" starred Vittorio Gassman and Toto. It was directed by Mario
Monicelli.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.D7)(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1958 A new law shut down the
state-controlled brothels.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.A12)
1959 Oct 7, Mario Lanza (b.1921),
undisciplined opera singer and temperamental movie star, died of a
heart attack in Rome. Born with a glorious Italian tenor, Lanza
resisted all professional urgings. He first came to light while in the
Army, then started singing publicly, first on radio, then in movies. He
signed a contract with MGM studios, where he made such movies as "The
Toast of New Orleans," and "The Great Caruso." His heroic bellow sold
records and filled concert halls. Lanza put several teachers through
hell because he would not learn to read music, and he began to believe
his hype as the century's greatest talent since Enrico Caruso (a
thought which made Mrs. Caruso gag and Met Opera General Manger Rudolf
Bing to ask: "Mario Who?"). He spent money as fast as he earned it,
pampering himself through his life. He was fired by MGM because of his
unpredictably in weight, ranging from compactness to obesity,
often within a month's time.
(www.lanzalegend.com/bio.htm)(www.nndb.com/people/994/000091721/)
1959 The Italian film "The Great
War" starred Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)(SFC, 6/30/00, p.D7)
1959 The Italian film "Kapo" told
the story of a Jewish girl trying to escape from a concentration camp.
It was directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (1919-2006).
(AP, 10/13/06)
1959 In Italy Steno Marcegaglia
founded the Marcegaglia steel works.
(www.marcegaglia.com/news/18_03_06_steel.html)
1960 Feb 27, Adriano Olivetti
(58), Italian engineer, manufacturer, died.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1960 Jul 1, French and Italian
Somaliland gained independence and united with the Somali Republic.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.44)
1960 Aug 25, The 17th summer
Olympics opened in Rome. Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994), was the first
African American to win three gold medals in a single Olympiad. Her
athleticism was remarkable since Rudolph contracted polio as a small
child and spent six years in a steel brace. With therapy and hard work,
Rudolph overcame her handicap to excel in basketball and track. As a
celebrity, she worked to break many gender and racial barriers. Rudolph
died of brain cancer.
(WSJ, 7/19/96, p.R6)(HN, 6/23/98)(chblue.com,
8/25/01)
1960 Sep 11, The 17th Summer
Olympics closed in Rome. In 2008 David Maraniss authored “Rome 1960:
The Olympics That Changed the World.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Summer_Olympics)
1960 The Italian film "La Dolce
Vita" starred Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996), Anita Ekberg and Laura
Betti (d.2004).
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.A4)(SFC, 8/3/04, p.B6)
1960 The Italian film "The
Passionate Thief" starred Toto and Anna Magnani.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1960 The Italian film "The Traffic
Policeman" starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1961 Nov 11, Congolese soldiers
murdered 13 Italian UN pilots.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Calisto Tanzi dropped out of
university to concentrate on the a family delicatessen business near
the Parma railway station: Calisto Tanzi & Sons - Salamis and
Preserves. In 1966 Calisto Tanzi adopted the new ultra-high temperature
(UHT) Swedish pasteurizing technique to produce long-life milk. In 2003
the company filed for bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 12/22/03, p.A6)(WPR, 3/04, p.18)
1961 Leonardo Del Vecchio founded
Luxottica, a maker of eye shades and prescription glasses, in Belluno,
Italy. In 1990 the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.73)
1962 Apr 5, St. Bernard Tunnel was
finished and Swiss and Italians workers shook hands.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1962 Jul 14, Borehole for Mont
Blanc-tunnel, between France and Italy, was finished. [see Aug 14]
(MC, 7/14/02)
1962 Aug 14, French and Italian
workers broke through at the Mount Blanc Vehicular Tunnel. [see Jul 14]
(MC, 8/14/02)
1962 Giorgio Bassani (d.2000 at
84) authored his semi-autobiographical novel: "The Garden of the
Finzi-Continis." In 1971 a film version by Vittorio De Sica with
Dominique Sanda won a Hollywood Oscar for the Best Foreign Film.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, DB p.40)(SFC, 4/14/00, p.D5)
1962 Nicolo Tucci ( d.1999 at 91)
published his first English novel "Before My Time." Tucci had worked
for the propaganda ministry of Benito Mussolini, but moved to NY in
1938 and took up anti-fascist propaganda.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.A33)
1962 The Italian film "Mafioso"
starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1962 The Italian film "Momma Roma"
was directed by Paolo Pasolini.
(SFC, 11/11/99, p.B1)
1962 Valuables stripped from Jews
during the war were moved to a vault in central Rome.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.C3)
1962 Gianna Beretta Molla (39), an
Italian pediatrician, died a week after giving birth to her 4th child.
In 2004 she was among six new saints named by Pope John Paul II because
she'd refused to end her pregnancy despite warnings it could kill her.
(AP, 5/16/05)
1963 Feb 16, 1st round-trip swim
of Straits of Messina, Italy, was made by Mary Revell of US.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1963 Jul 25, Ugo Cerletti
(b.1877), Italian neurosurgeon, died. In the 1930s he and Lucio Bini
pioneered the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electric shock,
to cure patients of depression.
(Econ, 6/3/06,
p.78)(www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/511.html)
1963 Sep 9, In Italy a landslide
into Vaiont Dam emptied a lake and killed 3-4,000 people. [see Oct 9]
(MC, 9/9/01)
1963 Sep 29, The second session of
Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.
(AP, 9/29/97)
1963 Oct 9, A dam in Piave valley
of Italy, broke and about 2,000 died. [see Sep 9]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1963 Oct 10, A dam burst in Italy,
and over 3,000 died. [see Sep 9, Oct 9]
(MC, 10/10/01)
1963 Dec 30, Alessandra Mussolini,
actress (Ferragosto OK), was born in Naples, Italy.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1964 Jun 18, Georgio Morandi
(b.1890), reclusive Italian painter, died in Bologna.
(WSJ, 11/11/08,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Morandi)
1964 Robert Rauschenberg won the
grand prize at the Venice Biennale. This established him in the art
world with his idea that art is reality reshuffled.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.E1)
1965 Apr 2, Rolf Hochhuth's play
"The Deputy," which blamed Pope Pius XII for war crimes, was banned in
Italy.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1965 Jul 16, Mount Blanc Road
tunnel between France & Italy opened.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1965 New Directions published
"Eugenio Montale: Selected Poems." Montale (1896-1981), an Italian poet
writer and translator, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975.
(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.8)
1965 The film "Hawks and Sparrows"
starred Toto and was directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1965 Luciano Benetton was one of 4
family members who launched the Italian Benetton clothing group.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.82)
1966 Nov 4, In Florence, Italy the
River Arno overflowed and damaged the Uffizi Gallery. Whole libraries
of valuable ancient documents were soaked. 33 people died in the flood
and blame fell principally on Enel, Italy’s largest power company. In
2008 Robert Clark authored “Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the
City of Masterpieces.”
(WSJ, 10/29/96, p.A21)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D4)(Econ,
11/1/08, p.97)
1966 Nov 4, A devastating flood
swamped Venice, damaged monuments and covered the city in mud. 5,000
people were made homeless.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D4)(WSJ, 3/8/02, p.AW9)
1966 Dec 19, Alberto "La Bomba"
Tomba, Italian skier (Olympic-gold-1988, 92), was born.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1967 Jan 27, Luigi Tenco (29), one
of Italy's most famous modern singers, was found dead in his hotel room
with a single gunshot wound to the head, hours after learning that his
song had been eliminated from a national music competition. In 2006
prosecutors exhumed his body and said they had laid to rest suspicions
that he had been murdered.
(Reuters, 2/16/06)
1967 A ski-lift was built from
Cavalese to the top of Mount Cermis.
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.B10)
1967 Italy passed a set of
labeling laws similar to the French 1935 Appellation d’Origine
Controlee (controlled place of origin). The AOC laws were meant to
protect growers and properly identify a wine’s origin. They were not
intended as an indicator of quality. The Italian DOC laws
(Denominazione di Origine Controllata) regulated grape growing zones
and wine production practices.
(SFC, 1/8/96, zz-1 p.4)(SFC, 6/30/99, Z1 p.6)
1967 Film actor Toto (b.1898 as
Antonio de Curtis) died.
(SFC, 1/31/01, p.D1)
1968 Michelangelo Pistoletto,
artist, rolled around Turin his giant ball of pulped newspaper. The
exploit was captured on film.
(SFC, 2/10/98, p.E4)
1968 The Sant’Egidio community was
started in Rome by a high school student with ideals of prayer, mission
and solidarity wit the poor. By 2008 it had 60,000 members in 70
countries and had become active in faith-based peacemaking.
(Econ, 7/5/08,
p.72)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Sant'Egidio)
1968-1985 In Italy serial killings during this period
left 16 people dead in the Tuscan countryside. In 1994 Pietro Pacciani
(69) was convicted of 14 murders and sentenced to life in prison
following trial that was televised. He was cleared in 1996 and ordered
to face a retrial, but died in 1998. Pacciani's friend, Mario Vanni
(70) and Giancarlo Lotti (54) were convicted of their involvement in
five of the double murders. Vanni was given a life sentence and Lotti
received a sentence of 26 years in prison. In 2001 Florentine
authorities reopened the case amid speculation they were investigating
up to a dozen wealthy Italians who orchestrated the ritualistic
killings by manipulating a trio of voyeuristic peasants. In 2006 Mario
Spezi, a journalist who has worked with the American thriller author
Douglas Preston on a book about the killings, was arrested and accused
of slander and sidetracking the investigation.
(AP, 4/9/06)
1969 Feb 2, Giovanni Martinelli
(b.1885), Italian opera singer, died. He enjoyed a long career at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City and appeared at other international
theatres.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Martinelli)
1969 Feb 27, President Nixon
arrived in Rome from West Berlin amid protests by thousands of students.
(www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=2&tihDay=27)
1968 Mar 16, Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco (b.1895), Italian composer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Castelnuovo-Tedesco)
1969 Jul 4, The Italian coalition
government under Mariano Rumor (1915-1990) fell apart.
(www.speedylook.com/Mariano_Rumor.html)
1969 Oct 18, The painting
"Nativity" by Caravaggio was stolen from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in
Palermo, Sicily. Peter Watson, English novelist, later wrote "The
Caravaggio Conspiracy," an account of his 1981-1982 attempt to recover
the work.
(www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/dec/22/caravaggio-art-mafia-italy)(WSJ,
12/11/96, p.A20)
1969 Oct 22, Giovanni Martinelli,
Italian opera singer (NY Met), died on his 84th birthday.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1969 The film “The Italian Job”
starred Michael Caine and Noel Coward. The crime fable was set in
Turin, Italy.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.E10)
1969 The Italian film
"Qeimada" starred Marlon Brando in a tale against colonialism. It was
directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (1919-2006).
(AP, 10/13/06)
1969 The Italian film "Satyricon"
was directed by Federico Fellini with music by Nino Rota. It was based
on a satiric novel by Petronius Arbiter.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.E3)
1969 The Italian film “Una Storia
d’Amore” featured American opera star Anna Moffo (1932-2006) in what
appeared to be a nude scene.
(SSFC, 3/12/06, p.B7)
1969 Right-wing militants carried
out a series of bombings that Italian authorities and the media pinned
on anarchists. Giuseppi Pinelli, one anarchist that was interrogated by
the police, was reported to have fallen from a 4th floor window during
interrogation. The event inspired Dario Fo to write his 1970 play:
"Accidental Death of an Anarchist."
(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A20)
1970 Jun 27, Reinhold and Gunther
Messner of Tyrol, Italy, reached the 26,650-foot peak of Nanga Parbat
in northern Pakistan. Gunther (24) died during the descent.
(WSJ, 12/10/03, p.A1)
1970 Jul 18, Arthur Brown
(b.1942), English rock singer, was arrested for stripping on stage in
Palermo, Sicily.
(www.godofhellfire.co.uk/60s.htm)
1970 Mario Soldati won Venice's
Campiello Prize for his novel: "L'Attore" (The Actor), a study of
psychological evil.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A25)
1970 The film "Brother Sun, Sister
Moon" was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and shot in Assisi, Italy.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A21)
1970 In Italy divorce became legal.
(SFC, 1/29/00, p.E3)
1970 In northern Italy radicals
linked up to form the Red Brigades, led by sociology students Renato
Curcio and Margherita Cagol.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1970 Colonel Qaddafi expelled
20,000 Italians from Libya.
(Econ, 8/2/08,
p.54)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Italians)
1971 Jan 25, In Milan, Italy,
firebombs damaged the Pirelli tire factory.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1971 Apr 5, In Sicily, Italy,
Mount Etna began a series of eruptions.
(http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/ETNA_erupt2.html)
1971 Nov 26, Giacomo Alberione
(b.1884), Italian priest who also believed in using modern means to
bring God to the faithful, died. He had founded the Paoline Family,
which includes a publishing operation printing many religious books as
well as Famiglia Cristiana, a top-selling weekly that covers issues of
daily life, from homemaking to education, and religious life.
(AP,
4/27/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Alberione)
1971 Dec 29, In Italy Giovanni
Leone (1908-2001) became president. He resigned 6 months before the end
of his 7-year term amid allegations of links to a payoff scandal
involving Lockheed Corp.
(SFC, 11/12/01,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Leone)
1971 The film "The Garden of the
Finzi-Continis" by Vittorio De Sica with Dominique Sanda won a
Hollywood Oscar for the Best Foreign Film. The film was based on the
book by Giorgio Bassani (d.2000 at 84).
(SFEC, 11/17/96, DB p.40)(SFC, 4/14/00, p.D5)
1971 The Italian film "Handsome,
Honest, Australian Emigrant, Looking for an Italian Virgin to Marry"
starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1972 May 5, Alitalia’s DC-8 Flight
112 crashed west of Palermo, Sicily; killing 115.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alitalia)
1972 May 17, In Italy Luigi
Calabresi, head of the political dept. of the Milan police, was killed.
He had been falsely suspected of having killed the anarchist Giuseppe
Pinelli in 1969. In 1988 Leonardo Marino, a former far left Lotta
Continua militant, confessed that he drove a getaway car and that
Adriano Sofri (b.1942), a writer, had masterminded the killing. On July
28, 1988, Sofri was arrested with Ovidio Bompressi and Giorgio
Pietrostefani for the alleged murder of Calabresi. Sofri was convicted
in 2000.
(WSJ, 3/12/02,
p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriano_Sofri)
1972 Aug 15, The Italian town of
Grazie di Curtatone began its Int’l. Street Painting Festival. This
revived a 16th century practice by itinerant artists who traveled from
village to village for religious and folk festivals.
(WSJ, 5/16/06, p.D6)
1972 The Italian film "The Most
Beautiful Evening of My Life" starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1972 The Italian film "The
Scientific Cardplayer" starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1972 The Italian film “The
Seduction of Mimi” starred Giancarlo Giannini. It was directed by Lina
Wertmuller.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.E10)
1972 Luigi Calabresi, head of the
political dept. of the Milan police, was killed. In 1988 Leonardo
Marino, a former far left Lotta Continua militant, confessed that he
drove a getaway car and that Adriano Sofri, a writer, had masterminded
the killing. Sofri was convicted in 2000.
(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.A22)
1973 Jul 10, Italian Red Brigades
kidnapped and held hostage Jean Paul Getty III (b.1956), nephew of
Gordon Getty. Only after his ear was chopped off and sent to a Rome
paper did his father J. Paul, agree to lend money for a ransom. Getty
senior negotiated a deal and got his grandson back for about $2
million. Paul III was permanently affected by the trauma, and became a
drug addict.
(SFC, 1/8/95,
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty)
1973 Sep 26, Anna Magnani
(b.1908), Academy Award winning Italian actress, died in Rome.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Magnani)
1973 Nov 13, Bruno Maderna (53),
Italian-born composer and conductor (Satyricon), died in Germany.
(www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Maderna-Bruno.htm)
1973 Dec 10, In Italy the
personnel chief of Fiat was kidnapped and held for 8 days.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1973 Nino Rota (1911-1979),
Italian composer, composed his "Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano."
(WSJ, 3/5/99,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Rota)
1974 Apr 18, In Genoa, Italy, the
Red Brigade kidnapped deputy attorney Mario Sossi. He was held for 35
days.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)(http://tinyurl.com/39vg4e)
1974 Jun 17, In Italy 2 people
died in a Red Brigades attack on a right-wing party’s office.
(WSJ, 12/13/07,
p.A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Brigades)
1974 Sep 8, In Italy Renato Curcio
and another Red Brigades leader were arrested.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1974 Nov 13, Vittorio de Sica
(b.1902), Italian film actor and director, died in France.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0001120/)
1974 Nov 16, In Rome the first UN
World Food Conference ended. At the conference, which had opened on
Nov. 5, governments examined the global problem of food production and
consumption, and solemnly proclaimed that "every man, woman and child
has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in
order to develop their physical and mental faculties."
(SFC, 11/18/96,
p.A10)(www.un.org/esa/devagenda/food.html)
1974 Cesare Sirtori, a Milan heart
researcher, encountered a patient with a high cholesterol level. In
1979 Sirtori found that the patient carried a mutant gene,
apolipoprotein A-1, a crucial component of HDL involved in clearing LDL
from the body. This led to a new drug in 2003 that seemed to shrink
arterial blockages.
(WSJ, 11/5/03, p.B3)(SFC, 11/5/03, p.A15)
1975 Feb 17, Art in by Cezanne,
Gauguin, Renoir, and van Gough, valued at $5 million, was stolen from
the Municipal Museum in Milan.
(HN, 2/17/98)
1975 Feb 18, Italy broadened its
abortion law.
(www.crlp.org/pub_art_mosaic_conclusion.html)
1975 Feb 18, In Italy Renato
Curcio, Red Brigades leader, was freed in a daring prison assault led
by Margherita Cagol. She was later killed while trying to kidnap a
businessman and Curcio was recaptured.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1975 Aug 26, An international plan
began to show significant results to stop Venice from sinking into the
sea. Venice was built on 118 small islands. By the early 1960s, rising
seawater and floods threatened Venice. Scientists determined that
Venice was sinking, and that much of the city would disappear if swift
measures were not taken.
(http://twotrees.www.50megs.com/attic/history/08/26.html)
1975 Sep 30, In Rome Donatella
Colasanti (17) was found bloodied and battered, but alive in the boot
of a car. Beside her was the dead body of her friend Rosaria Lopez
(20). Both had undergone hours of torture before Lopez was finally
drowned in a bath. Colasanti had escaped the same fate only by playing
dead. Andrea Ghira was found guilty in the "Circeo Massacre," named for
the town near Rome where two girls were held captive for 36 hours and
then left wrapped in plastic in a car trunk, where one girl died. He
was convicted in absentia for the slaying. In 2005 his body was found
in a cemetery in a Spanish enclave in Morocco, where he was buried in
1994.
(AP,
10/29/05)(http://rome.wantedineurope.com/articles/complete_articles.php?id_art=559)
1975 Oct 6, Chilean Vice Pres.
Bernardo Leighton and his wife, Anita Fresno, were shot in Rome. Anita
was left permanently disabled. In 2000 Chilean authorities arrested
former Gen. Eduardo Iturriaga for the shooting.
(SFC, 3/15/00,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leighton_case)
1975 Oct 16, Vittorio Gui
(b.1885), Italian composer (Batture d'aspetto), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittorio_Gui)
1975 Oct, Eugenio Montale
(1896-1981), Italian poet, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1999
two collections of his poetry were translated and published in English:
Collected Poems 1920-1954" and "Satura 1962-1970."
(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.8)
1975 Nov 1, Pier Paolo Pasolini
(b.1922), Italian poet, author and director was murdered. A young male
prostitute was tried and convicted for the murder in 1976.
(http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pasolini.htm)
1975 The Italian film "Profumo di
Donna" starred Vittorio Gassman.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.D7)
1975 Eugenio Montale (1896-1981),
poet, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1999 2 collections of his
poetry were translated and published in English: Collected Poems
1920-1954" and "Satura 1962-1970."
(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.8)
1976 May 6, An earthquake struck
Italy’s northern region at Friuli-Venezia Giulia, affecting 11 villages
near the Austrian and Yugoslav borders. The earthquake killed more than
1,000 people in a 3,300-square-mile area and left 80,000 homeless.
(http://tinyurl.com/dvzp6)(SFC, 12/17/05, p.F1)
1976 Mar 9, A ski cable car,
running from Cavalese to the Alpe Cermis in the Italian Alps, crashed
to the ground due to a mechanical failure and killed 42 skiers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable-car_disaster_%281976%29)
1976 Jul 10, There was an
explosion at a factory in Seveso, Lombardy, Italy, owned by ICMESA with
a Swiss parent company. It produced a cloud of Dioxin which settled
over several adjacent communities. The people exposed became
nauseated, experienced eye and throat irritations, developed burn-like
sores on exposed skin, headaches, dizziness and diarrhea -- the same
symptoms recorded by exposed Vietnamese and Cambodian
populations. In the next two days, small animals in the area
began to die. The contamination led to a high incidence of birth
defects.
(www.theveteranscoalition.org/educational_material/agent_orange.htm)(WSJ,2/12/97,
p.A8)
1976 Aug 15, Former SS Colonel
Herbert Kappler dramatically escaped from prison hospital in Rome with
the aid of his wife and taken to Germany.
(http://tinyurl.com/yvulbh)
1976 The wolves of Italy received
official protection.
(NH, 12/96, p.52)
1976 Italian carmaker Fiat began
manufacturing cars in Brazil.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.6)
1977 Apr 28, In Italy the Red
Brigades assassinated Fulvio Croce, the president of the Turin Bar
Association.
(http://tinyurl.com/ywxupv)
1977 Jun 3, Roberto Rossellini
(b.1906), Italian director died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Rossellini)
1977 The Italian film "An Average
Little Man" starred Alberto Sordi.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.E3)
1977 In Italy the Red Brigades
abducted a leading businessman. He was freed with a ransom after 81
days. This year the Red Brigades also killed a lawyer, several prison
officials and a journalist.
(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1978 Mar 16, Red Brigade
terrorists kidnapped Aldo Moro, Italian politician and 5 time PM, and
killed 5 of his bodyguards. Moro, who was planning to form a government
combining his Christian Democrats and the Communist Party, was later
murdered by the RB. Alessio Casimiri a member of the Red Brigades was
sentenced in absentia to life in prison for his role in the abduction.
Casimiri escaped to Nicaragua and opened a restaurant. It was later
reported that police decided not to rescue Moro.
(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-1)(AP, 3/16/97)(SFC, 3/13/98,
p.A12)(WSJ, 12/13/07, p.A18)
1978 May 9, The bullet-riddled
body of former Italian PM Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red
Brigades, was found in an abandoned automobile in the center of Rome.
In 2000 French police arrested Alvaro Loiacono in northern Corsica for
his alleged role in the murder.
(AP, 5/9/97)(SFC, 6/3/00, p.A12)
1978 May 22, Italy legalized
abortion.
(http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/population/abortion/Italy.abo.htm)
1978 Sep 28, Pope John Paul I
[Albino Luciano] died after 33 days as pope. He was found dead the next
day in his Vatican apartment.
(www.prose-n-poetry.com/display_work/10583/)(AP,
9/29/97)
c1978 Pres. Giovanni Leone (d.2001
at 93) resigned 6 months before the end of his 7-year term amid
allegations of links to a payoff scandal involving Lockheed Corp.
(SFC, 11/12/01, p.A19)
1978 In Italy the murders of 4
women were related to Maurizio Minghella (23). In 1982 he was convicted
and sentenced to life in prison for the killings. In 1995 he was given
partial liberty and prosecutors say he then killed 4 prostitutes. In
2002 his trial continued in Turin. In early 2003 he escaped and was
soon captured and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 1/3/03)(http://tinyurl.com/2psh6t)
1979 Mar 20, In Rome, Italy, the
Mafia killed Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor. In 1996 Premier Giulio
Andreotti went on trial for allegedly turning to the Mafia to kill the
troublesome journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury in
1999. 5 others were also acquitted. In 2002 an appeal court in Perugia
sentenced Giulio Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment for ordering the
murder of Pecorelli.
(SFC, 4/12/96, p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99,
p.A14)(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)
1979 Apr 10, Nino Rota (b.1911),
Italian composer (Torquemada, Romeo & Juliette), died from cancer.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Rota)
1979 The Italian film "My Asylum"
(Chiedo Asilo) starred Roberto Benigni and was directed by Marco
Ferreri.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.C3)
1979 Nilde Lotti (d.1999 at 79)
became the first female president of the lower house of parliament. She
changed from Communist to Left Democrat after the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.C15)
1980 Mar 29, Annunzio Mantovani
(b.1905), Italian orchestra leader (Mantovani), died at his home in
Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantovani)
1980 Jun 27, A DC-9 crashed near
Sicily and 81 people were killed. In 1999 it was reported that a fight
by warplanes led to the crash and coverup charges were filed against
Italian military officials.
(WSJ, 9/2/99,
p.A1)(www.emergency-management.net/avi_acc_1979_1989.htm)
1980 Aug 2, In Bologna, Italy, a
Fascist bomb attack killed 85 people at the train station.
(AP,
8/2/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_massacre)
1980 Aug 20, Reinhold Messner of
Italy became the 1st to solo ascent Mt. Everest.
(www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9052253)
1980 Nov 23, Some 2,600 people
were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A12)(AP, 11/23/07)
1980 The Italian film "Ogro was
directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (1919-2006). It was set in Spain in the
years of dictator Francisco Franco. This was Pontecorvo’s last film.
(AP, 10/13/06)
1980 The Italian film "Terrazza"
starred script writer Leonardo Benvenuti and was directed by Ettore
Scola.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B7)
1980 Pres. Sandro Pertini (d.1999
at 90) appointed Leo Valiani a senator-for-life.
(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)
1980-1990 The government spent some $30.3 billion in
emergency funds to rebuild Naples and Campania. Most of the money
disappeared into private pockets and incomplete projects.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A12)
1981 May 13, John Paul II was shot
and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet
Ali Agca. The shots hit the pope’s hand and penetrated his abdomen.
John Paul forgave Agca 4 days later.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(TMC, 1994, p.1981)(AP, 5/13/97)(SS,
Internet, 5/13/97)(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)
1981 Jun 10, In Frascati, Italy,
6-year-old Alfredo Rampi fell down an artesian well; the story ended
tragically as efforts to rescue him proved futile.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1981 Dec 17, Red Brigade
terrorists kidnapped Brigadier General James Dozier, the
highest-ranking US NATO officer in southern Europe, from his home in
Verona, Italy. Dozier was rescued 42 days later.
(HN, 12/17/98)(AP, 12/17/04)
1981 Ettore Sottsass (b.1917),
Milanese designer, started the Memphis design movement. The 1996 book
"Ettore Sottsas: Ceramics" covers his work.
(SFEM, 9/22/96,
p.36)(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Sottsass)
1981 Cesare Battisti escaped from
an Italian prison while awaiting trial on four counts of murder
committed when he was a member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism.
In 2007 he was arrested in Rio de Janeiro. In 2008 Brazil's top
prosecutor recommended his extradition.
(AP, 4/4/08)
1982 Jan 28, Italian
anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier,
42 days after he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1982 Apr, In southern Italy the
Grotta delle Formelle chapel in Caserta, was looted. In 2009 two
precious Byzantine-era frescos were recovered as part of investigations
into Marion True, a former curator of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los
Angeles. The frescos, which date from the 11th to the 13th centuries
and depict saints, were found in the home of Greek shipping heiress
Despoina Papadimitriou.
(AP, 5/20/09)
1982 May 19, Sophia Loren (b.1934)
began serving 18 days in an Italian prison for failing to pay her
taxes.
(www.answers.com/topic/sophia-loren?cat=entertainment)
1982 Jun 18, The body of Roberto
Calvi (1920–1982), an Italian banker, was found hanging from
scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge in the financial district of
London. Calvi, director of Banco Ambrosiano, allegedly hanged himself
following the fraudulent bankruptcy of the bank. Calvi's clothing was
stuffed with building bricks, and he was carrying around $15,000 of
cash in three different currencies. Calvi, dubbed by the press as
"God's Banker" due to his close association with the Vatican, had gone
missing on June 10. In 1992 Carlo De Benedetti, the chairman of
Olivetti SpA, was convicted for contributing to the bankruptcy of Banco
Ambrosiano. In 1996 courts upheld his conviction and that of 30 others.
In 2003 RAI state television said prosecutors believed the Mafia killed
Roberto Calvi because he lost their money and knew too much about their
operations. In 2005 a trial began for 5 people in the murder of Calvi.
In 2007 a jury acquitted all 5 defendants charged with the murder of
Calvi.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi)(WSJ,
6/11/96, p.A10)(AP, 7/24/03)(AP, 10/6/05)(AP, 6/6/07)
1982 Jul 11, The Italian soccer
team won its first World Cup in 44 years.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_FIFA_World_Cup)
1982 Sep 24, US, Italian and
French peacekeeping troops began arriving in Lebanon. Some 400,000
Israelis gathered at the first of many demonstrations to protest the
Lebanon War.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/usmnf.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2o8vkl)
1982 Oct 16, Mario del Monaco
(b.1915), Italian opera singer, died of kidney disease.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_del_Monaco)
1982 The Italian film "You Disturb
Me" (Tu Mi Turbi) was the directing debut for Roberto Benigni.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.C3)
1982 Umberto Romano (b.1905),
Italian born artist, died in NYC.
(http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?StartRow=1&ID=4113)
1983 Jun 22, Emanuela Orlandi
(b.1968), the daughter of a Vatican messenger, disappeared after a
music lesson in Rome. She was 15 at the time. Her self-proclaimed
kidnappers demanded the release of Ali Agca, who wounded the Pope in
1981, for her freedom. They never offered any proof they had the girl
or that she was alive.
(AP,
1/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuela_Orlandi)
1983 Dec 11, The 1st visit to
Lutheran church by a pope was made by Pope John Paul II in Rome.
(www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1983/december/index.htm)
1983 Vittorio Mussolini (d.1997 at
80), 2nd son of dictator Benito, made a documentary film of his father.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.C2)
1984 Mar 5, Tito Gobbi (b.1923),
Italian baritone (Scarpia in Tosca), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tito_Gobbi)
1984 In Italy the Vatican paid
$244 million for its part in a bank scandal that saw the collapse of
another Italian bank.
(SFEM, 1/19/97, p.10)
1984 In Italy the Red Brigades
split into two movements: the majority faction of the Communist
Combatant Party (Red Brigades-PCC) and the minority of the Union of
Combatant Communists (Red Brigades-UCC). The second position later
morphed into the Politico-military Communist Party (PCPM). The same
year, four imprisoned leaders, Curcio, Moretti, Iannelli and
Bertolazzi, rejected the armed struggle as pointless.
(Econ, 2/17/07,
p.54)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Brigades)
1985 May 29, At Heysel Stadium
rioting erupted between British and Italian spectators at the European
Cup soccer final in Brussels, Belgium. 39 people were killed when
rioting broke out and a wall separating British and Italian soccer fans
collapsed. This led to a 5-year ban on English clubs playing on the
Continent.
(SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A28)(AP, 5/29/08)
1985 Sep 19, Italo Calvino
(b.1923), Italian writer, died. A collection of his essays was soon
published titled "The Literature Machine." In 1999 the original
11 essays and 25 others were published under the title: "Why Read the
Classics," translated by Martin McLaughlin. In 2003 McLaughlin
published “Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings By Italo Calvino.”
(SFEC, 10/24/99, BR p.5)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M4)
1985 Oct 7, Four Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship
Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean and demanded the release of 50
Palestinians held by Israel. 413 people were held hostage for 2 days in
the seizure that was masterminded by Mohammed Abul Abbas. American Leon
Klinghoffer was shot while sitting in his wheelchair and thrown
overboard. A case was filed against the PLO and settled in 1997. The
hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and were turned over to
Italy which let Abbas slip out of the country. Abbas was captured in
Baghdad in 2003.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A4)(AP, 10/7/97)(HN, 10/7/98)(SFC,
4/16/03, p.A16)
1985 Oct 8, The hijackers of the
Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro killed American passenger Leon
Klinghoffer, dumping his body and wheelchair overboard. A case was
filed against the PLO and settled in 1997. The hijackers surrendered to
Egyptian authorities and were turned over to Italy which let Abbas slip
out of the country.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A4) (AP, 10/8/97)
1985 Nov 25, Elsa Morante
(b.1912), Italian writer, died. Her books included “House of Liars”
(1948). In 2008 Lily Tuck authored the biography “Woman of Rome: A Life
of Elsa Morante.”
(WSJ, 9/27/08, p.W11)
1985 Dec 27, Palestinian
guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of
twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were
slain by police and security personnel. Abu Nidal was considered
responsible. President Reagan blamed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
(AP, 12/27/97)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A6)(NYT, 10/8/04,
p.A12)
1985 Francesco Cossiga (b.1928)
was elected president of Italy. He resigned in 1992.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Cossiga)
1985 Pernod Ricard SA acquired the
Italian bitters group Ramazzotti.
(WSJ, 9/7/05, p.B2)
1985 Journalist Giancarlo Siani
was killed after he ran investigative reports on the Mafia in the
Naples daily Il Mattino. In 1997 6 Naples gangsters were sentenced to
life terms for the murder.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A9)
1986 Feb 10, The largest
Mafia trial in history, with 474 defendants, opened in Palermo, Italy.
The trial ended on December 16, 1987, almost two years after it
commenced. Of the 474 defendants, both those present and those tried in
absentia, 360 were convicted. 2,665 years of prison sentences were
shared out between the guilty, not including the life sentences. A
total of 114 defendants were acquitted.
(HN, 2/10/97)(www.answers.com/topic/maxi-trial)
1986 Feb 19, Adolfo Celi (b.1922),
Italian film actor and director (Thunderball), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Celi)
1986 Mar 22, World financier
Michele Sindona died two days after ingesting cyanide in his Italian
prison cell in what authorities later ruled a suicide.
(AP, 3/22/06)
1986 Mar 29, A court in Rome
acquitted six men in a plot to kill the Pope.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1986 Apr 14, Italy, which opposed
an American strike against Libya, warned Libya a day before the strike,
which was launched from a NATO base on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
(AP, 10/30/08)
1986 Apr 15, The United States
launched an air raid with F-111 warplanes against Libya in response to
the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5; Libya said 41
people, mostly civilians, were killed in Tripoli and Benghazi. The
step-daughter of Moammar Gadhafi was among those killed near Tripoli by
the US bombing.
(HN, 4/15/98)(WSJ, 8/30/00, p.A1)(AP, 12/19/08)(AP,
10/31/08)
1986 The Italian film "Demons" was
produced.
(SFC,12/12/97, p.C1)
1986 Rita Levi Montalcini
(b.1909), Italian scientist, shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with
American Stanley Cohen for discovering mechanisms that regulate the
growth of cells and organs.
(AP, 4/19/09)
1986 In Italy 62 founding members
met to inaugurate Arcigola, the forerunner of Slow Food.
(www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/history.lasso)
1986 In Italy the first McDonald's
Hamburger restaurant opened in Rome.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, Z1 p.2)
1986 Italian media mogul Silvio
Berlusconi bought the AC Milan soccer team. He had to quit the club’s
presidency for two years in 2004 when a law preventing conflicts of
interest for politicians was passed.
(Econ, 6/27/09, p.70)(http://tinyurl.com/klwzhl)
1987 Apr 11, Primo Levi (b.1920),
Italian chemist, Auschwitz survivor and writer, died in Italy. In 2002
Carole Angier authored: "Primo Levi: A Biography." His books included
the 1947 memoir "If This Is a Man" and "The Periodic Table." In 2002
Carole Angier authored the biography "The Double Bond."
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.M1)(WSJ, 6/14/02,
p.W10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_Levi)
1987 Jun 3, President Reagan
arrived in Italy to prepare for a summit of major industrialized
democracies, the 13th such gathering of world leaders.
(AP, 6/3/97)
1987 Nov 7, Italian citizens
began voting in a 2-day referendum to close down 3 nuclear power plants.
(AP, 11/13/03)(Econ, 6/6/09,
p.66)(www.radicalparty.org/ambiente/dilascia_ing.htm)
1988 Apr 16, In Forli, Italy, the
Red Brigades-PCC killed Italian senator Roberto Ruffilli, an advisor of
Italian PM Ciriaco de Mita. After that, the group activities all but
ended after massive arrests of its leadership.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Brigades)
1988 Apr, The Japanese Red Army
bombed a US military recreational club in Naples. 5 people were killed.
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
1988 Jun 11, Giuseppe Saragat
(89), president of Italy (1964-71), died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9065724)
1988 Aug 14, Enzo Ferrari
(b.1898), Italian sportscar manufacturer (Ferrari), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzo_Ferrari)
1988 Aug 28, At least 40 people
were killed when three Italian stunt planes collided during an air show
at the US Air Base in Ramstein, West Germany, sending flaming debris
into the crowd of spectators. Over the next 2 months the death toll
rose to 69.
(AP,
8/28/98)(www.sos.se/sos/publ/REFERENG/9003031E.htm)
1988 Oct 13, In Italy Cardinal
Archbishop Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero was forced to announce that
the Shroud of Turin did not contain the image of Christ. Scientists at
3 leading universities carbon-dated samples to some time between
1260-1390. In 1998 it was reported that the dating work was not
definitive. Lab tests showed Shroud of Turin was not Christ’s burial
cloth. The Shroud of Turin Research Project (Sturp) performed
radiocarbon dating on fibers of the shroud and found that the linen
dated to between 1260 and 1390 AD. Ian Wilson wrote the 1978 book "The
Shroud of Turin" and in 1998 "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence
That the Most Sacred Relic Is Real."
(WSJ, 4/10/98, p.W6)(SFEC, 2/1/98,
p.A24)(http://tinyurl.com/zuanz)
1988 Italy enacted a mandatory
seat belt law.
(SFC, 3/31/00, p.E3)
1988 Controls on capital movement
across borders were abandoned by France, Italy and other member states
of the European Community.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, p. R-44)
1989 Feb 8, In the Azores 144
people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with
Italian tourists slammed into fog-covered Santa Maria mountain.
(AP, 2/8/99)
1989 Apr 30, Sergio Leone (60),
Italian director (Good, Bad & Ugly), died.
{Italy, Film}
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0001466/)
1989 The Italian film "The Voice
of the Moon" (La Voce Della Luna) starred Roberto Benigni and was the
last work directed by Federico Fellini.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.C3)
1990 Sep 26, Alberto Moravia,
Italian writer (Woman in Red), died at 82.
(http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/moravia.htm)
1990 Oct 24, The existence of
Gladio, a “stay-behind” espionage operation, was acknowledged by Giulio
Andreotti, head of the Italian government. It was sponsored by the CIA
and NATO to counter communist influence after World War II in Italy, as
well as in other European countries.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladio)
1990 Nov, In Naples 2 oil
paintings and 17 busts were stolen from the church of Santa Maria degli
Angeli alle Croci. In 2009 one of the busts was found in the home of a
North Carolina couple who had no idea it was stolen. Authorities told
The Charlotte Observer the trail went cold until two years ago, when
officials in Rome let federal agents know an Italian citizen sold a
similar statue to an antiques dealer from Greensboro.
(AP, 3/21/09)
1990 The Pritzker Int’l. Prize for
Architecture was awarded to Aldo Rossi (d.1997) of Italy. He had
designed the World Theater in Venice and the Museum of Maastricht in
the Netherlands.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)
1990 In Naples some $60 million
vanished in incomplete construction sites for the soccer World Cup
Tournament.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A12)
1990 In Pisa the Leaning Tower of
Pisa was closed off to tourists for fear of its falling over. The tilt
was reduced by 16 inches over the next 11 years and re-opening was
scheduled in 2001.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)
1991 Mar 29, Argentine soccer star
Diego Maradona was suspended by the Italian League for testing positive
on March 17 for cocaine use.
(http://tinyurl.com/e34y9)
1991 Jun 16, The seventh
International Conference on AIDS opened in Florence, Italy. The
conference was marked by pleas from African and Asian countries for
more help and criticism directed at the United States for its refusal
to allow visits by foreigners infected with the AIDS virus.
(AP, 6/16/01)
1991 Aug 29, Libero Grassi,
Italian underwear manufacturer, anti mafia, was gunned down in Palermo.
(www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art105.htm)
1991 Aug, 18,000 Albanians crossed
the Adriatic to seek asylum in Italy; most were returned. The People's
Assembly passed a law allowing private ownership, foreign investment
and private employment of workers.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1991 The Italian Communist Party
(PCI) disbanded to form the Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS),
with membership in the Socialist International. It later came to be
known as the Left Democrats (DS).
(Econ, 4/28/07,
p.62)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Communist_Party)
1991 In Italy Giulio Andreotti was
made a senator for life.
(SFEC, 10/27/99, p.A17)
1991 In Italy an anti-laundering
act put a limit of 20 million lire on all cash transactions, but no
penalties for passbooks containing sums above that amount.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.71)
1991 In Italy Silvio Berlusconi’s
Fininvest group bribed a judge to win control of Mondadori, the
country’s largest publishing house. In 2007 Cesare Previti was
convicted of buying this judgment. In 2009 a Milan judge ruled that
Fininvest should pay damages of $1.1 billion.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.53)
1991 Italian authorities allowed
several ships with about 25,000 Albanians into the port of Bari. When
another wave of immigrants showed up a few months later the policy was
reversed and they were sent back home.
(NG, 5/93, p.104)
1991 Ermenegildo Zegna became the
first Italian luxury company to enter the Chinese market. By 2007 it
had some 52 shops there.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.82)
1991-1992 Luigi Ramponi served as head of the SISMI,
the Italian Military Intelligence Service.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A10)
1992 Feb 17, Italian police
arrested Mario Chiesa, the first one to be picked up in what would
become Italy's massive corruption scandals. This date became considered
a watershed moment in recent Italian history. Italy’s "Clean Hands"
corruption scandal originated in Milan. A series of bribery cases led
to the conviction and flight of Socialist Bettino Craxi.
(AP, 3/31/09)(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T11)(Econ, 11/26/05,
Survey p.10)
1992 Apr 28, Francesco Cossiga
(b.1928), president of Italy, resigned 2 months before the end of his
term.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Cossiga)
1992 May 23, In Sicily anti-Mafia
investigator Giovannii Falcone was murdered on a highway outside
Palermo. Falcone’s wife and 3 bodyguards were also killed. Sicilian
politician Salvo Lima was also murdered. Anti-Mafia investigator Paolo
Borsellino was killed in another blast some months later. In 1997
Pietro Aglieri, aka "U Signurinu" (The Little Gentleman), was arrested
for involvement in all three murders. 24 mobsters were convicted in the
murder in 1997, including Leoluca Bagarella.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A12)(SFEC, 6/7/98,
p.A23)(http://giovanni-falcone.foosquare.com/)
1992 May 25, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
was elected President of Italy.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1992 Jul 19, Paolo Borsellino,
Italian anti-mafia judge, was murdered by mafia.
(http://paolo-borsellino.biography.ms/)
1992 Jul 31, In Italy the scala
mobile wage index, which maintained a rigid link between Italian wages
and prices, was scrapped after a long struggle.
(www.eurofound.europa.eu/emire/ITALY/SLIDINGSCALEMECHANISM-IT.htm)(Econ,
6/13/09, SR p.9)
1992 Aug 15, Giorgio Perlasca,
Italian anti-fascist (saved 5,200 Jews), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio)
1992 Sep 3, An Italian relief
plane was shot down by ground-to-air missiles outside of Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina. (AP, 9/3/97)
1992 Sep 14, The Italian Lira was
devalued 7%. This forced Italy to withdraw from the Exchange Rate
Mechanism (ERM), which was necessary to join European Monetary Union.
(http://tinyurl.com/eh943)
1992 Oct 22, The US space shuttle
Columbia was launched on a 10-day mission that included deployment of
an Italian satellite.
(AP, 10/22/97)
1992 Oct 26, Italy ratifies the
Treaty on the European Union.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1992/index_en.htm)
1992 Nov 29, Emilio Pucci
(b.1914), Italian fashion designer (Jackie Kennedy), died in Florence,
Italy. In 2000 his firm was acquired by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis
Vuitton.
(http://tinyurl.com/7ec3n)(WSJ, 8/22/03, p.B1)
1992 Dec, Italy sent 2,500 combat
troops to Somalia as part of the US-sponsored multinational force.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1992 The film "Noto Mandorli
Vulcano Stromboli Carnevalle" was shot in Sicily by Michelangelo
Antonioni for the Italian pavilion at the Seville Expo in Spain.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, DB p.43)
1992 An Italian court sentenced
Marina Petrella, a member of the Red Brigades, in absentia to life in
prison on charges including murder and kidnapping. In 2007 French
police arrested Petrella for a petty crime and planned to extradite her
to Italy. In 2008 a French court ordered her that she be freed from
prison because of health problems.
(AP, 8/23/07)(AP, 8/5/08)
1992 The Italian Mafia demanded
that sentences passed against some 400 Mafiosi at a mass trial in 1987
be softened and that a law that imposed a harsh prison regime for
Mafiosi be repealed. A list of 12 demands was written by written by the
son of Salvatore "The Beast" Riina on a scrap of paper while his father
was still at large during alleged secret negotiations between the state
and the Mafia. The note was only made public in 2009.
(Reuters, 10/19/09)
1992-1993 Giuliano Amato served as the Socialist
Premier.
(SFC, 4/22/00, p.A9)
1992-1994 Warrant Officer Francesco Aloi kept a diary
while in Somalia and documented instances of rape, torture and other
brutality against the Somalis.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A10)
1992-1996 Giorgio Pressberger was the artistic
director for the MittelFest, a theater and musical festival in Cividale
del Friuli that links Italy with nine central European countries.
(WSJ, 8/20/96, p.A8)
1993 Jan 15, In Sicily Salvatore
"The Beast" Riina was arrested. "Toto" Riina, the Sicilian boss of
bosses, was arrested for his role in the murder of prosecutor Giovanni
Falcone. Bernardo Provenzano was considered to have taken over as boss
of the Sicilian Mafia following Riina’s arrest. Provenzano’s right-hand
man was Mariano Troia.
(USAT, 9/16/98,
p.14A)(www.answers.com/topic/salvatore-riina)(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A11)
1993 Feb 20, Ferrucio Lamborghini
(76), Italian auto-designer (Lamborghini, Miura), died.
(www.conceptcarz.com/view/makeHistory/88,8843/makeHistory.aspx)
1993 Mar 16, Mohammed Hussein
Nagdi, Iran diplomat, resistance fighter, was murdered in Rome, Italy.
(http://farrid.20m.com/sr.html)
1993 Apr 19, In a national
referendum Italians voted by 83% to elect three-quarters of their
Senate with a U.S-style 'first-place-takes-all,' single-member district
voting system. The Italian Chamber of Deputies, which has far more
political power than the Senate, is now expected to modify the 'pure'
party list proportional representation system used to elect its members.
(www.fairvote.org/reports/1993/katz.html)(Econ,
9/17/05, p.53)
1993 May 18, Italian police
arrested Mafia boss Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1993 May 27, Five people were
killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy;
some three dozen paintings were ruined or damaged. Giovanni Brusca was
believed to have led teams that damaged the Uffizi museum in Florence
with car bombs. He is believed by many to be the leader of the Italian
Mafia teams. In 1996 he was arrested in Sicily and charged with
masterminding the murder of Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three
bodyguards in 1992. In 1998 Mafia boss Lelluca Bagarella and 13 others
were sentenced to life in prison for the May and July bombings.
(AP, 5/27/98)(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)(SFC, 8/24/96,
p.A12)(SFEC, 6/7/98, p.A23)
1993 Jul 27, Bombs exploded in
Rome and Milan, killing at least five people.
(AP, 7/27/98)
1993 Jul, The modern art museum in
central Milan was damaged by bombs. Two churches in Rome were also
damaged, including the Basilica of St. John Lateran, between May and
July. [see May 20]
(SFEC, 6/7/98, p.A23)
1993 Oct 31, Federico Fellini,
Italian film director, died in Rome at age 73. He made some 24 films
including "La Strada," "La Dolce Vita," "8 1/2," and "Amarcord"
through the 50’s and 60’s.
(WSJ, 4/19/95, p.A-14)(AP, 10/31/98)
1993 Nov 21, The Neo-fascist MSI
won 36% of municipal elections in Rome.
(www.nationarchive.com/Summaries/v257i0020_07.htm)
1993 Silvio Berlusconi created his
Forza Italia! party.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.57)
1993 Antonio Basolino was elected
mayor of Naples. Before his election the post was appointed by local
party leaders. The city had been mired in corruption for decades and
the new mayor began to clean it up.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A1,12)
1993 A federal law granted people
in illegal dwellings the right to use public utilities but warned that
illegal structures would be demolished. Demolitions began in 1998.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A10)
1993 Antonio Fazio became governor
of the Bank of Italy.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.58)
1993 Fiat Auto SpA bought Maserati.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.B1)
1993 Maurizio Gucci sold his
remaining stake in Gucci to Investcorp, a Bahraini firm.
(WSJ, 11/5/03, p.A1)
1994 Mar 19, Giuseppe Diana,
Italian anti-mafia priest, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/7plc8)
1994 Mar 20, Ilaria Alpi (32), a
journalist, was shot and killed in Somalia along with her cameraman,
Miran Hrovatin, on the same day that Italian troops left the country.
She had collected evidence of brutality by Italian officers against
Somalis along with evidence of illegal gun-running.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)
1994 Mar 23, Actress Giulietta
Masina (b.1921 ), wife of Federico Felini, died in Rome.
(AP, 3/23/99)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0556399/)
1994 Mar 27, Italians went to the
polls in general elections that resulted in big gains for a right-wing
coalition. Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right grouping won the election.
(AP, 3/27/99)(Econ, 11/26/05, Survey p.10)
1994 Jun 3, President Clinton,
continuing his tour of Italy, visited the graves of American soldiers
killed in the Anzio landing during World War II.
(AP, 6/3/99)
1994 Jun, Carlo Toto, an Italian
contractor, purchased a Boeing 737 at a court auction and began a
small-charter airline service that became Air One.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.A13)
1994 Sep 29, Gunmen in Italy fired
at the rental car of the Green family of Bodega Bay, Ca., and killed
their young boy, Nicholas Green. The parents donated his organs and
saved 7 lives in Italy. An appeals court in 1998 found 2 men guilty of
the botched highway robbery. Michelle Ianello was sentenced to life in
prison and Francesco Mesiano was sentenced to 20 years.
(SFEC, 10/27/96, p.B8)(SFC, 6/6/98, p.A10)
1994 Jul 8, Leaders of the Group
of Seven nations opened their 20th annual economic summit in Italy.
Silvio Berlusconi hosted the G-7 summit in Naples.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.A12)(AP, 7/8/99)(Econ, 1/22/05,
p.46)
1994 Jul 9, Members of the Group
of Seven (G-7) nations concluded their economic summit in Naples,
Italy.
(AP, 7/9/99)
1994 The government introduced
instant lotteries.
(WSJ, 11/1/96, p.A1)
1994 The National Alliance was
created as a broad based successor to the Italian Social Movement
(MSI), which was created after WW II to keep alive the ideals of
Mussolini.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.44)
1994 Istria was the first region
of the former Yugoslavia to be officially designated as a "Region of
Europe". The Istria of 2005, alternatively called Istra and Istrija, is
politically divided into three separate countries: Croatia, Slovenia
and Italy.
(www.istrians.com/istria/maps/)
1995 Jan 13, Italy named Treasury
Minister Lamberto Dini its prime minister. He pledged to resign after
approval of a deficit cutting budget.
(AP, 1/13/00)(WSJ, 10/27/95, p.A-1)
1995 Mar 27, In Italy Maurizio
Gucci (46), businessman, was shot to death in Milan. He was the last
family member to have held shares in the Gucci fashion company, now
part of the Bahrain-based Investcorp. In 1997 police arrested his
former wife, a psychic, a doorman, and two hitmen for their roles in
the murder. In 1998 Patrizia Reggiani Martinelli (50) was convicted and
sentenced to 29 years in prison. The psychic got 25, the doorman got
26, the driver got 29 and the gunman got life.
(SFC, 2/1/97, p.A12)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A13)
1995 Oct 10, Paolo Gucci (64),
Italian entrepreneur and accessories designer, died.
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9112125?tocId=9112125)
1995 Nov 21, Former Nazi Capt.
Erich Priebke was extradited from Argentina to Italy to face trial for
his role in the Ardeatine Caves massacre. A court found him guilty in
1996 but released him because too much time had elapsed since the
crime. There was a major uproar and he was again arrested and a 1997
trial convicted him and co-defendant Major Karl Hass. Priebke was
sentenced to 5 years in prison. Hass was convicted but released due to
mitigating circumstances. face charges in the massacre of 335
Italian civilians in Nazi-occupied Rome.
(AP, 3/23/97)(WSJ, 10/3/95, p.A-21) (WSJ, 11/21/95,
p.A-1)(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A9)
(AP, 11/21/02)
1995 Nov, Air One launched service
between Rome and Milan, a route on which Alitalia had held a monopoly.
(WSJ, 9/24/04, p.A13)
1995 Italian interest rates began
to fall in anticipation of its joining the EU.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.108)
1995 The Italian port at Gioia
Tauro began handling container ships. The local mafia, ‘Ndrangheta,
tried to extort $1.50 for every container, but the demand was overcome.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.78)
1996 Jan 29, In Venice, Italy, the
204-year-old La Felice opera house burned down. It was scheduled to be
reconstructed and finished by Sep 27, 1999. It was later determined by
experts to have been caused by arson. In 2003 Italy's top criminal
court upheld convictions on arson charges for Enrico Carella and fellow
electrician Massimiliano Marchetti, sentencing them to seven and six
years in jail respectively. In 2005 John Berendt authored “The City of
Falling Angels,” which centered on the burning of La Fenice. In 2007
Carella was arrested in Mexico.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.D3)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.E4)(AP,
1/29/01)(WSJ, 9/24/05, p.P12)(AP, 3/3/07)
1996 May 16, Romano Prodi was
named head of the center-left Olive Branch alliance that won April
elections. PM Prodi led Italy’s 55th postwar government with the
leftists in power for the first time in 50 years.
(WSJ, 5/17/96, p.A-1)(Econ, 11/26/05, Survey p.10)
1996 May 20, Giovanni Brusca (36),
believed by many to be the leader of the Italian Mafia, was arrested in
Sicily. He is charged with masterminding the murder of Giovanni
Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards in 1992.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)
1996 May 25, Renzo De Felice (67),
scholar and historian of Italy’s Fascist period, died in Rome.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A15)
1996 Jun 2, Separatists in
northern Italy celebrated their growing campaign to split off from the
south on the 50th anniversary of the Italian republic. Umberto Bossi is
the head of the Northern League and founder of the self-declared
Republic of Padania. At a rally in Pontida, near Milan, ministers in
Bossi’s "government" swore allegiance to Padania, a name derived from
the valley of the Po. Their proposed republic includes everything from
Florence to the Alps.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Jun 9, The latest
unemployment rate was 12.4%.
(SFC, 6/9/96, Parade, p.9)
1996 Jun 10, The center-left
government announced a new privatization calendar that included the
sale of stakes in insurance, banking, and oil companies.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A9B)
1996 Sep 15, Umberto Bossi,
populist politician and leader of the Northern League, planned to
declare the independence of the Federal Republic of Padania.
(WSJ, 9/13/96, p.A6)
1996 Sep 15, Lorenzo Necci, head
of the state-run railroad, was arrested for corruption, embezzlement,
abuse of office, falsification of balance sheets and fraud.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A12)
1996 Sep 26, The foreign minister
announced that the country would no longer make land mines that are
used against people.
(SFC, 9/27/96, p.A16)
1996 Sep 27, In Milan 50,000 metal
workers marched on strike.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Nov 17, The World Food Summit
concluded a five-day meeting in Rome, with delegates promising a
wide-ranging effort to ease hunger around the globe.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1996 Dec 19, Marcello Mastroianni
(b.1924), Italian actor, died at age 72. He appeared in 171 films and
had just finished shooting "Journey to the Beginning of the World.
(WSJ, 12/20/96, p.A1)(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A9)
1996 Frances Mayes published
"Under the Tuscan Sun." In 1999 she followed it up with "Bella Tuscany."
(SFEC, 4/25/99, BR p.2)
1996 Flooding of 32 inches or more
hit Venice a record 101 times in this year.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D4)
1996 The government assigned a
Central Commission for Worldwide Italian-Restaurant Standards to
certify that authenticity of Italian restaurants outside Italy.
(WSJ, 4/14/99, p.A1)
1996 Ludovico Filotti, a former
employee of Barings, persuaded his new employer, a large Japanese bank,
to purchase Italian zero coupon postal bonds in an arbitrage scheme
under falling interest rates. Other bankers followed and within days
$3.6 billion worth of bonds were sold. They matured after the euro
deadline and were not counted as current debt.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.108,110)
1996-1998 Some 15% of all new structures in Italy
were built illegally.
(SFC, 7/22/00, p.A10)
1997 Apr 11, In Italy, fire
damaged the 500-year-old San Giovanni Cathedral, home of the Shroud of
Turin, which some consider Christ's burial cloth.
(AP, 4/11/98)
1997 Apr 12, In Turin the Shroud
of Turin was recovered from a fire that began in the Guarini chapel of
the city’s 15th century cathedral.
(WSJ, 4/14/97, p.A1)
1997 May 9, Eight Venetian
separatists took over the bell tower at St. Mark’s Square. They were
overpowered by police after 7 1/2 hours.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)
1997 May 9, Marco Ferreri
(b.1928), film director, died. His work included "The Wheelchair" (El
Cochecit 1960), "Le Lit Conjugal" (The Conjugal Bed 1963), "Dillinger
Is Dead" (1969), "La Grande Bouffe" (1973), "La Derniere Femme" (1976),
and "Bye Bye Monkey’ (1978).
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A20)
1997 May 16, Giuseppe De Santis,
film director, died at 80. His films included "Bitter Rice" (1949),
"Obsession," "Tragic Hunt," "Under the Olive Tree," and "Rome 11
O’Clock."
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A24)
1997 May 22, In Italy the Grand
Princess was launched at the Fincantieri Monfalcone shipyard. It was
the world’s largest passenger cruise ship at 109,000 gross tons and was
scheduled for interior completion in the spring of 1998.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1997 May 22, In Italy the Grand
Princess was launched at the Fincantieri Monfalcone shipyard. It was
the world’s largest passenger cruise ship at 109,000 gross tons and was
scheduled for interior completion in the spring of 1998.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1997 Sep 26, In Sicily a court
convicted 24 mobsters for the 1992 bombing of the top anti-Mafia
prosecutor. Salvatore "Toto" Riina, the reputed "boss of bosses" was
among those convicted for having plotted the assassination of Giovanni
Falcone.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A12)
1997 Sep 26, Two earthquakes hit
central Italy east of Umbria and at least 11 people were killed. The
basilica of Assisi, St. Mary of the Angels, built on the site where St.
Francis died, was severely damaged. 4 people were killed while
assessing damage from the first quake. An estimated 100,000 buildings
in the Umbria and Marche regions were damaged.
(SFC, 9/27/97, p.A1)(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A18)
1997 Sep 26, In Italy Bob Dylan
performed at a religious congress in Bologna before a crowd 200,000 and
Pope John Paul II.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A3)
1997 Oct 9, Dario Fo (71), an
Italian playwright and performer, received the Nobel Prize in
literature. The leftist playwright had been prosecuted by Italy,
denounced by Roman Catholic Church leaders and barred from the United
States. His work included: "Archangels Don’t Play Pinball" (1960),
"Mistero Biffo," (Comic Mystery) written in 1969, and "Accidental Death
of an Anarchist" (1970), "We Can’t Pay, We Don’t Pay" (1974) and
"Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From the Zoo."
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/10/97, p.A20)(SFEC,
8/23/98, DB p.13)(AP, 10/9/98)
1997 Oct 9, In Italy Premier
Romano Prodi resigned after his Marxist allies refused to accept
welfare cuts. The 17-month old government was the first
leftist-dominated and 55th government since WW II. Pres. Oscar Luigi
Scalfaro asked Prodi to stay on as caretaker while a new government is
formed.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.D3)
1997 Oct 13, The Communist
Refounding Party reopened talks that were expected to restore Prodi to
power and leave his budget intact.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 26, In Italy the Northern
League party of Umberto Bossi held a symbolic election to choose a
"parliament" for independent Padania.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A9)
1997 Nov 16, In weekend municipal
elections center-left parties won a landslide victory bolstering
support for Prime Minister Prodi’s government.
(WSJ, 11/18/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov Kidnappers of
industrialist Giuseppe Soffiantini sent a slice of his left ear and
demanded a ransom payment of $12 million by Dec 20.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.B12)
1997 Dec 27, In Italy Some 825
illegal immigrants, mostly Kurds, were rescued by Italian tugboats from
the Turkish ship Ararat. They were attempting to smuggle into Italy
from Turkey.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A19)
1997 Dec 30, Danilo Dolci,
advocate of nonviolent social reform, died at age 73. His writings and
poetry chronicled Sicily’s beauty and despair. His books include:
"Report From Palermo," "Waste," and "Sicilian Lives" (1981).
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A25)
1997 Dec, Word began to spread
that Dr. Luigi Di Bella (85) had found a cure for cancer, a cocktail of
drugs that stopped tumor growth.
(WSJ, 4/21/98, p.A1)
1997 The film "Land in Between"
(Terra di mezzo) was directed by Matteo Garrone. It was about an
immigrant in Italy.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 The film "Marianna Ucria" was
directed by Robeto Faenza. It was based on a novel by Dacia Maraini
about an 18th century Sicilian deaf mute.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 The film "Moon Spins Between
land and Sea" (Giro di lune tra terre e mare) was directed by Giuseppe
Gaudino. It was a tale of the ancient town Pozzuoli set in the present
and the time of Nero.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 The film "Physical Jerks" (In
barca a vela contromano) was directed by Stefano Reali. It was jab at
the public health system about a patient who checks into a hospital for
surgery.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 The film "Pizzicata" was
about a US fighter pilot shot down in 1943.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 The comedy film "Satisfaction
or Your Money Back" (Consigli per gli acquisti) was directed by Sandro
Boldoni. It was a spoof on modern consumerism.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 The film "We All Fall Down"
(Tutti giu per terra) was directed by Davide Ferrario. It was about a
young virgin man who had spent his adolescence with an aunt in Rome and
then returns home to Turin.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.60)
1997 Ferrari took over Maserati.
In 2000 the new $85,000 Maserati Spyder was introduced.
(WSJ, 3/25/02, p.B11)
1997 The Italian Parmalat Corp.
acquired Beatrice Foods.
(WSJ, 12/22/03, p.A6)
1997-1998 Fiat SpA of Italy said it would invest $1
bil over this period in Brazil for new engines, updated models, and new
projects.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A11)
1998 Jan 1, Navy patrols
intercepted a 2nd ship with 386 refugees, mostly Kurds,
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 2, Italy pledged to grant
political asylum to genuine Kurdish immigrants. Another 1,300 were
scheduled to soon arrive from Turkey. German and Austrian officials
feared the immigrants would spill over to their countries.
(SFC, 1/3/98, p.A9)
1998 Jan 25, Kidnappers of
industrialist Giuseppe Soffiantini sent a slice of his ear and a note
to a TV news station. The ransom was reportedly reduced to about $6
million.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.B12)
1998 Feb 3, A US surveillance
aircraft cut a ski cable in Italy and caused the death of 20 skiers in
a gondola cable car running from Cavalese to the Alpe Cermis. The EA-6B
aircraft was normally used for patrols over Bosnia and was only
slightly damaged. Lt. Col. Steven Watters was later relieved of command
for telling crew members of a related squadron to destroy evidence in
the investigation. The pilot did not have Italian military maps that
identified the ski lift. Four crewmen were later charged by the Marine
Corps with negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter and dereliction
of duty. The pilot and navigator faced trial for manslaughter. Pilot
Richard J. Ashby was acquitted of all charges in 1999. Navigator Joseph
Schweitzer was acquitted of manslaughter and negligent homicide
charges. Schweitzer later pleaded guilty to obstruction and conspiracy
charges for destroying a videotape made during the flight. The tape
indicated that the plane had been flying upside down. Schweitzer was
sentenced to dismissal from the Marine Corps. Capt. Ashby (32) was
found guilty of obstruction of justice and conspiracy in May, 1999 and
was sentenced to 6 months in prison and dismissed from the Marine
Corps. Families of the victims settled for $2 million apiece in 2000.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A7)(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A11)(SFC,
2/19/98, p.B10)(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A2)(SFC, 3/5/99,
p.A1)(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A3)(SFC,
5/1/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A4)(SFC, 4/26/00, p.A4)
1998 Feb 11, Pres. Yeltsin
completed a 3 day visit to Italy and scored $5 billion in trade and
investment contracts.
(SFC, 2/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Feb 12, Over 250 cars crashed
on the foggy highway A-13 between Padua and Bologna. Four people were
killed and dozens were injured.
(SFC, 2/13/98, p.D2)
1998 Mar 6, Francesca Trombino,
lawyer, was bludgeoned to death in Pordenone. She was representing a US
Marine in the Feb 3 cable-car disaster. She was also representing the
wife of the captured suspect in a divorce case.
(SFC, 3/7/98, p.A7)
1998 Apr 12, Maria Angela Rubino
(32) was found shot in a train bathroom. The murder was similar to 6
others along the Italian Riviera since March 9.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 20, The Goldman
Environmental Awards were presented to six winners in SF. The prizes
were increased to $100,000. Anna Giordano (32) of Italy won for her
campaign against illegal hunting of birds in Sicily and southern Italy.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A8)
1998 May 4, In Vatican City Alois
Estermann (43), the pope’s top bodyguard, was shot and killed
along with his wife, Gladys Meza Romero (49) in their apartment by
Cedrich Tornay (23), who then shot himself. Estermann had just been
appointed the head of the Swiss Guards and was killed by Tornay due to
damaged professional pride. An investigation was concluded in 1999 and
suggested that marijuana and a brain cyst impaired Tornay.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(USAT, 5/6/98, p.6A)(SFC, 2/9/99,
p.A10)(AP, 5/4/99)
1998 May 7, In southern Italy
heavy rains sent a torrent of mud through Sarno and several other
towns. At least 55 people were reported dead. The death toll climbed to
116.
(USAT, 5/8/98, p.7A)(SFEC, 5/10/98, p.A22)
1998 May 19-1998 May 20, Bandits
stole three of Rome's most important paintings, two by Van Gogh and one
by Cezanne, from the National Gallery of Modern Art.
(SFC, 5/21/98, p.A14)(AP, 5/19/99)
1998 May 24, At the 51st Cannes
Film Festival the Golden Palm award went to the Greek film "Mia
Eoniotita Ke Mia Mera (Eternity and a Day), directed by Theo
Angelopoulos. The Grand Prize went to the Italian film "La Vita e
Bella" (Life Is Beautiful) by director Roberto Benigni. It starred
Benigni, Giorgio Cantarini and Nicoletta Braschi.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.E5)(SFEC, 10/25/98, DB p.46)
1998 Jul 1, Mt. Etna erupted for
30 minutes.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A7)
1998 Jul 11, It was reported that
fires in southern Italy and Sicily burned 2,500 acres of forest and
grassland.
(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 11, Maria Soledad Rosas
(24), an Argentine squatter under house arrest in Turin, was found
hanged to death.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 13, Silvio Berlusconi,
former premier, was convicted for the 3rd time since Dec. This
conviction was for illegal party financing in 1991. A prior conviction
was for bribing tax inspectors.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 17, In Rome UN delegates
from more than 100 countries overwhelmingly approved (120-7) a historic
treaty, the Statue of Rome, creating the world's first permanent war
crimes tribunal, with jurisdiction over individuals, ignoring strenuous
U.S. objections over certain provisions. It was to be located in the
Hague with 18 judges from 18 countries serving 9 year terms. It
still required ratification by 60 countries to become effective. The
vote passed 120 to 7 with 21 abstentions. The US, China, Iraq, Israel,
Libya, Qatar and Yemen voted against the International Criminal Court
Treaty (ICC). In 2002 the US moved to withdraw its signature.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/20/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/6/02, p.A1,4)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.27)
1998 Jul 17, In Viterbo anarchist
vandals sprayed painted graffiti over 15th century frescoes in response
to the suicide of Maria Rosas.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Jul 31, Over 10,000 members
of the nation’s beach workers (bagnini) went on strike and closed their
umbrella stands.
(WSJ, 8/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 15, A rock slide at
Brenner Pass killed 5 German tourists near the town of Forteza.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A21)
1998 Aug 19, In Italy the
Assicurazioni Generali insurance company announced that it will pay
$100 million to Holocaust survivors and the heirs of victims for life
insurance and annuity policies that it refused to honor after WW II.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A7)
1998 Sep 9, A 5.5 earthquake hit
Italy between the towns of Castelluccio Inferiore and Laino Borgo where
the regions of Calabria and Basilicata meet.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.C2)
1998 Sep 18, In Italy the TV
dubbers agreed to end their 2-month strike.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.C16)
1998 Oct 3, Communists voted to
reject Prime Minister Prodi’s budget.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1,22)
1998 Oct 5, Federico Zeri, Italy’s
leading art critic and historian, died at age 77. He had cataloged in 4
volumes the Italian paintings in New York’s Metropolitan Museum.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A22)
1998 Oct 9, The center-left
coalition of Premier Romano Prodi lost a vote of confidence by one
vote. Pres. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro asked Prodi to continue leading a
temporary government.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 16, Massimo D’Alema, head
of the Democratic Left Party, was asked by Pres. Scalfaro to form a new
government.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 1, John Kagwe of Kenya
won the NY Marathon in 2:8:45. Franca Fiacconi of Italy won among the
women in 2:25:17.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 12, In Italy Abdullah
Ocalan, head of the Kurd PKK, was arrested in Rome.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 20, In Italy a court
ordered the release of Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan under a law
barring extradition in death penalty cases and planned to grant him
asylum.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 16, Abdullah Ocalan,
leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, was freed by an appeals court in
Rome. Turkish officials were outraged and renewed threats of economic
retaliation.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C4)
1998 Dec 16, In Rome an apartment
building collapsed and killed 20 people.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C5)
1998 The Italian film "The Best
Man" starred Diego Abatanuono and Ines Sastre and was directed by
Pupi Avati. It was about a bride who hates her new husband and their
wedding in Northern Italy at the turn of the century.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.C5)
1998 The Italian film "Go Around
the World" was directed by Davide Manuli and was about an orphan raised
by a Gypsy.
{Film, Italy}
(SFEC, 10/4/98, DB)(http://tinyurl.com/33mf9m)
1998 The Italian film "Pianese
Nunzio, Fourteen in May" was directed by Antonio Capuano. It was about
an priest’s involvement with an altar boy.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.E4)
1998 The Italian film "Steam"
starred Alessandro Gassman and Mehmet Gunsur. It was directed by Ferzan
Ozpetek.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.10)
1998 Toni Dykstra of southern
California was found dead in Rome as she sought to bring her kidnapped
daughter back to the US. Boyfriend Carlo Ventre was charged with her
murder. In 2007 Ventre (59) died of a heart attack while testifying at
his trial.
(AP, 6/26/07)
1999 Jan 1, Italy along with 10
other European Union nations made the transition to the new Euro
monetary system.
(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 8, Pope John Paul II met
with the new Prime Minister and former communist leader, Massimo
D'Alema.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A9)
1999 Jan 14, In Italy police
arrested 9 people in Milan who allegedly rigged the Milan Lotto using
children and tampered balls for drawing wining numbers.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 27, The $60 billion bid
by Olivetti for Telecom Italia was ruled legally admissible by Italian
stock market regulators.
(SFEC, 2/28/99, p.A24)
1999 Mar 11, In northern Italy an
avalanche killed 3 German skiers.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A15)
1999 Mar 24, In the 7-mile Mt.
Blanc tunnel between France and Italy a fire erupted from a truck
transporting flour. The death toll was raised to 9 with 24 injured. The
fire was extinguished after 3 days and the death toll rose to 35.
Identification of the remains of at least 40 people began Mar 28.
Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc
tunnel in France and burned for two days. It re-opened in 2002. In 2005
a French court convicted 10 people and 3 companies for safety lapses in
the 2-day fire.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A14)(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A10)(SFC,
3/29/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/24/00)(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.C4)(AP, 3/24/04)(WSJ,
7/28/05, p.A1)
1999 May 5, Ibrahim Rugova,
prominent Albanian leader, flew to Rome with the permission of Yugoslav
authorities for talks with Premier Massimo D'Alema and foreign Minister
Lamberto Dini.
(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A13)
1999 May 13, In Italy the
Parliament chose Treasury Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (78) as the new
president.
(SFC, 5/14/99, p.A15)
1999 May 20, In Italy Massimo
D'Antona, a univ. professor of labor law and the architect of labor
reforms, was shot to death as he walked to work in Rome. The Red
Brigade claimed responsibility in a 28-page manifesto left in a trash
bin. In 2005 Nadia Desdemona Lioce, Marco Mezzasalma and Roberto
Morandi were convicted and sentenced to life terms. Paolo Broccatelli
received a nine-year term.
(SFC, 5/22/99, p.A13)(AP, 7/9/05)
1999 Jun 19, Turin, Italy, was
chosen as the site of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
(AP, 6/19/00)
1999 Jun 19, the Bologna process
for the creation of the European Higher Education Area started. 29
European Ministers responsible for higher education signed the Bologna
declaration in which they undertake to create a European Higher
Education Area.
(www.aic.lv/ace/ace_disk/Bologna/about_bol.htm)
1999 Jun 19, Mario Soldati
(b.1906), Italian writer and film director, died at age 92. He started
publishing novels in 1929 although his fame came with “America primo
amore” (1935), a diary about the time he spent teaching at Columbia
University. He won literary awards for the work.
(SFC, 6/24/99,
p.A25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Soldati)
1999 Jul 31, St. Mary of the
Angels Basilica in Assisi reopened following earthquake repairs due to
the Sep 26, 1977, quake.
(SFEC, 8/1/99, p.A18)
1999 Sep 10, A 15-ton bronze
horse, designed after an idea by Leonardo da Vinci, was scheduled to be
unveiled at the 500th anniversary of the French occupation of the Ducal
palace in Milan, when da Vinci's prototype was disfigured. It was begun
by Charles Dent (d.1994), a United Airlines pilot, and finished by a
foundation that he endowed. It was cast in Beacon, N.Y.
(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 23, The cloned bull
Galileo was unveiled at the dairy cattle show in Cremona. The Health
Ministry confiscated the bull the next day due to the 1998 decree
forbidding cloning issued by Health Minister Rosy Bindi.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, p.A22)
1999 Sep 24, A jury acquitted
former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti of the 1979 killing of a
journalist.
(AP, 9/24/00)
1999 Oct 23, Giulio Andreotti
(80), 7 times prime minister, was acquitted of charges that he was the
Sicilian Mafia's protector in Rome.
(SFEC, 10/24/99, p.A17)
1999 Dec 18, In Italy Prime
Minister Massimo D'Alema resigned and brought an end to the 56th
government since WW II. Pres. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi asked him to form a
new coalition.
(SFEC, 12/19/99, p.A26)
1999 Dec 22, In Italy Premier
Massimo D'Alema won a vote of confidence for a new cabinet.
(SFC, 12/23/99, p.C7)
1999 Dec 23, Premier Massimo
D'Alema won parliamentary approval for the 57th government. The Cabinet
included 5 new members and 20 holdovers.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A20)
1999 Roberto Calasso's work "Ka:
Stories of the Mind and Gods of India" was translated to English by Tim
Parks. Calasso, head of the Milan publishing house Adelphi, also
authored "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" and "The Ruin of Kasch."
(SFEC, 1/17/99, BR p.8)
1999 The Italian film "Ferdinando
e Carolina" starred script writer Leonardo Benvenuti (d.2000 at 77) and
was directed by Lina Wertmuller.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B7)
1999-2005 Alitalia, Italy’s national airline,
accumulated net losses of some 2.6 billion euros.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.53)
2000 Jan 19, Bettino Craxi (65), a
former premier who Italy fled to escape a corruption jail sentence,
died in Tunisia.
(WSJ, 1/20/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 6, The government
proposed car-free Sunday program, "domenica a piedi," began. Some 100
cities signed up for the program to ban downtown traffic on the 1st
Sunday of the month through May.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 21, Avalanches in Italy
killed 3 skiers in the northern Venosta Valley.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 30, A mandatory helmet
law for motorbike riders went into effect.
(SFC, 3/31/00, p.E3)
2000 Apr 13, Giorgio Bassani,
author and editor, died at age 84. His books included "The Garden of
the Finzi-Continis."
(SFC, 4/14/00, p.D5)
2000 Apr 19, Prime Minister
Massimo D’Alema resigned.
(SFC, 4/22/00, p.A9)
2000 Apr 20, In Italy the
center-left parties closed ranks behind Treasury Minister Giuliano
Amato following the resignation of Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema.
(WSJ, 4/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 21, Pres. Carlo Azeglio
Ciampi gave Giuliano Amato the go ahead to form Italy’s 58th government
since WW II.
(SFC, 4/22/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 13, In Italy the
government pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca (42), the man who wounded Pope John
Paul II in 1981. Agca was flown to Turkey to finish serving 8 years for
the 1979 murder of a newspaper editor.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 14, Attilio Bertolucci
(88), poet and father of 2 movie directors, died in Rome. His 1984
autobiographical free verse novel "The Bedroom" was made into a movie.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A34)
2000 Jun 29, Vittorio Gassman,
film actor, died at age 77. He had appeared in 124 films between 1946
and 1999.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.D7)
2000 Jul 1-9, In Italy the World
Pride int’l. gay pride festival opened in Rome.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.C14)(SFEC, 7/2/00, p.A17)
2000 Jul 17, Aligi Sassu, painter,
sculptor and engraver, died at age 88 on Mallorca. His early work
included a futurist manifesto titled: "Dynamism and Muscular Strength."
His paintings included "Uomini Rossi" (Red Men), 1931.
(SFC, 7/19/00, p.B2)
2000 Jul, Prof. Auriti began
exchanging one simec, his new currency, for 2 lire in Guardiagrele.
Auriti hoped to convince the world that central bankers are con artists
because they insert new money through loans and thus reduce purchasing
power.
(WSJ, 10/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul, It was reported that 3
girls (16-17) in Chiavenna killed Sister Maria Laura Mainetti. The
catechism students hit her with a stone and stabbed her 19 times.
Bishop Alessandro Maggiolini called it "the triumph of emptiness."
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A8)
2000 Aug 29, Conrad Marca-Relli,
artist, died in Parma at age 87. His collages served as a link between
the European avant-garde and American Abstract Expressionism. He
created monumental collages and in the 1950s added strips of canvas
over canvas.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D6)
2000 Sep 10, A flood in Calabria
killed at least 10 people at the Le Giare campground near Soverato.
(SFC, 9/11/00, p.B8)
2000 Sep 15, The Mafia was
reported to be engaged in a $500 million business of illegal dog
fighting. An estimated 5,000 dogs died annually from the fighting.
(SFC, 9/15/00, p.A16)
2000 Sep 25, Livia Turco, Social
Affairs Minister, pushed to decriminalize the sale of sex and to allow
prostitutes to form cooperatives.
(SFC, 9/25/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep, The reality TV show
"Grande Fratello" made its debut.
(SFC, 10/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 15, At least 31 people
were killed as landslides due to heavy rains continued in the Alps of
Switzerland and Italy. 23 died in northern Italy and 8 in southern
Switzerland
(SFC, 10/16/00, p.F8)(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A14)(SFC,
10/19/00, p.C4)
2000 Oct 18, Hundreds of Italian
police raided the Univ. of Messina. 79 faculty and staff were later
indicted on organized crime charges.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A4)
2000 Oct 18, In southern Italy the
bodies of 6 illegal immigrants, believed to be Kurds, were found dumped
on the side of a highway.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Oct 24, The Parliament
approved a law to end the 200-year old draft in favor of an all
volunteer military. The armed forces planned reductions to
190,000 from 270,000 within 7 years.
(SFC, 10/25/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 3, Leonardo Benvenuti,
film script writer and actor, died at age 77.
(SFC, 11/8/00, p.B7)
2000 Dec 17, In northern Italy at
least 10 climbers and skiers were killed after ice formed overnight in
the Alps.
(SFC, 12/18/00, p.E2)
2001 Jan 6, A NATO meeting was
scheduled in Italy on the use of ammunition with depleted uranium
following the deaths from cancer of 6 Italian soldiers following duty
in the Balkans. 5 Balkan veterans from Belgium along with peacekeepers
from Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic had died of cancer.
(WSJ, 1/04/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A7)
2001 Jan 29, Demonstrators in
Turin clashed with police following an agreement between France and
Italy to establish a high-speed rail line between Turin and Lyon.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan, Italy and the US signed
a treaty that requires objects dating between 900 BC and 400 CE be
accompanied by Italian government certification before leaving the
country.
(WSJ, 2/6/01, p.A16)
2001 Mar 17, Protesters
demonstrated at the third Global Forum in Naples. They clashed with
police and 50 officers and 70 protesters suffered minor injuries.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.D4)
2001 Apr 20, Giuseppe Sinopoli
(54) died from a heart attack while conducting at the Berlin Deutsche
Opera house.
(SFC, 4/21/01, p.D5)
2001 May 13, In Italy Silvio
Berlusconi’s House of Freedoms coalition led the left-of-center Olive
Tree coalition in parliamentary elections. Berlusconi opposed a federal
Europe and stood as a proponent of free trade and low taxes.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A9)
2001 May 27, The center-left
opposition won mayoral runoffs in Naples, Turin and Rome.
(SFC, 5/28/01, p.B12)
2001 Jun 10, Silvio Berlusconi
(64), known as Il Cavaliere, became premier for a 2nd time and formed
his Cabinet. He promised a 100-day revolution to transform the economy.
All 61 single-member constituencies in Sicily went to the center-right.
(SFC, 6/11/01, p.A8)(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A15)(Econ,
3/25/06, p.56)
2001 Jul 20, A G-8 economic
summit, planned in Genoa, Italy, expected over 100,000 demonstrators.
The summit opened with raging street battles between police and
demonstrators; one protester was fatally shot by officers. Carlo
Giuliani (23) was shot and killed by police while protesting at the G-8
summit. At least 100 people were injured. In 2008 a court convicted 15
Italian officials of abusing protesters held in at police garrison
following violent demonstrations during the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A6)(AP, 7/20/02)(SFC, 7/21/01,
p.A1)(AP, 7/15/08)
2001 Jul 21, A 2nd day of violent
protests turned Genoa into a war zone of rolling riots.
(SFC, 7/22/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul, Marco Tronchetti
Provera, chairman of the Italy’s Pirelli tire company, won control of
Telecom Italia.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.78)
2001 Jul, Mt. Etna began erupting
with lava flow.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 8, In Rome police chief
Gianni de Gennaro acknowledged that excessive force had been used
against protesters of the Group 8 summit.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 8, In Milan, Italy, a
Scandinavian Airlines SAS jet, Flight 686 to Copenhagen, crashed into a
small Cessna on takeoff and 114 people were killed in both planes with
4 killed on the ground. The Cessna had moved onto the wrong runway as
the SAS jet took off under foggy conditions.
(SFC, 10/9/01, p.B1)(WSJ, 10/9/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 7, Italy pledged an
aircraft carrier and 2,700 troops to help the American campaign in
Afghanistan.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A6)
2001 Nov, The Leaning Tower of
Pisa was expected to open for tourists after being closed since 1990 to
reduce the tilt.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)
2001 Dec 16, A state-run home for
the disabled burned down near Buccino and 19 patients were killed.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A3)
2001 Rome declared the ruins of
the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary to be a cultural heritage.
(SFC, 11/15/02, p.J1)
2001 Domenico Morosini opened a
private museum at the former home of Benito Mussolini (d.1945) in
Predappio. It was built between 1925-1927 and sold to Morosini for $1.2
million in 2000.
(WSJ, 6/17/04, p.A15)
2002 Jan 4, Antonio Todde, an
Italian shepherd listed by Guinness as the world’s oldest man, died
just shy of his 113th birthday. "Just love your brother and drink a
good glass of red wine every day."
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 Jan 5, Renato Ruggiero, the
Foreign Minister, quit over the government’s European policy.
(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 6, Premier Berlusconi
named himself interim foreign minister.
(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A5)
2002 Jan 30, In Italy Samuele
Lorenzi (3), was found bludgeoned to death in the family's Alpine home.
His mother Anna Maria Franzoni, who denied the murder, was convicted
and sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2007 a Turin appeals court
upheld the conviction but reduced her sentence to 16 years.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2002 Feb 5, In Italy the health
ministry confirmed the country’s 1st case of mad cow disease.
(SFC, 2/6/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 19, Italian authorities
arrested 4 Moroccans in Rome, members of the Salafist Group for Call
and Combat. Maps were found of the US Embassy, small quantities of
cyanide, and a map of the city’s water system.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A16)
2002 Mar 9, The Mont Blanc tunnel
reopened to connect Italy and France.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.C4)
2002 Mar 19, In Bologna Claudio
Scajola, a labor adviser to the government, was assassinated. The Red
Brigades claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 20, Some 928 illegal
immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo ship. Italy
declared a state of emergency to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 21, A tour bus traveling
from Lucca to Florence collided with a truck and at least 3 Americans
were killed.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Apr 16, In Italy millions of
workers staged the biggest strike in decades to protest government
plans to make it easier to fire workers.
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A8)
2002 Apr 18, In Italy a small
plane crashed into the 25th floor of the 32-story Pirelli building in
Milan. He was killed along with 2 government lawyers working inside.
Pilot Luigi Fasulo (67) made a distress call and flew off course.
Suicide over financial problems was later suspected.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A1,16)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A9)
2002 Jun 4, Parliament approved
legislation on tougher immigration policies.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 7, It was reported that
Italy had committed to a $4.3 billion project for a suspension bridge
linking Sicily over the 2-mile-wide straits of Messina.
(WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A1)(Econ, 11/22/03, p.75)
2002 Jun, In Italy the Parliament
approved a measure to transfer all state property into a new company
called Patrimonio dello Stato SpA, a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Economy Ministry. Some assets were planned for sale to reduce the $1.3
trillion public debt and to help finance the bridge from Calabria to
Sicily.
(WSJ, 7/23/02, p.D8)
2002 Jul 4, Italian photographer
Angelo Frontoni (76), known for his work with stars such as Sophia
Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Ava Gardner, died in Rome.
(AP, 7/4/02)
2002 Jul 19, Italy took steps to
return the prized Axum obelisk to Ethiopia. The 1,700-year-old monument
was hauled off by Italian forces after their 1937 invasion of the
African country. It was returned in 2003.
(AP, 7/20/02)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A2)
2002 Jul 30, Rome decided to have
the coins collected from the Trevi fountain every day and not just on
Mondays. The next day Roberto Cercelletta (50), a self-described
unemployed Roman resident, self-inflicted razor cuts on his stomach in
a protest and asked if the money collected has really gone to the
Catholic charity Caritas in past years.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Jul 31, US court papers
alleged that Russia's Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (53) used his influence
with members of the Russian and French skating federations to fix the
outcome of the pairs and ice dancing competitions at the Salt Lake City
Winter Olympics last February. Tokhtakhounov was arrested in Italy.
Italy’s highest court denounced an extradition bid and freed
Tokhtakhounov.
(Reuters, 7/31/02)(SFC, 8/1/02,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimzhan_Tokhtakhounov)
2002 Aug 8, In Indonesia Lorenzo
Taddei (34), an Italian tourist, was shot dead in Central Sulawesi when
gunmen fired on the bus he was traveling in.
(Reuters, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 31, Five Kurdish migrants
were found dead in the back of a cargo truck after they apparently
suffocated during a harrowing ferry crossing from Greece to Italy.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 14, In Italy tens of
thousands of protesters rallied in central Rome, accusing conservative
Premier Silvio Berlusconi of using political power for his personal
benefit, and saying opposition parties were not doing enough about it.
(AP, 9/14/02)
2002 Sep 25, Italian Premier
Silvio Berlusconi urged the United Nations to come up with a "new,
strongly worded, unambiguous and exacting" resolution on Iraq that
could authorize the use of force if Baghdad fails to comply with it.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2002 Oct 15, In Italy a heavily
armed man fatally shot his ex-wife and six other relatives and
neighbors and then killed himself in Chieri, a suburb of Turin.
(AP, 10/15/02)(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A16)
2002 Oct 31, A strong earthquake
rocked central and southern Italy, trapping about 50 children in a
school in San Giuliano di Puglia after the building's roof collapsed.
27 children and a teacher were killed.
(AP, 10/31/02)(AP, 11/1/07)
2002 Nov 9, Some 450,000 marched
through Florence in a protest against globalization and U.S. policy in
Iraq.
(AP, 11/10/02)
2002 Nov 9, A dry winter and a wet
summer ravaged Italy's grapevines, causing the worst harvest in half a
century. Some regions were spared the disasters, like the area in
Tuscany where Chianti is produced and parts of southern Italy.
(AP, 11/9/02)
2002 Nov 16, In Italy thousands of
anti-globalization demonstrators marched in Rome, Florence and Naples
to protest the arrests of 20 people, including a leader of the
movement, on charges stemming from violent protests last year.
(AP, 11/16/02)
2002 Nov 19, Italian newspapers
reported that the 'ndrangheta, the Calabrian version of the Sicilian
Mafia, received 3 percent of the multimillion dollar contracts for work
on stretches of the highway that passed through their "territory."
(AP, 11/20/02)
2002 In Italy Francesco Sbano
co-produced a new malavita (mafia folk music) CD: "La Musica della
Mafia."
(NW, 8/26/02, p.54)
2003 Jan 16, The European Union's
Court of Justice ordered Spain and Italy to drop national rules on what
constitutes chocolate, saying they can no longer bar British and Irish
confections made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter.
(AP, 1/16/03)
2003 Jan 24, Giovanni Agnelli
(81), the patriarch of the Fiat auto company, died in Turin after a
months-long illness.
(AP, 1/24/03)
2003 Jan 27, A head-on train
collision between French and Italian passenger trains killed two
people. It appeared to be the result of human error.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 Jan 30, Italian police
arrested 28 Pakistanis during a routine sweep for illegal immigrants.
The arrested possessed explosives, hundreds of forged documents and
maps of the Naples area with "sensitive" targets circled.
(AP, 1/31/03)
2003 Feb 22, In Rome,
Italy, some 2,000 cat lovers marched in the city’s 1st Cat Pride march
and demanded protection for the many, local stray cats.
(SSFC, 2/23/03, A2)
2003 Feb 17, American CIA
operatives snatched Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Abu
Omar) from his house in Milan and took him to Egypt, where he was
jailed, tortured and released. In 2005 an Italian judge ordered the
arrest of 13 American suspects on charges of kidnapping. In 2009 Nasr
asked for euro10 million (nearly $15 million) in damages from the
American and Italian defendants charged in his abduction.
(Econ, 7/2/05, p.48)(AP, 10/7/09)(SFC, 10/8/09, p.A2)
2003 Mar 6, Italian police
raided a house in Palermo and captured Salvatore Rinella (49), a
top Mafia boss.
(AP, 3/7/03)
2003 Mar 11, Benetton, an
Italian retailer, said it planned to attach salt-grain sized microchip
transmitters to clothing at its 5,000 stores.
(SFC, 3/12/03, p.B1)
2003 Mar 29, Italian Dr. Carlo
Urbani (46), a WHO expert on communicable diseases, died of SARS in
Thailand, where he was being treated after becoming infected while
working in Vietnam. Urbani was the 1st doctor to identify SARS.
(AP, 3/29/03)
2003 May 14, In Italy Premier
Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the ambitious $4 billion "Moses" project
to ease the flooding in Venice.
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May, In Italy construction
began on a breakwater for Venice to prevent high tides from entering
its lagoon.
(Econ, 9/27/03, p.80)
2003 Jul 15, Four US crew members
were killed in a fiery crash of a Navy helicopter in Italy.
(AP, 7/16/03)
2003 Jul 22, Italy's state TV
chief said she will resign as soon as Premier Silvio Berlusconi's
governing coalition passes a law opponents say will grant the business
mogul even greater control over Italian media.
(AP, 7/23/03)
2003 May 28, Prometea, the world's
1st cloned horse, was born in Cremona, Italy.
(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Sep 5, European Union foreign
ministers met in Riva del Garda, Italy, to discuss Iraq, the tattered
Mideast peace plan and their bloc's draft constitution as some 500
anti-globalization protesters blocked main roads to an Italian Alps
town.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 11, The Italian Health
Ministry said at least 4,175 more elderly Italians died in the summer
heat wave that scorched Europe this year compared with the same period
last year.
(AP, 9/11/03)
2003 Sep 16, Italian consumer
groups asked for a to boycott virtually all products and services to
protest price hikes.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 28, A nationwide power
blackout in Italy hit virtually the whole population in the dead of
night. Power was out for as much as 18 hours. Problems began after a
tree branch hit power lines in Switzerland.
(AP, 9/28/03)(WSJ, 10/1/03, p.A1)(AP, 10/1/03)
2003 Oct 4, In Italy
anti-globalization demonstrators set fire to an employment agency,
smashed cars and windows and hurled insults at government headquarters
in Rome.
(AP, 10/4/03)
2003 Oct 4, A shipment of
uranium-enriching centrifuge gear was seized at the Italian port of
Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its
efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. In 2009 Urs Tinner, suspected of
involvement in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring, said in a
Swiss TV documentary that he tipped off US intelligence about a
delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya's nuclear weapons program.
(http://articles.latimes.com/2004/nov/28/world/fg-network28)(WSJ,
12/31/03, p.A1)(AP, 1/22/09)
2003 Oct 5, In Somalia
Annalena Tonelli (60), an Italian aid worker who dedicated 33 years of
her life to helping Somalis, was shot and killed outside the hospital
she founded to treat tuberculosis patients.
(AP, 10/6/03)
2003 Oct 11, In Italy 4-month-old
twin Greek girls joined at the temple were successfully separated after
a 13 hour operation at a Rome hospital.
(AP, 10/12/03)(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 12, Renato Rinino (41), a
professional Italian thief who gained notoriety for stealing jewelry
from Prince Charles' London palace in 1994, was shot and killed in
Savona.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 19, An Italian coast
guard crew found 13 bodies on board a rickety wooden boat in waters off
Sicily and 15 other would-be illegal Somali immigrants suffering from
exposure and badly in need of food and water. Some 50 bodies were
consigned to the sea before the boat was found.
(AP, 10/20/03)(Econ, 10/25/03, p.48)
2003 Oct 24, In Italy police
arrested 7 alleged members of the radical Red Brigades suspected of the
1999 killing of a Labor Ministry consultant.
(AP, 10/24/03)
2003 Oct 24, In Italy millions of
workers stayed home to protest government plans to reform the pension
system.
(AP, 10/25/03)
2003 Oct 25, An Italian court has
ordered a crucifix removed from a classroom, where a law still requires
public schools to display a cross.
(AP, 10/26/03)
2003 Oct 29, Italian tenor Franco
Corelli (82), one of the top opera stars of the 20th century, died in
Milan.
(AP, 10/31/03)(SFC, 11/1/03, p.A21)
2003 Oct 30, In Italy former
Premier Giulio Andreotti was acquitted of charges he ordered the Mafia
killing of a journalist in 1979, wiping out the veteran politician's
previous conviction.
(AP, 10/30/03)
2003 Oct, Roberto Colannino bought
a controlling stake in Piaggio, the Italian scooter maker. Debts at the
time were equal to 60% of annual sales.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.64)
2003 Nov 12, In Iraq a suicide
truck bomber attacked the headquarters of Italy's paramilitary police
in Nasiriyah, killing 31 people, including 18 Italians, and possibly
trapping others.
(AP, 11/12/03)(AP, 11/13/03)
2003 Dec 6, Hundreds of thousands
of people marched through Rome to protest government plans to reform
Italy's pension system, which economists say can no longer sustain
itself.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 11, The Italian
Parliament imposed controls on medically assisted reproduction.
(SFC, 12/12/03, p.A17)
2003 Dec 12, Several people fell
ill across Italy after drinking apparently tainted bottled mineral
water, the latest in a scare that has prompted prosecutors to launch
investigations across the nation.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 14, Venice threw itself a
party to celebrate the rebirth of the La Fenice, following a $90
million restoration, with a gala concert that drew the Italian
president, European royalty and Italy's glitterati.
(AP, 12/15/03)(SFC, 12/15/03, p.A2)
2003 Dec 15, In Italy Calisto
Tonzi, head of Parmalat SpA, one of the world's biggest dairy firms,
resigned. [see Dec 19]
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.95)
2003 Dec 19, Parmalat SpA, an
Italian food giant, reported a $4.9 billion shortfall. Soon another
$3.6 billion in bonds was also in question. Parmalat planned to file
for bankruptcy protection in what turned into the biggest corporate
fraud in Europe's history. Parmalat employed 36,000 people in 29
countries. Fausto Tonna, former chief financial officer, soon
acknowledged that there was systematic falsification of accounts for
some 15 years. In 2001 an auditor in Brazil had raised an alarm over
financial transactions. The accounting scandal reached $17 billion.
(SFC, 12/24/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 12/26/03, p.C1)(WSJ,
3/29/04, p.A3)(Econ, 8/6/05, p.57)
2003 PM Berlusconi’s government
passed a law granting him and 4 associates immunity from criminal
prosecution while serving as PM of Italy. The law was later struck down
by Italy’s constitutional court.
(WSJ, 11/15/04, p.A1)(Econ, 11/26/05, Survey p.11)
2003 In Italy regional legislation
recognized the prosecco district, a region just north of Venice, for
sparkling wine produced with prosecco grapes.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.108)
2004 Jan 9, Norberto Bobbio (94),
an Italian liberal philosopher, essayist and senator for life, died in
Turin. One of his most important books is the 1955 "Politica e Cultura"
("Politics and Culture"). A 1994 essay, called "Destra e Sinistra"
("Left and Right"), was his best-selling work.
(AP, 1/10/04)
2004 Jan 28, Italian police said
they cracked a drug smuggling ring spanning four continents, arrested
more than 150 people and seized more than five tons of cocaine.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Feb 14, Marco Pantani (34),
Italy’s favorite cyclist, died.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.83)
2004 Feb 17, A new study reported
that 2 cows in Italy had been found with a new form of mad cow disease,
bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy (BASE).
(SFC, 2/17/04, p.A7)
2004 Feb 22, Giorgio Armani signed
a $1 billion hotel venture with Dubai’s Emaar Properties.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.61)
2004 Mar 20, Hundreds of thousands
of people marched in Rome demanding that Italy pull its 2,600 troops
out of Iraq.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar, John Petters (21), a
Minnesota college student, was stabbed to death in Florence after he
and a friend mistakenly walked into the private grounds of a villa. In
2005 a judge convicted Alfio Raugei (55), an Italian man, of
manslaughter and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment, after
lawyers argued the killing was in self-defense.
(AP, 7/1/05)
2004 Apr 1, Italy, Turkey,
Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands arrested 41 militants in a
coordinated crackdown on a Turkish Marxist group. Police in Istanbul
arrested 25 suspects of the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation
Army/Front, or DHKP-C, while security forces in the other countries
detained 16 others.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2004 Apr 13, Four Italians working
as private security guards for a U.S. company in Iraq were reported
missing, and an Arab satellite TV broadcaster said they were kidnapped
by insurgents.
(AP, 4/13/04)
2004 Apr 14, In Iraq militants
executed an Italian captive.
(AP, 4/15/04)
2004 Apr 16, In Italy Premier
Silvio Berlusconi's corruption trial resumed in Milan.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 19, Pierluigi Vigna,
Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor, said Italian mobsters and
Islamic terrorist groups have forged links in arms and drug trafficking.
(AP, 4/20/04)
2004 Apr 20, Authorities in
southern Italy reported that they had seized about 7,500 Kalashnikov
assault rifles and other combat-grade firearms from a Turkish-flagged
ship headed for New York. The weapons were destined for a company in
the U.S. state of Georgia.
(AP, 4/20/04)
2004 Apr 26, Iraqi kidnappers said
they would kill 3 Italian hostages unless Italians rally against
Italy's participation in the occupation of Iraq.
(SFC, 4/27/04, p.A8)
2004 May 27, Umberto Agnelli (69),
Fiat Chairman, died in Turin.
(SFC, 5/29/04, p.B6)
2004 May 27, Vito Bigione (52),
one of Italy's most-wanted Mafia suspects, was captured in Venezuela.
He was accused of a key role in international drug trafficking and
flown back to Italy. Bigione had spent years living in Namibia and only
recently moved to Venezuela.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 May 27, Luca Cordero di
Montezemolo became the new chairman of Confindustria, the Italian
employer’s confederation.
(Econ, 5/22/04, p.60)
2004 May, An reporter in Sardinia
reported that PM Berlusconi was transforming a grotto into a secret
boat tunnel at his Villa Certosa property and questioned whether legal
permits had been obtained. The next day the Interior Ministry claimed
that all matters relating to the villa were to be protected under a
state secrecy law.
(WSJ, 11/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 11, In Palermo, Sicily, a
court convicted and sentenced 30 top Sicilian mobsters to life
imprisonment after a 10-year trial covering a total of 77 murders.
(AP, 6/12/04)
2004 Jun 11, Egon von Furstenberg
(57), a Swiss-born aristocrat known as the "prince of high fashion,”
died in Rome.
(AP, 6/11/04)
2004 Jun 13, Berlusconi’s Forza
Italia party lost a sixth of its voters in the EU elections.
(Econ, 7/3/04, p.43)
2004 Jun, Some 34 Italian private
secondary schools were caught up in an investigation into a vast trade
in bogus exam passes.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.49)
2004 Jul 5, Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi won an endorsement from his EU colleagues for plans to
narrow Italy's budget deficit with $9.2 billion in new spending cuts
and tax measures.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2004 Jul 24, The 16th edition of
Italy's Miss Cicciona contest (Italy's Miss Chubby) began in Forcoli,
central Italy.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Jul 26, Al-Qaida-linked
Islamic militants threatened to "shake the earth" everywhere in Italy
if Rome does not withdraw troops from Iraq. The Internet statement,
attributed to the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, was the 2nd such threat
against the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in two weeks.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 28, The Italian
parliament approved structural economic reforms that included raising
the retirement age from 57 to 60 effective in 2008.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.44)
2004 Jul 31, A 10-day manhunt for
a murder suspect ended in a shootout near the Circus Maximus in central
Rome. Luciano Liboni had allegedly killed a policeman July 22.
(AP, 7/31/04)
2004 Jul 31, Laura Betti (70),
Italian film actress, died. Her debut was in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”
(1960).
(SFC, 8/3/04, p.B6)
2004 Aug 1, A militant group
claiming links to al Qaeda has given Italy a 15-day deadline to
withdraw its troops from Iraq or face attacks.
(AP, 8/1/04)
2004 Sep 7, An Italian aid
organization said that two Italian women were kidnapped from its office
in Baghdad.
(AP, 9/7/04)
2004 Sep 21, Italian and Lebanese
authorities reported the arrest of 10 alleged terrorists, thwarting
plans to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut in a car bomb attack.
(AP, 9/21/04)
2004 Sep 23, A militant group
falsely claimed in a Web posting that two Italian women taken hostage
in Iraq had been killed. [see Sep 28]
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 28, In Iraq kidnappers
released two female Italian aid workers and five other hostages. A $1
million ransom was alleged. In 2005 it was reported that Italy's Red
Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents and hid them from U.S. forces in
exchange for the freedom of two Italian aid workers kidnapped in
Baghdad.
(AP, 9/28/04)(WSJ, 9/30/04, p.A1)(AP, 8/25/05)
2004 Oct 20, Terra Madre, an
international meeting of food communities, held its first meeting in
Turin, Italy. It formed as a part of the Slow Food movement. The group
followed with meetings every 2 years.
(SSFC, 10/26/08,
p.A18)(www.worldchanging.com/archives/005321.html)
2004 Oct 20, Fiat SpA's auto unit
said that it will temporarily reduce production at three factories next
month, a move that will affect thousands of workers.
(AP, 10/20/04)
2004 Oct 31, In Italy unusually
high tides sent sea water sweeping through Venice, covering 80 percent
of the city by afternoon.
(AP, 11/1/04)
2004 Nov 20, In southern Italy 8
people from two families were killed when a gas explosion destroyed
their apartment building.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 30, Italy ground to a
halt as millions of workers observed a general strike in protest
against the economic policies of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's
centre-right government.
(AFP, 11/30/04)
2004 Nov, Italy’s National
Magistrates Assoc. (ANM) staged their 3rd one-day strike under the
current parliament to protest a bill to reform the judicial system.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.53)
2004 Dec 2, From Italy it was
reported that a mob turf war claimed more than 20 lives in the last
month in the Naples area, prompting police to launch an emergency
security clampdown.
(AP, 12/2/04)
2004 Dec 10, Italy’s Premier
Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted of corruption charges that have dogged
his government from the start.
(AP, 12/11/04)
2004 Dec 11, Marcello Dell'Utri, a
close political ally of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, was
convicted of ties with the Sicilian Mafia and sentenced to nine years
in prison.
(AP, 12/11/04)
2004 Dec 16, Italy’s Pres. Carlo
Azeglio Ciampi vetoed a bill that would have placed magistrates under
government oversight and forced them to choose between careers as
judges or prosecutors.
(SFC, 12/17/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 17, Italy's interior
ministry said 181 people had been arrested in the past three months in
a crackdown on the Camorra in Naples whose turf warfare now overshadows
that of the Sicilian mafia.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2004 Dec 18, Naples police said
they have broken up a mob protection racket focused on local bakeries
and flour makers.
(AP, 12/18/04)
2004 Italy imported more shoes
than it exported for the 1st time.
(WSJ, 6/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 1, Italy was forecast for
1.8% annual GDP growth with a population at 58.1 million and GDP per
head at $31,410.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.88)
2005 Jan 7, In northern Italy a
passenger train and a freight train collided in thick fog on the
Bologna-Verona line, killing 17 people and injuring dozens.
(AP, 1/7/05)(WSJ, 1/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 10, New Italian
legislation went into effect to stop smoking in restaurants and bars.
Officials extended the initial Jan 1 date for the benefit of New Year
revelers.
(SFC, 12/21/04, p.A7)(WSJ, 1/10/05, p.A10)
2005 Jan 22, In Italy a war within
the Camorra, the regional mafia of Naples, was reported to have claimed
35 lives over the last 4 months.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.46)
2005 Feb 2, The EU told Italy,
France and Germany, to do more to bring their budgets in balance as
required by the rules of Europe's single currency.
(AP, 2/2/05)
2005 Feb 4, Gunmen seized Giuliana
Sgrena, an Italian journalist in central Baghdad, in a hail of gunfire
after she had been interviewing people who fled the US assault last
year on the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
(AP, 2/4/05)
2005 Feb 8, A Web posting in the
name of a militant group in Iraq claimed to have executed Italian
female journalist Giuliana Sgrena.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 16, CEO Sergio Marchionne
announced Fiat SpA will buy the Maserati sportscar brand from Ferrari,
a company in which it already had a majority stake, just three days
after winning independence from General Motors Corp.
(AP, 2/16/05)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.88)
2005 Mar 4, American troops fired
on a car taking Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad's airport and wounded her.
Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence officer who negotiated her
freedom, was hit by the gunfire and died in her arms. Sgrena returned
to Italy the next day. In 2007 an Italian court threw out the case
against the US soldier charged in the shooting of Calipari.
(AP, 3/5/05)(AP, 10/25/07)
2005 Mar 6, Giuliana Sgrena, the
Italian journalist wounded by American troops in Iraq after her release
by insurgents, rejected the U.S. military's account of the shooting and
declined Sunday to rule out the possibility she was deliberately
targeted.
(AP, 3/6/05)
2005 Mar 15, Pres. Berlusconi
announced that Italy would begin pulling its 3,300 troops out of Iraq
in September. The next day he said the withdrawal date was merely a
hope.
(AP, 3/16/05)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.56)
2005 Mar 17, Italian airline
Alitalia SpA said that the latest strike by flight attendants could
plunge the struggling carrier into bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 24, Istat reported that
Italy’s economy contracted 0.4% in the previous quarter due in part to
a fall in exports.
(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.A7)
2005 Mar 30, Dutch bank ABN Amro
announced a 6.3 billion euros ($8.1 billion) bid for the 87 percent of
Italian bank Antonveneta it does not already own, the second foreign
offer for an Italian bank in as many days.
(AP, 3/30/05)
2005 Apr 7, Pres. Bush met with
Premier Berlusconi and Pres. Ciampi one day after viewing the pope’s
body at the Vatican.
(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A13)
2005 Apr 13, Italian regulator
Consob said it has approved a bid by Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya
Argentaria SA for Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, in what would
become the euro zone's largest cross-border banking takeover.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 15, Italy’s government
teetered near collapse after 2 coalition parties said they would
withdraw from PM Berlusconi’s government.
(SFC, 4/16/05, p.A7)
2005 Apr 18, Italy's Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed a deal with rebel ministers of the
Christian Democrat UDC party to form a new centre-right government and
avoid snap elections.
(AFP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 20, Italian Premier
Silvio Berlusconi said he would step down but pledged to form a new
government, an attempt to strengthen a coalition left weakened by
electoral defeat and concerns over a slow economy.
(AP, 4/20/05)
2005 Apr 23, Silvio Berlusconi
formed a new government and will present his choice of Cabinet
ministers to Italy's legislators for approval in the hopes of avoiding
new elections. Berlusconi was sworn in as head of Italy's 60th
government since the end of World War II.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2005 Apr 28, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's new government won approval from the Italian Senate,
ending a government crisis that followed an embarrassing defeat in
regional elections.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr 29, Italy and the United
States said they had failed to agree on whether U.S. soldiers were at
fault in the death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/05)
2005 Apr 29, Italy slashed its
2005 growth forecast by almost half to 1.2 percent and warned its
budget deficit could hit 4 percent of gross domestic product.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 May 2, Italian investigators
blamed US military authorities for failing to signal there was a
checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American soldiers killed an
Italian agent, concluding in a report that stress, inexperience and
fatigue played a role in the shooting.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 10, Italy's center-left
opposition celebrated as returns from local elections in Sardinia and 2
northern regions dealt Premier Berlusconi's forces another embarrassing
defeat.
(AP, 5/10/05)
2005 May 18, Police arrested nine
terror suspects during raids in northern Italy in what they said was a
crackdown on extremist cells accused of planning attacks in Italy and
abroad.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 24, Italian police raided
the homes and offices of 186 suspected members of a child pornography
ring, including three Roman Catholic priests and a local mayor, that
downloaded pictures from an exclusive Web site.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 25, In Italy a judge
ordered best-selling author Oriana Fallaci to face trial on charges of
defaming Islam in her recent book "The Strength of Reason." Fallaci,
who is in her 70s, said she is accused of violating an Italian law that
prohibits "outrage to religion."
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May, Italy reported that it
had fallen back into recession for the 1st quarter of 2005.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.13)
2005 Jun 5, An accident inside the
Frejus Alpine tunnel between France and Italy killed at least two
people. A truck loaded with tires and another carrying glue caught fire
along with four other vehicles.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jun 7, The EU head office
said that Italy broke the bloc's budget rules with excessive deficits
in 2003 and 2004 and is likely to breach the limit again this year and
in 2006.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 9, Clementina Cantoni
(32), an Italian aid worker kidnapped at gunpoint in the Afghan capital
three weeks ago, was released.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 12, The Venice Biennale
opened under the direction of Rosa Martinez and Maria de Corral.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.80)
2005 Jun 12, Italians voted in
national referendums on whether to loosen assisted fertility
legislation. 90% voted to change the law but only 26% of eligible
voters bothered to turn out.
(AP, 6/12/05)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.48)
2005 Jun 12, UniCredit, Italy’s
largest bank, announced the takeover HVB Group, Germany’s 2nd biggest.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.70)
2005 Jun 13, In Italy a
Vatican-backed voter boycott helped defeat efforts to ease restrictions
on assisted procreation and embryo research.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 14, Carlo Maria Giulini
(91), renowned conductor, died in Brescia, Italy.
(SFC, 6/16/05, p.B7)
2005 Jun 22, In La Spezia, Italy,
10 former members of the Nazi SS were convicted in absentia of taking
part in the 1944 massacre of more than 500 villagers in the Tuscan
village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 24, An Italian official
said a judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for allegedly
helping deport an imam to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.
The agents are suspected in the seizure of an Egyptian-born imam
identified as Abu Omar on the streets of Milan in February 2003.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 29, The EU gave Italy
until the end of 2007 to cut its budget deficit in line with euro-zone
rules, a warning that is powerless as it carries no punishment.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Some 400 would-be
immigrants from Africa landed on Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island south
of Sicily, and air patrols spotted at least 200 more on their way.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jul 8, In Italy a judge
convicted and sentenced to life in prison three members of the Red
Brigades terrorist group for the 1999 killing of a government labor
adviser, court officials said. A fourth was convicted and sentenced to
nine years.
(AP, 7/8/05)
2005 Jul 11, A judge ordered the
arrest and isolation of 3 senior officers of the Banco di Credito
Cooperativo Sofige Gela, a small bank on Sicily’s southern coast. The
had been under investigation for aiding and abetting the Mafia.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.72)
2005 Jul 12, Antonio Fazio,
governor of the Bank of Italy, informed his friend Gianpiero Fiorani,
head of Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), that BPI’s bid for the
Antonveneta bank had received a go ahead before making the news public.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.67)(WSJ, 9/13/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 13, In Brescia, Italy, a
judge convicted two North Africans of belonging to an extremist cell
alleged to have planned attacks, including one against Milan's subway.
Moroccan Mohamed Rafik was sentenced to four years and eight months in
prison and Tunisian Kamel Hamraoui to three years and four months.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 20, A Milan prosecutor
sought arrest warrants for six more purported CIA operatives, accusing
them of helping plan the kidnapping of an Egyptian radical Muslim
cleric.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 22, The Italian
government approved a package of anti-terrorism measures that allow
authorities to take DNA samples from suspects and jail those who
provide explosives training.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 25, An appeals court in
Milan, Italy, issued arrest warrants for six more purported CIA
operatives accused of helping plan the 2003 kidnapping of a radical
Egyptian Muslim cleric.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Jul 25, Magistrates in Italy
impounded BPI’s shares in Antonveneta. 2 days later Consob, Italy’s
stockmarket regulator, froze BPI’s offer for up to 90 days. [see Jul 12]
(Econ, 8/13/05, p.57)
2005 Jul 29, Osman Hussain (27), a
Briton with Ethiopian citizenship, was arrested in Rome after
investigators traced his cell phone calls across Europe. He is accused
of trying to attack the Shepherd's Bush subway station in west London.
(AP, 7/30/05)
2005 Jul, Italian police arrested
two Slovenians who allegedly mailed steroids and other
performance-enhancing drugs to U.S. soldiers in Iraq and other
customers around the world.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 6, A Tunis Air jet
carrying 35 passengers went down in the sea off the Sicilian coast, and
rescuers were on their way. 16 people were killed, while 23 survived. A
bad fuel gauge on the Tuninter plane caused the crash. On March 23,
2009, the Tunisian pilot who paused to pray instead of taking emergency
measures before crash-landing his plane, was sentenced to 10 years in
jail by an Italian court along with his co-pilot. Another five
employees of Tuninter, a subsidiary of Tunisair, were sentenced to
between 8 and 9 years in jail.
(AP, 8/5/05)(AP, 8/7/05)(WSJ, 9/8/05, p.A1)(Reuters,
3/24/09)
2005 Aug 13, An Italian newspaper
reported that more than 100 Italian troops whose tours in southern Iraq
have ended are not being replaced, apparently marking the beginning of
the country's withdrawal from Iraq ahead of schedule.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 13, A small plane
carrying tourists crashed in southern Italy, killing at least two
people.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 15, Italy’s Interior
Minister said Italy has arrested 141 people in a security swoop
following the bombings in London and Egypt last month and remains at
high risk from an attack by Islamic militants. Expulsion procedures had
begun against 701 people.
(Reuters, 8/15/05)
2005 Aug 6, A Tunis Air jet
carrying 35 passengers went down in the sea off the Sicilian coast, and
rescuers were on their way. At least 13 people were killed, while 23
survived. A bad fuel gauge on the Tuninter plane cause the crash.
(AP, 8/5/05)(AP, 8/7/05)(WSJ, 9/8/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 1, In Italy a summer
music hit has sparked a war of words between left-wingers and
neo-fascists who claim the Colombian pop song, "La camisa negra" ("The
black shirt"), as their anthem.
(AP, 9/1/05)
2005 Sep 2, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's Cabinet approved a reform program for Italy's central bank
that includes a seven-year fixed term for the Bank of Italy governor.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 6, Italy's Fiat SpA is to
launch a new version of its Punto, Fiat's most popular model. The
company has sold 6 million Puntos since launching the car in 1993. In
1997 the Punto became the best-selling car in Europe, with 600,000
models sold.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 9, Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's Cabinet approved a bill to limit the use of phone taps,
legislation prompted after conversations recorded during a bank
takeover investigation were leaked to the media this summer.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 10, Masked gunmen
abducted Lorenzo Cremonesi of the Corriere della Serra daily, an
Italian journalist in the Gaza Strip town of Deir El-Balah. He was
released after a few hours.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2005 Sep 16, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi declared Italy's mission in Iraq "an absolute and total"
success, and said Italy would continue to reduce its military presence
there.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 16, Italian officials
said they have captured Paolo Di Lauro (52), an alleged top boss of the
Camorra crime syndicate, dealing what they said was a serious blow to
organized crime in the Naples area.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 20, Fiat of Italy struck
a deal with Zastava of Kragujevac, Serbia, to make up to 16,000 cars a
year. Zastava’s arms plant made a recent $3.8 million contract with
Iraq.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.47)
2005 Sep 21, Domenica Siniscalco,
Italy's economy minister, resigned in a row over the Bank of Italy and
the budget, dealing a major blow to PM Silvio Berlusconi months before
an election that polls say he is likely to lose.
(AP, 9/22/05)(Econ, 9/24/05, p.61)
2005 Sep 25, Italy's government
stripped Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio of his authority to
represent the country at a World Bank meeting.
(AP, 9/25/05)
2005 Sep 26, Italian PM Silvio
Berlusconi was cleared of charges of false bookkeeping in a case
involving funding for the former Socialist party.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 26, Dutch bank ABN Amro
said it had signed a contract with Banca Popolare Italiana and its
allies to buy their 39.37 percent stake in Banca Antonveneta for a
total outlay of 3.2 billion euros (3.85 billion dollars).
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 28, Italian Premier
Silvio Berlusconi said a $5.2 billion project to build flood barriers
to save Venice from its high tides will go forward.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 14, Italy's culture
industry pledged to shut down theaters, cinemas and cancel concerts
throughout the country for the day to protest planned cuts to the art
budget.
(AP, 10/14/05)
2005 Oct 14, Italy’s Alitalia
airline, 62.3% owned by the government, approved a revised corporate
plan for 2005-2008.
(Econ, 10/22/05, p.70)
2005 Oct 16, Italy held primaries
to select the center-left's candidate to challenge conservative Premier
Silvio Berlusconi in next year's election. Former Italian premier
Romano Prodi made a sweeping victory in a nationwide primary.
(AP, 10/16/05)(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 16, In Italy center-left
politician Francesco Fortugno was shot as he voted in a nationwide
primary in the small Calabrian town of Locri. In March 2006 police
arrested 5 suspects in Reggio Calabria.
(AP, 10/22/05)(AP, 3/21/06)
2005 Oct 18, In Rome, Italy, a
teenager (15) who appeared on the roof of his family home with a pistol
following the shooting deaths of his parents was taken into custody
after an officer coaxed him down by telling him the couple was only
wounded.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 19-2005 Oct 20, Police
arrested total of 58 people for drug trafficking in Italy, Spain,
France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Serbia-Montenegro. The arrests
were a response to the Oct 16 murder of Italian politician Francesco
Fortugno.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 23, Pope Benedict XVI
named five new saints at the close of a 3-week Synod of Bishops. They
included: Italians Felice da Nicosia, a lay Capuchin who lived in the
1700s, and the Rev. Gaetano Cantanoso, who founded the Veronican
Sisters of the Holy Face in 1934.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 25, Police in riot gear
charged demonstrators in the streets near Italian PM Silvio
Berlusconi's office as students protested university reforms sponsored
by his conservative government.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 28, An Italian court held
the first in a series of closed-door hearings to decide whether to
indict Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and 13 others for alleged fraud
at his family's broadcaster Mediaset.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Oct 28, Police in Sicily said
they have arrested two suspected mobsters accused of plotting to murder
a judge with a car bomb.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Nov 7, Fiat SpA and Ford
Motor Co. said they had signed an agreement to collaborate on small
cars, completing a deal to co-develop new models due in 2007 and 2008.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 8, Iraqi Pres. Jalal
Talabani met with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a strong supporter
of the US-led war in Iraq. Talabani is on a weeklong visit to Italy,
which includes talks with the country's top officials and a meeting at
the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 11, An Italian prosecutor
said that the Milan prosecutor's office has asked for the extradition
of 22 purported CIA operatives in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric
in 2003.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 11, An Italian newspaper
reported that a long-awaited Vatican document, to be released Nov 29,
says practicing gays, those with "deeply rooted" homosexual tendencies
or those who support gay culture cannot be admitted to the priesthood.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 15-2005 Nov 16, Italian
authorities arrested three Algerians believed to have links to an
Algerian militant group that has allied itself with Osama bin Laden.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 16, The Italian Senate
passed constitutional reform that imposed an eccentric form of
proportional representation. It was designed to give the prime minister
presidential powers.
(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.56)(www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/ital-d02.shtml)
2005 Nov 18, An Italian judge who
refuses to hear cases because there are crucifixes in the nation's
courtrooms was convicted of failing to carry out his official duties
and sentenced to seven months in jail.
(AP, 11/18/05)
2005 Nov 19, Pope Benedict XVI and
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi discussed relations between the
Catholic Church and Italy, amid accusations that the church interferes
in the country's domestic affairs.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 25, Across Italy public
transportation ground to a halt, public offices shut down and thousands
rallied as part of a general strike against the government's 2006
budget.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov, In Italy opposition
politicians claimed that tax evasion adds up to as much as $234 billion
a year.
(Econ, 11/26/05, Italy p.12)
2005 Dec 8, It was reported that a
new Italian law required businesses, that offered Internet access to
the public, to ask clients for ID and to log the owner’s name a
document type.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.C5)
2005 Dec 15, French and Italian
authorities said European police have broken up the biggest-ever
illegal immigration ring targeting Britain by arresting dozens of
suspects believed to have helped smuggle "thousands" of people into
that country.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 15, Italy's defense
minister said the country will pull 300 more troops out of Iraq in
January, continuing a gradual withdrawal begun earlier this year.
(AP, 12/15/05)
2005 Dec 16, Italian prosecutors
showed a court thank you notes and other correspondence that they
contended proved a former curator at the J. Paul Getty museum knew
artifacts were being illegally acquired.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 19, In Italy Antonio
Fazio, embattled central bank chief, resigned.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 20, Italy’s government
passed an overhaul package to scale back the power and responsibilities
of the central bank governor.
(WSJ, 12/21/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 20, Argentina Brunetti
(98), a character actress who played the worried wife of Mr. Martini in
the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), died in Rome. Her
autobiography, "In Sicilian Company," which chronicles her family's
show business adventures, was released in October.
(AP, 12/25/05)
2005 Dec 22, Italy's antitrust
authority said it has opened an investigation to determine whether
Premier Silvio Berlusconi violated conflict of interest rules when his
government approved subsidies to Italians who buy digital-television
decoders.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 23, An Italian judge
issued EU arrest warrants for 22 purported CIA operatives in connection
with the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from a Milan street
in 2003. the warrants allowed for the arrest of the suspects in any of
the 25 EU member countries.
(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 Dec 23, Police in southern
Italy arrested three Algerians on international terrorism charges and
accused them of planning attacks in Iraq and Italy.
(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 Dec 29, Italy’s Newspaper
Corriere della Sera reported that prosecutors accused Premier
Berlusconi of ordering the payment of at least $600,000 to British
lawyer David Mills in 1997 to give false testimony in two trials
against the premier.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 29, Mario Draghi, an
investment banker and former Treasury official, was named Bank of Italy
governor to succeed Antonio Fazio.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec, In Italy Daniela
Santanche of the right-win National Alliance succeeded in putting a new
porn tax into the 2006 budget.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.72)
2005 In Italy Mitchell Wolfson,
American collector, opened his Wolfsoniana Museum at Nervi, to be run
by the commune of Genoa. He specialized in collecting political
propaganda and decorative art made between 1880 and 1945 illustrating
the evolution of modern Western design.
(Econ, 7/18/09,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Wolfson,_Jr.)
2005 Italy’s public debt climbed
from 103.8 percent of GDP in 2004 to 106.4 percent, the greatest hike
since 1994. In mid-2006 it reached 108% of GDP.
(http://english.people.com.cn/200603/17/eng20060317_251339.html)(Econ,
6/10/06, p.49)
2006 Jan 3, Urbano Lazzaro (81), a
resistance fighter credited with arresting fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini at the end of World War II, died in Vercelli, Italy.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 6, In Yemen 5 Italian
hostages were freed in good health after six days in captivity when
their kidnappers surrendered to government troops.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 8, Almost 500 would-be
illegal immigrants have arrived on Italy's Mediterranean island of
Lampedusa, between Sicily and North Africa, in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 12, Italy's Air One said
it will buy 30 Airbus A320s under a $1.8 billion deal for delivery by
2008 and plans to exercise an option to buy 10 more planes this year.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 14, Tens of thousands of
women marched through Milan to demand Italy keep its liberal abortion
law intact while gays rallied in Rome to push for legal recognition for
homosexual couples.
(AP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 19, Italy’s defense
minister said Italy will withdraw all its troops from Iraq by the end
of this year, in the first official timetable for Rome to end its
mission.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan, Italy’s PM Silvio
Berlusconi sent out letters telling the parents of some 600,000 babies
born in 2005 how to receive a 1,000 euro "baby bonus" from the state.
The letter was sent to all families with a new-born, including
immigrants, even though the cash bonus was meant only for Italian
babies. In April the Economy Ministry asked all those who claimed the
money but were not entitled to it, estimated at 3,000 immigrant
families, to pay it back.
(Reuters, 4/21/06)
2006 Feb 2, Italy's government won
a vote of confidence in the upper house of parliament on a broad decree
that includes financing for the country's mission in Iraq.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Rome, Italy, a bus
loaded with Turkish tourists veered off a road in the Italian capital
and slid about 50 feet down a ravine, killing 12 people.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 8, The Italian Senate
approved a bill that would dramatically increase the number of women
elected to parliament in a country with one of the lowest number of
female lawmakers in Europe.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's government easily won a confidence vote in the Chamber of
Deputies on a bill that included financing the country's military in
Iraq.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, An Italian judge
dismissed an atheist's petition that a small-town priest should stand
trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed. Luigi Cascioli, a
72-year-old retired agronomist, had accused the Rev. Enrico Righi of
violating two laws with the assertion, which he called a deceptive
fable propagated by the Roman Catholic Church.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 10, Opening ceremonies
were held in Turin, Italy, for the 20th Winter Olympics.
(SFC, 2/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 10, Greece and Italy said
they had found swans with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first known
cases in the European Union of wild birds with the deadly strain of the
disease.
(Reuters, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Italy dissolved its
parliament and scheduled elections for early April, opening a campaign
that pits Premier Silvio Berlusconi against a strong center-left
opponent.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, American Chad Hedrick
won the 5,000 meters in speedskating at the Olympics in Turin, Italy.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2006 Feb 13, Joey Cheek (26),
American speedskater, won a gold medal in the 500-meter sprint in
Turin, Italy, and announced that he would donate his $25,000 award from
the US Olympic Committee Olympic Aid, founded by Olav Koss in 1994 and
direct it to a refugee program in Chad. Hannah Teter won gold and
Gretchen Bleiler won silver in the halfpipe. Tatiana Totmianina and
Maxim Marinin won the gold medal in pairs figure skating, extending
Russia's four-decade dominance of the event.
(SFC, 2/14/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/13/07)
2006 Feb 14, At Turin, American
Ted Ligety won Olympic gold in men's combined skiing, while Bode Miller
was disqualified for straddling a gate.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2006 Feb 16, Russia's Evgeni
Plushenko beat world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland by an
unfathomable 27.12 points to win the gold medal in men's figure skating
at the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2006 Feb 16, In Afghanistan the
bodies of two Italian aid workers were found in a guarded compound in
Kabul. The Italian news agency ANSA said the two could have died from
carbon monoxide poisoning from a defective stove in the compound.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 18, Italy's Reforms
Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned following deadly clashes in Libya
over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that he had made into T-shirts
and wore on state television.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Italy Kjetil Andre
Aamodt of Norway outwaited the weather and outran the field to
successfully defend the men's super-G title for his record eighth
Olympic Alpine medal. American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter
speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an
individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
(AP, 2/18/06)(AP, 2/18/07)
2006 Feb 20, At the Turin
Olympics, Tanith Belbin and partner Ben Agosto snapped the US medals
drought in figure skating with a silver; Russians Tatiana Navka and
Roman Kostomarov won the gold.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2006 Feb 21, New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art and Italy signed a deal under which it will
return antiquities Italy says were looted in exchange for long-term
loans of other artifacts.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 23, Japan's Shizuka
Arakawa stunned favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina
Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women's figure skating gold medal at
the Turin Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 24, Julia Mancuso won
gold in the women's giant slalom at the Turin Olympics.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2006 Feb 25, Apolo Anton Ohno
upset favored South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo to win the gold in the
500-meter short track speedskating event at the Winter Games in Turin,
Italy.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2006 Feb 26, On the final day of
the Turin Winter Olympics, Sweden beat Finland 3-2 to win the men's
hockey gold. Germany led the gold medal count with 29. The US won 25
medals including 9 gold, Canada won 24, Austria 23 and Russia 22. Drew
Lachey leaped to victory with professional partner Cheryl Burke on
ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Shizuka Arakawa won a gold medal for
Japan in figure skating.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/26/07)
2006 Mar 2, Tommaso Onofri, a
17-month-old epileptic boy, was kidnapped from his home in
Casalbaroncolo, near Parma, Italy. His body was found April 1. He was
killed by blows to the head with a shovel. Suspects Mario Alessi, a
construction worker, and Salvatore Raimondi have been accusing each
other of killing the child shortly after the kidnapping. A woman was
accused of complicity in the kidnapping.
(AP, 3/7/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Mar 10, Prosecutors in Milan
said they have requested that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi be
indicted on corruption charges.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 11, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi denounced Italy's judiciary as a danger to democracy and
promised changes to the system as he tries to hold on to the
premiership in next month's election.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 14, In Italy 2 local
trains collided head-on outside a station near Milan, killing at least
two people.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Italy the film “Il
caimano” (The Cayman), directed by Nanni Moretti, was released. It was
loosely about PM Silvio Berlusconi, but not the anti-Berlusconi
diatribe that had been expected.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.42)
2006 Mar 27, PM Silvio Berlusconi
said on radio that he does not want Italy to become a multiethnic,
multicultural country, drawing plaudits from a right-wing ally and
criticism from center-left opponents.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Apr 9-2006 Apr 10, Italy held
parliamentary elections. Conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi faced a
strong challenge from his center-left opponent Romano Prodi in a bitter
campaign marked by disenchantment over Italy's stagnant economy.
(AP, 4/9/06)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.28)
2006 Apr 11, Center-left
challenger Romano Prodi claimed an outright electoral victory over
Premier Silvio Berlusconi before official results were in, but the slim
margin could return Italy to political paralysis and instability.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, Bernardo Provenzano
(73), Italy's reputed No. 1 Mafia boss, was arrested at a farmhouse in
Sicily after frustrating investigators' efforts to catch him during
more than 40 years on the run.
(AP, 4/11/06)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 12, Italian police
arrested three people suspected of aiding Italy's No. 1 fugitive and
reputed Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano, who was captured a day earlier.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 13, Dame Muriel Spark
(b.1918) died in Tuscany, Italy. Her spare and humorous novels made her
one of the most admired British writers of the post World War II years.
Her work of 23 novels, included the autobiographical "The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie" (1961), which was later adapted for a Broadway hit (1966)
and a movie.
(AP, 4/15/06)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.83)
2006 Apr 19, A top Italian court
confirmed the slim electoral victory of center-left economist Romano
Prodi over Premier Silvio Berlusconi, according to Italian television.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 22, Alida Valli (84),
Italian movie star, died in Rome. She appeared in over 100 films that
included “The Third Man” (1949).
(SFC, 4/27/06, p.B7)
2006 May 2, PM Silvio Berlusconi,
the longest-serving leader in postwar Italy, resigned to make way for a
center-left government led by Romano Prodi.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 5, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two Italian soldiers and wounded four as they were
traveling to help Afghan police hurt in an attack near Kabul.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 10, The Italian
Parliament elected Giorgio Napolitano (80), a former Communist, to be
president, paving the way for a government headed by center-left leader
Romano Prodi to be formed within days.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 12, Spain's Banco Bilbao
Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) agreed to the French bank BNP Paribas'
purchase of its 14.75-percent stake in Italy's Banca Nazionale del
Lavoro (BNL), saying it will reap 567 million euros (731 million
dollars) in capital gains from the sale.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 16, Italy’s top sporting
body put the national football federation under emergency rule as
prosecutors looked into a match-fixing scandal involving the Juventus
team of Turin in 19 games in the 2004-05 season.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.53)
2006 May 17, Romano Prodi became
prime minister of Italy, forming the country's 61st postwar government
more than a month after his center-left coalition narrowly won
parliamentary elections.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 21, Local authorities
said boats carrying more than 400 migrants have been intercepted off
Lampedusa over the past 48 hours, overwhelming the tiny island south of
Sicily.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 23, Italy's new deputy
economics minister called the nation's economic situation "a disaster,"
saying the deficit in 2006 may exceed 4.5 percent of gross domestic
product.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 26, Italy said it will
pull 1,100 of its troops from Iraq in June, giving its first specific
numbers about the planned withdrawal.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, In Naples, Italy, the
body of a man was found in a manhole with a knife in his abdomen. He
was soon identified as Lewis Brooks Miskell (49), a Canadian diplomat
missing since March.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 Jun 10, In Calabria, Italy,
killers shot a farmer who had filed complaints against people who had
put a squeeze on him. Calabria’s ‘ndrangheta, a homebred Mafia, would
often present bullets by post to intended targets.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.71)
2006 Jun 20, Italian police
arrested at least 45 people in an anti-Mafia crackdown in Sicily,
including top bosses who had allegedly been in touch with Bernardo
Provenzano, the reputed No. 1 boss picked up earlier this year.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 25, Italians voted in a
constitutional referendum on whether to give regions more clout and
shift power to the premier to encourage more stability in a country
that has had 61 governments since World War II.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 26, Near-final returns
showed Italians soundly rejected massive changes to the country's
postwar constitution that proponents had argued would increase
political stability and modernize the country.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 27, Italy's ruling
coalition agreed to withdraw as many as 400 soldiers from Afghanistan,
dealing another blow to US-led military efforts overseas.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 28, Italy's center-left
government won a confidence vote, a motion it had called itself in a
political maneuver to gain more time to implement a package of reforms.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jun 30, Pierluigi Bersani,
Italian minister for economic development, rushed a decree through
cabinet abolishing some of the more abstruse regulations in the
services industry that throttled economic activity. This sparked
wildcat protests by taxi drivers. The taxi strikes ended July 17
following concessions from the government.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.59)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G2)
2006 Jul 5, Italian prosecutors
said they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were
seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the
alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 7, Former Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi was ordered to stand trial following an investigation
into the sale of television rights at Mediaset SpA.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 9, Italy beat France 5-3
in a shootout following a 1-1 tie in the World Cup final. Zinedine
Zidane, captain of the French team, was sent off for head-butting an
Italian player.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.49)
2006 Jul 11, In Italy Piaggio
& C. SpA, the maker of the iconic Vespa scooter, defied weak market
conditions that have derailed other planned public offerings recently
to see its shares surge above the IPO price in their debut in Milan.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 18, Authorities freed
about 100 Poles forced into virtual slavery as Italian and Polish
police arrested 25 people involved in a human trafficking ring that
brought farm workers to Italy.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 25, Italian carmaker Fiat
Group and India's Tata Motors Ltd. announced they have signed an
agreement for a joint-venture in India to make passenger vehicles,
engines and transmissions for Indian and overseas markets.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Aug 10-2006 Aug 11, Italian
police raided Internet cafes, money-transfer offices and long-distance
phone call centers catering to Muslims and arrested 40 people in a
crackdown linked to Britain's announcement it had thwarted an alleged
terror plot.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 12, In northern Italy the
stabbed body of Hina Saleem (21) was found in the garden of the family
home at Sarezzo. She was killed by her father because she refused to
conform to an Islamic lifestyle. News reports said the family had been
insisting on an arranged marriage with a cousin in Pakistan. The father
and three other men, including her uncle, were charged with
premeditated murder and hiding the body.
(AP, 9/7/06)(http://tinyurl.com/rfr4z)
2006 Aug 18, At least 10 people
died and as many as 40 were feared missing when a small boat packed
with illegal immigrants sank off Sicily, prompting Italy to call for
greater cooperation to fight human trafficking.
(Reuters, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were found
and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd boat in 2
days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian island of
Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water after the boat
sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people on the boat.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 28, Italy approved 2,500
troops in a boost to an expanded international force in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Sep 2, Italian soldiers
poured into Lebanon, part of the first large contingent of
international troops dispatched to boost the UN force keeping the peace
between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, A small boat of
African migrants from Eritrea was intercepted off the coast of Sicily.
They said eight people died during their grueling trip. They had left
from Libya 10-12 days earlier.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 9, Italy's PM Romano
Prodi said Syria has agreed "in principle" to a European Union presence
on its border to help stem the flow of weapons into Lebanon.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 10, The Chinese film
“Still Life” won the top award as the 11-day Venice Film Festival came
to a close. The Chinese film was about the Three Gorges Dam project.
(SFC, 9/11/06, p.D5)
2006 Sep 15, Oriana Fallaci (76),
the Italian writer and journalist best known for her abrasive
interviews and provocative stances, died overnight in Florence.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 19, Police in southern
Italy arrested scores of people in an overnight crackdown on organized
crime, including on clans that had a grip on the local tourist industry.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 21, Italy formally handed
over security responsibility of the southern Dhi Qar province to Iraqi
forces, the second of the country's 18 provinces to be handed over to
local control. 2 people were killed and another nine were wounded when
a car bomb exploded near an electricity company office in Baghdad. The
number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit a record-high
6,599.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Oct 2, Italian police said
they had smashed an Algerian Islamic fundamentalist cell that gave
logistical support to suspected militants in Algeria.
(Reuters, 10/2/06)
2006 Oct 3, A Turkish Airlines
plane carrying 113 people from Albania to Istanbul landed in Italy
where a Turkish man surrendered and released all the passengers
unharmed. The Turkish army deserter who hijacked the airliner sought
asylum because he fears persecution in his Muslim homeland after his
conversion to Christianity and wanted Pope Benedict XVI's protection.
(AP, 10/4/06)(AP, 10/3/07)
2006 Oct 12, In Italy the
government of Romano Prodi approved a bill to erode the near-monopoly
over private television exercised by Silvio Berlusconi, who controls 3
of the country’s 4 main private channels.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.61)
2006 Oct 12, Gillo Pontecorvo
(b.1919), Italian filmmaker, died in Rome at age 86. He directed the
black-and-white classic "The Battle of Algiers" (1966).
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 13, Italy’s Economy
Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said tax evasion is a "disease which
exists in all countries, but in Italy it is an epidemic." The next day
2005 data on tax returns by the self-employed, among whom evasion is
considered particularly rife, made front page news in most of
newspapers.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 14, Two Italian tourists,
freed in Libya after being kidnapped in August in Niger, denounced
their captors as bandits and said they were mistreated during their
ordeal.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 17, The Italian bank
Sanpaolo won a five-way race for control of Bank of Alexandria, the
first Egyptian bank to be privatized in a selloff worth 1.6 billion
dollars.
(AFP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 17, In Italy a subway
train rammed into another train halted at the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele
II station in central Rome, killing at least one person and injuring
236.
(AP, 10/17/06)(WSJ, 10/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct 19, Italian police
arrested 12 alleged members of a Mafia clan accused of drug trafficking
and running an extortion ring that terrorized businesses in the
Sicilian town of Messina.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 26, The Slow Food
movement, founded in 1989, sponsored Terra Madre in Turin, Italy. The
5-day event brought together representatives of food communities that
produced good, clean and fair food in a responsible and sustainable way.
(www.terramadre2006.org/terramadre/welcome_eng.lasso)
2006 Oct 30, An Italian court
ordered former Premier Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges of
corruption along with David Mills, the estranged husband of Britain's
culture minister.
(AP, 10/3o/06)
2006 Oct 31, Italy said it would
beef up security in Naples by adding 1,000 patrol officers and
surveillance cameras amid an upsurge of slayings around a city already
known for street violence and organized crime.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 4, Swathes of Austria,
Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands
and went dark for up to an hour in the late evening as cold Germans
rushing to switch on heaters sucked up electricity from Europe's
interconnected networks.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 6, In Italy a Milan court
sentenced Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, the accused mastermind of the March
2004 train bombings in Madrid, to 10 years in jail for membership of a
terrorist organization. A second Egyptian, Yahya Mawad Mohamed Rajeh,
was sentenced to five years in jail in the case.
(AFP, 11/6/06)(WSJ, 11/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 8, In Italy gunmen in the
Naples area used a stolen ambulance in the drive-by killing of a fellow
mob member. At least 9 murders over the last two weeks in the city have
prompted calls for tough measures.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 9, Police arrested 50
people across central Italy to break up an organization that allegedly
transported cocaine and heroin from Africa to Europe using couriers who
swallowed drug-filled pellets.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 10, Italian police said
they arrested 13 people, including a judge accused of ties with the
Mafia, as part of a crackdown on organized crime in southern Italy.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 11, In Italy police
arrested 3 more thieves plaguing the railways for weeks by stealing
copper electrical conductors from the tracks. Among the 22 suspects
arrested since Oct 15 were 18 Romanians, three Italians and the one man
from Mali.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 15, A court in Palermo,
Sicily, convicted 46 deputies, confidants and helpers of jailed Mafia
boss Bernardo Provenzano, many of whom helped the former fugitive evade
capture, and sentenced them to terms of up to 18 years in prison.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 16, Spain, France and
Italy unveiled a five-point Middle East peace initiative, calling
Israeli-Palestinian violence intolerable and saying that Europe must
take a lead role in ending the conflict.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 17, In Italy British
musician Peter Gabriel (56) has been awarded "Man of Peace 2006" at the
start of the annual summit of Nobel peace prize laureates organized by
the Gorbachev Foundation and the City of Rome.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 17, Italy turned over
Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed (35) an Egyptian Muslim militant convicted of
terrorism to Spain, where he is charged as a key suspect in the 2004
Madrid terror bombing.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 18, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi won a key confidence vote in the Chamber of Deputies on
the center-left government's planned 2007 budget, which included
heavily protested tax increases and spending cuts.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 20, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi’s center-left government got rid of the heads of its 3
intelligence chiefs: military service (SISMI), civil agency (SISDI) and
the coordinating body CESIS.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.48)
2006 Nov 22, Authorities in Italy,
Spain, the United States and several South American countries arrested
76 people as part of a major drug crackdown in which a restaurant
linked to one of Colombia's most feared warlords was seized.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 27, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi said the last of Italy's soldiers in Iraq, some 60-70
troops, will return home this week, ending the Italian contingent's
presence in the south of the country after more than three years.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Dec 2, In Rome some 700,000
supporters of Silvio Berlusconi demonstrated against the government’s
planned tax increases. Pier Ferdinando Casini’s Union of Christian
Democrats (UDC) held its own rally in Palermo.
(Econ, 12/9/06, p.56)
2006 Dec 5, An Italian prosecutor
asked for the indictment of 26 Americans and Italian secret service
officials on a charge of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 10, Tenor Roberto Alagna
walked out of a performance of Verdi's "Aida" at Italy's famed La Scala
opera house when the audience booed his rendition of the aria "Celeste
Aida."
(AP, 12/10/07)
2006 Dec 16, An Italian judge
rejected a paralyzed man's request to be removed from a respirator,
ruling that the law does not permit the denial of lifesaving care and
urging lawmakers to confront the issue. Piergiorgio Welby (60) died Dec
20 after he was taken off his respirator.
(AP, 12/16/06)(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 20, In Calabria, Italy,
‘ndrangheta, the Mafia ruling the region, broke into the workshop of
the Cooperativa Valle del Marro, the 1st firm in the region to have
established a legitimate business using assets once owned by the Mafia.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.64)
2006 Dec 22, The Roman Catholic
Church denied a religious funeral for Piergiogio Welby, the paralyzed
Italian author who died after a doctor disconnected his respirator,
saying it would treat his public wish to "end his life" as a willful
suicide.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 24, Mario Scaramella, who
met with an ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London the day the
Russian fell ill from radiation poisoning, was arrested in Naples after
returning from London. Rome prosecutors have accused him of arms
trafficking and slander.
(AP, 12/24/06)
2006 Dec 28, Italy’s PM Romano
Prodi vowed to deliver "shock therapy" to spur growth in Italy after
years of a sluggish economy, outlining an ambitious 2007 agenda he
hopes will reverse his decline in popularity.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Alexander Stille authored
“The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled
History and a Storied Culture Was Taken over by a Man Named Silvio
Berlusconi.”
(SFC, 6/15/06, p.D7)
2006 Italy ranked 45th in the
Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.52)
2006 Italy was taken over by Spain
in GDP per head. This was made public in late 2007.
(Econ, 1/5/08, p.44)
2007 Jan 13, An Italian military
tribunal gave life sentences in absentia to 10 German former SS men for
massacring about 800 Italian villagers in 1944. They had laid waste to
the villages of Marzabotto, Grizzana and Vado di Monzuno near Bologna,
as the Germans retreated before Allied troops.
(Reuters, 1/14/07)
2007 Feb 7, An Italian judge
ordered a U.S. soldier to stand trial in absentia for the fatal
shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Baghdad on
March 4, 2005.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 8, In Cape Verde 3
Italian women, aged 17-33, were brutally attacked while vacationing,
dragged into the woods, pelted with stones and left for dead at the
bottom of a hole. One woman survived. 3 local men were arrested.
(AP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 12, Police conducted
raids across northern Italy, breaking up a leftist militant group that
was allegedly planning kidnappings or kneecappings of victims to
finance its plots. The group traced back to the Red Brigades. Police
said they arrested 15 suspects accused of belonging to the
Politico-military Communist Party (PCPM) in Milan, Turin, Padua and
other northern Italian cities. Police in 7 locations across Italy
arrested 17 men, including four alleged arms traffickers: Massimo
Bettinotti (39), Gianluca Squarzolo (39), Ermete Moretti (55), and
Serafino Rossi (64). A 5th member, Vittorio Dordi, was believed to be
in Congo, apparently involved in the diamond trade. The luggage of
Squarzolo had yielded the original clue to the arms deal. They were
involved in a $64 million deal negotiated with Libyan officials for
some 500,000 Chinese-made assault rifles. Iraqi and Italian partners
had haggled over shipping more than 100,000 Russian-made automatic
weapons into Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.54)(AP, 8/13/07)(WSJ,
12/13/07, p.A18)(AP, 4/12/08)
2007 Feb 16, An Italian judge
indicted 26 Americans and five Italians in the abduction of an Egyptian
terror suspect on a Milan street in what would be the first criminal
trial stemming from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The
proceedings were later suspended pending a ruling on the Italian
government's request to throw out the indictments.
(AP, 2/16/07)(AP, 2/16/08)
2007 Feb 17, Some 70 thousand
Italians under heavy police guard protested against the expansion of a
US military base in Vicenza that has divided the center-left government.
(Reuters, 2/17/07)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.61)
2007 Feb 21, In Italy Premier
Romano Prodi stepped down following an embarrassing parliamentary
defeat of his government's proposed foreign policy program. His
center-left government had been in power for just 9 months.
(AP, 2/22/07)(SFC, 2/22/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 24, Italy's president
asked Romano Prodi to stay on as premier and put his center-left
government to a new vote of confidence in parliament.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 28, Italian Premier
Romano Prodi kept his fractious center-left coalition together to win a
confidence vote in the Senate, ensuring the immediate survival of his
nine-month-old government.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Italy Premier
Romano Prodi won a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament,
formally ending Italy's political crisis.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 6, Italian prosecutors
cleared a physician who disconnected the respirator of a paralyzed man
who had asked to die.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 10, In Italy thousands of
supporters of legislation that would grant legal rights to unmarried
couples including gays rallied in Rome to urge lawmakers to resist
Vatican pressure against the measure.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 14, In Italy 5 former
members of Argentina's military were convicted in absentia of murdering
three Italians during the Argentina’s "dirty war" (1976-83).
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 14, Italy and Russia said
they wanted talks between Moscow and the European Union on a new
strategic partnership agreement to start as soon as possible.
(AP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 16, It was reported that
Italy has banned schoolchildren from using mobile phones in class in an
attempt to stop ringtones disrupting lessons and prevent pupils messing
about with video cameras.
(Reuters, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 18, Afghanistan's Taliban
said it had handed an Italian journalist, whom it captured two weeks
ago and threatened to kill, to tribal elders pending a final deal for
his release.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, Officials said Cesare
Battisti, a former Italian communist revolutionary who went into hiding
in France two and a half years ago, was arrested in Brazil. In 1993 the
former revolutionary was given a life sentence by an Italian court for
his role in four murders committed in 1978 and 1979.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 19, The Italian Foreign
Ministry said Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for Italian daily La
Repubblica kidnapped two weeks ago in Afghanistan, has been released.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 26, An Italian prosecutor
demanded a five-year jail sentence for conservative former prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is accused of bribing a judge.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 28, Jazz musician Tony
Scott (85), a clarinetist, composer and arranger who worked with such
greats as Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, died in Rome.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 17, In Rome a US soldier
went on trial in absentia for the shooting death of Italian
intelligence agent Nicola Calipari at an Iraqi checkpoint in March
2005. However, a court later threw out the proceedings against Spc.
Mario Lozano, saying Italy had no jurisdiction.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2007 Apr 22-2007 Apr 23, In Italy
Marco Ahmetovic (22) killed the four teenage boys after driving his van
onto a pavement while under the influence of alcohol. He was sentenced
to 6-1/2 years detention, but was allowed to spend most of that time
under house arrest in return for cooperating with the court.
(Reuters, 11/29/07)
2007 Apr 27, Former Italian prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi was cleared in a high-profile corruption
case involving bribing judges.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2007 May 6, Italian news said a
Vatican court for the first time has issued a drug conviction, giving a
former employee of the Holy See a four-month suspended sentence for
cocaine use.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 11, Austrian authorities
said they have arrested 40 suspects and seized thousands of videos, CDs
and DVDs as part of a yearlong crackdown on child pornography. Police
in Italy made two arrests in connection with the investigation, which
was code-named Operation Max. The server was located in St. Petersburg,
Russia, and since has been shut down.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 12, In Italy thousands of
people, including families with their children, poured into a Rome
piazza to protest a government bill that would give legal rights to
unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, In Italy security
officials from Europe's largest countries backed a plan to profile
mosques on the continent and identify radical Islamic clerics who raise
the threat of homegrown terrorism.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 14, Endemol, the brains
behind reality television shows like "Big Brother", fell into the hands
of a consortium led by Italy's Mediaset which is looking to branch out
of the saturated Italian television market.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 25, A "garbage crisis" in
Naples dominated news in Italy. For weeks local and national
authorities have tried to end a stalemate over mountains of rubbish
rotting on the streets for lack of adequate landfill sites.
(Reuters, 5/25/07)
2007 May 29, Andrew Speaker (31),
a lawyer from Atlanta with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis,
ignored doctors' advice and took two trans-Atlantic flights, leading to
the first US government-ordered quarantine since 1963. Italian
officials said they were tracing the movements of Speaker, who
honeymooned in Rome for two days despite being told to turn himself in
to health authorities.
(AP, 5/29/07)(AP, 5/30/07)(Reuters, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 8, In Italy the first
trial involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program opened in the
absence of all 26 American defendants accused of kidnapping an Egyptian
terrorist suspect.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 9, President Bush and
Pope Benedict XVI discussed the pontiff's deep worries that Christians
in Iraq would not be embraced by the Muslim majority. Bush, denounced
by anti-American protesters on the streets of Rome, defended his
humanitarian record as he met with the Pope. Bush met with PM Prodi for
the first time several hours after seeing the pope.
(AP, 6/9/07)(AP, 6/9/08)
2007 Jun 12, Authorities said
Italian police have recovered an ancient Greek temple dug up in
southern Italy by a construction crew who had dumped or looted the
prized artifacts and begun to pour cement over the ruins.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 17, In Italy Gianfranco
Ferre (b.1944), known as the "architect of fashion," died in Milan. He
was the top designer for Christian Dior from 1989-1996.
(SFC, 6/18/07, p.A2)(AP, 6/17/08)
2007 Jun 23, Italian energy
company Eni SpA and Russia's state-controlled OAO Gazprom said they
signed a memorandum of understanding on the possibility of supplying
Russian gas to European Union countries through a pipeline under the
Black Sea.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jun 26, Sizzling temperatures
in Greece, Italy and Romania brought power cuts and brush fires in a
heat wave that has led to at least 38 deaths in southeast Europe in
recent days.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 28, It was reported that
Italy’s PM Romano Prodi estimated that unpaid taxes, including income
from the black market, were equal to 27% of Italy’s GDP. The public
debt stood at 106% of GDP.
(WSJ, 6/28/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun, Italian officials broke
up a terrorist ring with the arrest of four people, three in Milan and
one in London, after examining financial records showing a steady
transfer of funds from Tunisia allegedly used to recruit Islamic
extremists and send them to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Jul 4, In Italy some 100,000
people in Turin celebrated the launch of the new Fiat 500
(Cinquecento), 50 years following the launch of the 1st Fiat 500.
(Econ, 7/14/07, p.69)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll picked
the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru’s
Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and
Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders of the world.
The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss
adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 18, Two boats carrying
would-be migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe sank between
Italy and Libya, leaving five people dead, including a child. Eleven
others were missing and presumed dead. An Italian Navy ship pulled 22
survivors from the water.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 21, Italian police
arrested three Moroccans, an imam and two of his aids, they accuse of
being part of a militant cell that allegedly used a mosque in a central
Italian city as a terror training camp.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 30, Michelangelo
Antonioni (b.1912), film director, died (94). He was one of Italy's
most influential post-war film directors whose portrayals of modern
angst and alienation won him a cult following. His films included the
Oscar-nominated "Blowup," "Zabriskie Point" and the internationally
acclaimed "L'Avventura" (The Adventure).
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
2007 Aug 15, In Germany 6 Italian
men were fatally shot in the head in the western city of Duisburg, an
execution-style killing that Italy's interior minister said appeared to
be a feud between two Italian organized crime clans. On March 12, 2009,
Dutch police arrested Giovanni Strangio (30), an Italian man wanted for
the killings in Duisburg.
(AP, 8/15/07)(AP, 3/13/09)
2007 Aug 29, The 11-day Venice
Film Festival opened for its 75th anniversary edition.
(SFC, 8/30/07, p.E5)
2007 Aug 30, Hundreds of police
raided a small town in southern Italy and arrested more than 30
suspected members of organized crime clans believed to be involved in a
feud that killed six Italians in Germany earlier this month.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug 30, The Rome-based Hands
Off Cain, an anti-death penalty group, reported that more people were
put to death in 2006, 5,628, than in either of the previous two years.
China alone accounting for 5,000 executions.
(AP, 8/30/07)
2007 Aug, In Italy over a hundred
people became ill in Castiglione di Cervia, near Ravenna, with a
disease that was later identified as chikungunya, a tropical disease
spread by the tiger mosquito. This was the first such outbreak in
modern Europe.
(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.A22)
2007 Sep 6, Legendary Italian
tenor Luciano Pavarotti (71), who brought opera to the masses with his
powerful voice and jovial personality, died of pancreatic cancer in
Modena.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 8, Taiwan-born Ang Lee's
erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" won the Venice Film Festival's top
award, two years after he captured the same prize here with "Brokeback
Mountain."
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 13, In Italy consumer
groups held nationwide protests to draw attention to the burden placed
on families by the rising cost of food, especially Italians' beloved
staple, pasta.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 18, In Italy local
authorities said Milan central railway station's notorious Platform 21,
which witnessed the deportation of hundreds of Jews in 1943-45, will
host the city's first Holocaust memorial. The museum will open in two
years' time and occupy 6,000 square meters of the underground rail
network.
(Reuters, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 22, Afghan authorities
said they had seized dozens of Iranian and Chinese-made weapons after a
brief battle with Taliban fighters near the border with Iran. In
northern Afghanistan NATO helicopters fired on a group of suspected
insurgents in response to a rocket attack. Four Afghans died and 12
were wounded. 2 Italian soldiers and their two Afghan staff on a
weekend patrol disappeared in western Afghanistan. In southern Zabul
province the Taliban kidnapped three Afghan men accused of spying for
the US and executed them.
(AP, 9/22/07)(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 24, In western
Afghanistan Italian special forces rescued two captive Italian
intelligence agents from a militant convoy, killing at least eight
kidnappers. Both kidnapped Italians were wounded in the raid, but one
died from his wounds in Rome on Oct 4. In southern Afghanistan a
Canadian soldier was killed and four were wounded during a military
operation.
(AP, 9/24/07)(Reuters, 9/25/07)(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Sep 29, In Italy PM Romano
Prodi announced that the low-paid would get reduced property taxes and
either an income tax break or a cash handout. He also mentioned a cut
in the corporate tax rate from 33% to 27.5%.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.59)
2007 Oct 14, In Italy projections
showed Rome's mayor overwhelmingly winning a nationwide primary to
become the leader of a new center-left party and the probable candidate
for premier against conservative billionaire Silvio Berlusconi in the
next general election.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 17,
A man opened fire in a courtroom in northern Italy, seriously
wounding his estranged wife and killing her brother before being shot
to death by police.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 22, An Italian lobby
group for small businesses said revenue from organized crime amounts to
an estimated $127 billion annually, making it the largest segment of
the economy.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 23,
Police broke up an Italian-Canadian mafia clan that ran drug
trafficking and money laundering operations, arresting 12 people and
seizing millions of dollars in assets. The clan was led from Canada by
Nick and Vito Rizzuto, a father and son, who were jailed for previous
crimes respectively in 2006 and 2005.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 28,
At least 15 migrants drowned in the waters off the Italian coast
in two separate incidents, including the disintegration of a boat that
spilled more than 100 passengers into rough seas.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Italy Giovanna
Reggiani (47) was brutally attacked as she returned home in northern
Rome. She died 2 days later. Nicolae Mailat, a Romanian Gypsy, admitted
to snatching her bag but denied her murder. Her attack triggered a
public outcry.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.63)
2007 Nov 1, Italy's president
signed a decree allowing the expulsion of EU citizens "for reasons of
public safety" to fight "episodes of heavy violence and ferocious
crime." This followed the Oct 30 attack on a 47-year-old woman as she
walked along a road after dark toward barracks where she lived. She was
beaten, dragged through mud and left half naked in a ditch. The woman
died 2 days later. Police arrested Nicolae Mailat a Romanian in his
20s, who lives in a shack in one of several sprawling settlements on
the outskirts of Rome.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 2, Italy began deporting
Romanians with criminal records in response to a streak of violent
crime blamed on immigrants. In Rome up to 10 people wearing motorcycle
helmets attacked a group of Romanians with knives, metal bars and
sticks in the parking lot of a supermarket. Three Romanians were
injured. As part of the crackdown, bulldozers in Rome for a second day
knocked down shantytowns where thousands of foreigners lived without
permits.
(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 2, In Italy Meredith
Kercher (21), a British university student, was found dead with her
throat slashed in the bedroom of a house in the central city of
Perugia. A week later 3 suspects in the murder were remanded in custody
by an Italian investigating magistrate. On Nov 19 police in Perugia
identified a 4th suspect as Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native.
Guede was arrested in Germany the next day and DNA evidence confirmed
that he had sex with Kercher the night she was stabbed.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AFP, 11/10/07)(AP, 11/19/07)(AP,
11/22/07)
2007 Nov 5, In Sicily Salvatore Lo
Piccolo (65), who magistrates believe is the Sicilian Mafia's new "boss
of bosses," was arrested after nearly a quarter of a century on the
run. He was arrested with his son, Sandro (32), and two other Mafia
bosses.
(Reuters, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 6, Italian police said a
Europe-wide sweep disrupted an Islamic cell that was recruiting
potential suicide bombers for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. They
announced the arrests of 20 terror suspects, mostly Tunisians.
Authorities in Britain, France and Portugal confirmed arrests.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 8, A US Army UH-60
Blackhawk helicopter crashed in northern Italy, killing at least four
people on board and injuring six. Two more soon died in a hospital.
(AP, 11/8/07)(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 11, In Italy a police
officer accidentally shot and killed a soccer fan while trying to break
up a fight by a Tuscan highway between supporters of rival teams.
Enraged by the killing, hundreds of fans rioted in Rome, attacking a
police station.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 14, NATO defense chiefs
chose Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola as head of the alliance's
military committee.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 18, In Italy former
Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced the creation of a new political
party, saying the time felt right because his supporters had gathered
so many signatures calling for the ouster of Premier Romano Prodi.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 29, A wildcat protest by
cab drivers caused gridlock in downtown Rome, leaving Italians and
tourists alike stranded at airports and train stations across the
capital. Unions had been negotiating with Mayor Walter Veltroni over
planned fare increases, but they walked away from the talks and called
the sudden protest after authorities said they wanted to issue 500 new
taxi licenses.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 30, In Italy a general
transport strike by workers demanding more investment in the sector
forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and idled trains, ships
and buses across the country.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Nov 30, Italian oil firm Eni
and oil and gas exploration firm Burren Energy said they had agreed the
terms of a takeover offer from Eni worth 1.74 billion pounds. Burren is
an independent group quoted on the London stock exchange that runs oil
and gas fields in Turkmenistan, Congo, Egypt and Yemen.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 3, Daniele Emmanuello
(43), the Mafia godfather of Gela, Sicily, was killed while trying to
escape police. He was considered one of Italy's 30 most dangerous Mafia
fugitives.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.62)
2007 Dec 4, In Italy Vincenzo
Santapaola, a suspected Mafia boss, and scores of alleged mobsters were
arrested during raids in Catania, Sicily. Police also seized weapons
and drugs, and found a book that listed extortion fees and salaries of
the people working for the family.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 11, Trucking unions cut
short a meeting with the Italian transport ministry, ending hope that
the chaos-causing strike disrupting traffic and petrol deliveries would
end soon.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, It was reported that
Italy's government has decided to appoint a special commissioner to try
to curb price rises after inflation hit a three-and-a-half year peak in
November, but economists see the move as little more than a publicity
stunt. Italy's truck drivers agreed to call off a protest that has
blocked highways and borders for three days, causing shortages of
gasoline, medicine and perishable foods across Italy.
(Reuters, 12/12/07)(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 15, Italian authorities
said they have captured, Edoardo Contini (52), a fugitive Naples crime
boss who built one of the most dangerous cartels.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 18, An Italian team
published the first full genetic sequence of a grape variety, pinot
noir, in the Public Library of Science.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.137)
2007 Dec 23, In Afghanistan
echoing pledges by the leaders of France and Australia, Italian PM
Romano Prodi emphasized his county's long-term commitment in a meeting
with President Hamid Karzai. Afghan intelligence agents detained a
50-year-old foreign woman carrying a suicide vest in eastern
Afghanistan. A roadside explosion killed one policeman and wounded
three others in Kunar province. Police clashed with Taliban militants
in the Gelan district of central Ghazni province, killing a local
insurgent leader and two of his bodyguards. Another booby-trapped body
was discovered in Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/23/07)(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio
Stella authored “La Casta” (The Caste), a dissection of the way tax
revenue is frittered away by Italy’s political class. "The Caste: How
Italian politicians have become untouchable," written by journalists
from the leading daily Corriere della Sera, became best-seller soon
after its publication.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.48)(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Roberto Saviano authored
“Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of
Naples’ Organized Crime System.”
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.76)
2007 Italian Oil company ENI SpA
bought Burren Energy PLC, a small independent company that operates an
oil field in Turkmenistan. ENI from that point on was denied entry
visas by Turkmenistan, which was annoyed at not being consulted in the
deal.
(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.B8)
2008 Jan 3, Crews in Naples, where
the streets increasingly are lined with trash, began cleaning up a long
disused dump in a bid to ease a mounting garbage crisis.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 7, Police in Naples
clashed with protestors over a mafia-linked rubbish disposal crisis as
the Italian government convened an emergency meeting to try and resolve
the row.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 8, Some 60,000 tons of
garbage were piled up in the streets of Naples.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.44)
2008 Jan 16, Italian police
arrested scores of suspected mobsters in Palermo in the latest raid on
suspected Sicilian Mafia hideouts.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 18, A court in Palermo
convicted Sicily's Gov. Salvatore Cuffaro of helping a Mafia boss and
sentenced him to five years in prison.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 21, In Italy a key ally
of Premier Romano Prodi pulled his party from the Cabinet amid a
corruption scandal, sending the center-left governing coalition
scrambling to keep the administration from falling.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 23, Italy’s Premier
Romano Prodi won a confidence vote in parliament's lower house, but his
chances for success in the upper house appeared to worsen as more
allies defected amid growing pressure on the center-left leader to
resign.
(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 24, In Italy Premier
Romano Prodi resigned after the Senate voted 161-156 to sink his
20-month-old center-left coalition in a fiery session in which one
senator was spat on, fainted and was carried out on a stretcher.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 31, The EU ordered Italy
to clean up Naples within a month, or face legal action.
(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 3, In Italy Ernesto Illy
(82), the longtime head of Italian coffee giant illycaffe SpA, died. A
chemist and son of Francesco Illy, who founded the company in 1933,
Ernesto traveled the world in search of the best blend of beans.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 6, Italy's Pres. Giorgio
Napolitano dissolved parliament, clearing the way for early elections
just two years after the last parliamentary vote. Premier Romano Prodi
will continue as caretaker premier until the election.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 7, Authorities in Italy
and the US conducted raids targeting dozens of alleged members of Mafia
clans who controlled drug trafficking between the two sides of the
Atlantic. A 169-page indictment in the US went back 3 decades and
included at least 7 murders. The main targets in NY included 3 of the
“five families” controlling organized crime in America: the Genovese,
Bonanno and Gambino families.
(AP, 2/7/08)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.41)
2008 Feb 13, In Italy police
raided sites in Calabria and issued arrest warrants for 57 people,
including politicians, bankers and businessmen, in the latest mafia
sweep targeting drug trafficking and extortion rackets.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 16, In Italy Michael
Seifert (83), a former SS prison guard who was sentenced to life in
prison in Italy for Nazi war crimes, was jailed near Naples, hours
after he was extradited from Canada. Seifert, known as the "Beast of
Bolzano," was convicted in absentia in 2000 by a military tribunal in
Verona on nine counts of murder committed while he was an SS guard at a
prison transit camp in Bolzano, northern Italy.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 18, Italian police
captured Pasquale Condello (57), the top boss of a powerful organized
crime syndicate. The Condello crime clan was one of the most ferocious
'ndrangheta families and Condello had received several life prison
terms for four murders and other crimes.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 24, In Milan, Italy,
masked thieves drilled a tunnel and broke into a jewelry showroom as
employees were preparing for a VIP showing by Damiani, making off with
gold, diamonds and rubies in a brazen daylight heist.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Feb 27, Italian tax police
busted a ring of auto-body shops involved in creating fake Ferraris
using Pontiac Fieros.
(WSJ, 2/28/08, p.D5)
2008 Feb 29, Italy’s Eni SpA
signed a major oil production agreement with Venezuela. Last month Eni
said it had reached a compensation deal in which Venezuela agreed to a
payment in excess of $700 million.
(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.A5)
2008 Mar 4, Italian police said
they have seized 150 million euros of property and goods from feuding
Calabrian mafia clans who are under investigation for the murder of six
Italians outside a pizzeria in Germany last year.
(Reuters, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 15, Thousands of Italians
marched in an anti-mafia protest and called on all citizens to take a
public stand against Italy's powerful crime syndicates.
(Reuters, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 15, Alitalia, Italy’s
state-owned national airline, accepted a takeover offer worth $217 made
by air France-KLM, a French-Dutch airline group. The Italian government
accepted the offer on March 17.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.73)
2008 Mar 22, Magdi Allam (55),
Italy's most prominent Muslim, converted to Catholicism in a baptism by
the pope at a Vatican Easter service. The iconoclastic writer has
condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials
held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of
mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo
milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Apr 3, Alitalia edged closer
to bankruptcy protection after Air France-KLM abruptly broke off talks
to buy the struggling national airline and Alitalia's chairman of seven
months resigned in frustration.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 4, An executive for a
prominent Tuscan wine producer said authorities confiscated some
600,000 bottles of his company's 2003 Brunello di Montalcino, alleging
too many bottles were produced for it to be entirely authentic.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 7, Italian police
arrested 38 suspects in a sweep against a clan of the 'ndrangheta
organized crime syndicate accused of murder, extortion and arms and
drug trafficking.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 12, Investigators in
Turkey found the body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo (33), an
Italian artist known as Pippa Bacca. She was last seen on March 31
hitchhiking in a wedding gown. Police detained a man suspected of
killing her.
(AP, 4/12/08)
2008 Apr 13, Italians went to the
polls in general elections likely to return conservative Silvio
Berlusconi to the prime minister's office for a third time at the
expense of new centre-left flagbearer Walter Veltroni.
(AFP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Italy exit polls
put media mogul Silvio Berlusconi ahead in parliamentary election but
suggested he was uncertain of winning the upper house majority he needs
to steer the country through an economic downturn.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 15, Italy's Silvio
Berlusconi (71) pledged to use his big election win to push through
economic reforms, and vowed to close the border to illegal immigrants
in a crackdown on criminals he called "the army of evil." He owed his
majority in parliament to the support of the xenophobic Northern
League, which won 8 percent of votes.
(Reuters, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 17, In
Italy Silvio Berlusconi returned to the world
diplomatic stage by hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin at his
villa in Sardinia. The event lost some of its luster when Putin was
forced, before the glare of television cameras, to deny reports he had
secretly divorced his wife and planned to marry an Olympic gymnast.
(Reuters, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 22,
Alitalia flew into the unknown after Air France-KLM withdrew its
takeover offer, leaving Italy's long-struggling flagship airline with
little choice but to contemplate bankruptcy or receivership. The
outgoing center-left government allowed a loan of €300 million to
Alitalia.
(AP, 4/22/08)(Econ, 4/26/08, p.68)
2008 Apr 28, Residents of Rome
elected Gianni Alemanno, the Italian capital's first right-wing mayor
since World War II. He took 53.6 percent of the vote to 46.3 percent
for Francesco Rutelli, a former two-time center-left Rome mayor.
(AP, 4/29/08)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.61)
2008 May 1, Rescuers found the
bodies of five French ski mountaineers who had been missing since the
day before when they were swept away by an avalanche during an
excursion on Punta Basei, a 10,000-foot peak in Italy's northwestern
Alps.
(AP, 5/1/08)
2008 May 6, In Italy the
data-protection authority ruled that releasing tax returns into
cyberspace was illicit. Tax authorities had recently put all 38.5
million tax returns for 2005 up on the internet. A measure authorizing
the released had been signed on March 5, but not enacted until the
defeat of the Prodi government.
(Econ, 5/10/08, p.61)
2008 May 7, Conservative leader
Silvio Berlusconi formed Italy's 62nd postwar government for his third
stint as premier.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 13, Italy's new PM Silvio
Berlusconi adopted a conciliatory tone with a pledge to reach out to
the left-wing opposition and to turn the country around economically.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 15, Italian police
announced the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a
sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down.
Police had arrested 383 people sing May 7.
(AP, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/16/08, p.A8)
2008 May 18, In Italy residents of
Naples, fed up with the stench from months of uncollected rubbish, used
the waste to barricade streets in protest at the long-running crisis.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 20, The European
Parliament censured Italy for its treatment of Gypsies.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.71)
2008 May 21, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi moved his Cabinet meeting to Naples, vowing to clean the
city's streets of the garbage that has piled up for months and become a
stinking symbol of government inadequacy.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 23, Frank Phel (74), an
American tourist, was hit and killed by a train at a Rome station as he
was walking on the tracks in a daze after being drugged and robbed. The
suspected robber was arrested the next day.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 25, The French film “The
Class” (Entre les Murs) won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah,” a study of the criminal underworld in
Naples, won the grand prize. Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” a portrait
of former Premier Giulio Andreotti, won the jury award.
(SFC, 5/26/08, p.F5)
2008 May 26, In Italy police
arrested 49 suspected mobsters in raids on the Naples-based Camorra
mob, the equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia for the Naples area.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 30, Italy declared a
state of emergency in the north of the country after flooding and
mudslides left at least three people dead in heavy rains that also hit
Belgium, Britain, France and Germany.
(AFP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 5, In Italy a 3-day UN
summit aimed at fighting hunger worldwide ended with pledges to boost
food output, calls to cut trade barriers and more research on biofuels.
Just before the meeting Saudi Arabia announced a donation of $500
million.
(WSJ, 6/6/08, p.A10)(Econ, 6/7/08, p.70)
2008 Jun 13, An Italian woman
(47), whose family kept her locked in a room for almost two decades,
was freed by police. She had been accused of becoming pregnant out of
wedlock.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 18, Italian police
arrested 33 Sri Lankan Tamils charged with belonging to the outlawed
Tamil Tigers group fighting a separatist insurgency against the
government in Colombo. In addition to being charged with membership of
a proscribed organization, the 33 were also accused of having helped
finance the Tamil Tigers through remittances.
(AFP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 26, Unicredit, Italy's
biggest bank by capitalization, said it would cut 9,000 jobs in western
Europe and invest in central and eastern Europe to boost profits
following massive acquisitions.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jul 2, Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi pledged to end the garbage crisis in Naples and the
surrounding area by the end of July.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 3, It was reported that
Italian authorities have started fingerprinting tens of thousands of
Gypsies living in nomad camps across the country, brushing aside
accusations of racism by human rights advocates and international
organizations. The Interior Ministry said prints will only be taken
from people who do not have a valid Italian or EU document.
(AP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Italy transport
workers went on strike, forcing the cancellation of thousands of bus,
tram and subway lines and snarling traffic across the country.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Italy police in
Naples arrested 44 suspected mobsters in a crackdown on drug
trafficking. The latest raids led to the confiscation of apartments,
cars, motorcycles, farmland and companies worth nearly $480 million.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 10, The European
Parliament called the fingerprinting of Gypsies in Italy a clear act of
racial discrimination and urged the authorities to stop it.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 14, Police in the
Adriatic city of Pescara arrested Otttaviano Del Turco, the governor of
Italy's Abruzzo region, in a health care corruption investigation.
Prosecutors said at least 35 people are being investigated.
(AP, 7/14/08)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.60)
2008 Jul 15, In Italy a judge in
Venice indicted Saber Fadhil Hussein for plotting a terrorist attack on
US bases in Iraq using ultra-light aircraft.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.A9)
2008 Jul 16, An Italian
parliamentary panel gave initial approval to a plan to fingerprint
everyone in the country, a move that could defuse criticism over a
mandatory program to fingerprint Gypsies.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Aug 4, Italy’s Defense
Ministry deployed some 3,000 soldiers in cities across the country as
part of government measures to fight street crime. The government said
they will stay on the streets for at least 6 months.
(AP, 8/4/08)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.49)
2008 Aug 23, In Italy a gang of
men badly beat a Dutch couple and raped the woman while they camped in
an isolated field outside Rome during a cycling tour of Europe. The
attackers also stole some US$2,200. Two Romanian men were soon arrested.
(AP, 8/23/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 30, Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi met in Libya to sign a
"friendship pact." Italy agreed to pay Libya US$5 billion as
compensation for its 30-year occupation of the country, which ended in
1943.
(Reuters, 8/30/08)(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 5, Mila Schoen (b.1916),
an Italian designer of elegant, impeccably tailored clothes, died at
her villa in northern Italy.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 7, Italy's foreign
minister, after meeting US Vice President Dick Cheney, said the EU
wants to work closely with the United States in resolving the Georgian
crisis.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 9, An Italian study
showed a new way to test for cervical cancer is more accurate than a
pap smear and identified more dangerous lesions.
(Reuters, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 18, In Italy 6 immigrants
from Ghana, Togo and Liberia were slain by automatic gunfire as they
stood outside a store that sold ethnic goods in Castel Volturno, a town
north of Naples.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 19, In Italy hundreds of
African immigrants took their anger over the alleged mafia killing of
six Africans to the streets, hurling rocks and smashing windows in
Castel Volturno.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 19, Alitalia cancelled
flights and regulators said they might soon ground the troubled
flag-carrier as it hurtles toward bankruptcy after the failure of
another rescue plan.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 30, Italian police
arrested scores of suspected mobsters, including three top fugitives
believed linked to the gangland-style slaying of six African immigrants
near Naples.
(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 4, The leaders of
Britain, France, Germany and Italy began meeting in Paris at a summit
on the world financial crisis threatening banks, growth and jobs across
the continent. They vowed to do all they could to prevent Wall Street's
turmoil from destabilizing their banking systems. Germany's No. 2
commercial property lender, Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, said its $48
billion rescue plan had unraveled when private banks pulled out.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 11, Italian security
forces including army paratroops arrested seven members of the Camorra
mafia believed linked to the killing of African immigrants near Naples
last month.
(AFP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI
gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian
woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in
India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister Alphonsa
(1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from southern India and
India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico (1791-1860), a Neapolitan
priest who founded a missionary order in the 19th century; Sister Maria
Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler (1848-1924) in Switzerland, who worked
as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran
(1832-1869), a 19th century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick
and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 13, Italian police
arrested five people in the Calabria region, including the mayor of
Rosarno, for suspected ties to the local mob.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 16, Italian police
arrested Antonio Pelle (46), an alleged fugitive mobster, believed to
be the head of an organized crime clan involved in the slaying of six
people in Germany last year. His family was involved in a feud that led
to the Aug. 15, 2007 killing of six Italians outside a restaurant in
Duisburg, Germany.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 21, Italy's Court of
Cassation ordered Berlin to pay a total of euro1 million (US$1.3
million) to nine family members of victims of a June 1944 massacre. The
next day Germany rejected the ruling by Italy's top criminal court.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 23, An Italian military
helicopter crashed in northeastern France, killing all eight people on
board.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Nov 1, Three Tunisian men
accused of terrorism links by Italian prosecutors arrived in Milan
under heavy security after being extradited from Britain. Habib
Ignaoua, Mohamed Khemiri and Ali Chehidi were arrested in the London
and Manchester areas last year as part of coordinated raids across
Europe against an alleged Italian-based network recruiting fighters for
Iraq and Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 4, Italian police
arrested 47 people including the wife of a jailed mafia boss in raids
on a Naples-based organized crime syndicate. They also seized bank
accounts and assets worth about 80 million euros ($102 million) in the
raids.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Italy Domenico
Magnoli (27), an alleged mobster, woke up in a private Italian clinic
following liposuction surgery, and was arrested for trafficking in
cocaine. Police alleged that Magnoli, born in Cannes, France, has links
to the Piromalli crime clan in the 'ndrangheta syndicate.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 10, Italian railway and
mass transit workers staged a strike creating chaos for commuters. A
wildcat protest by some of Alitalia’s staff forced the national airline
to scrap dozens of flights.
(SFC, 11/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 10, Miriam Makeba
(b.1932), the South African folk singer and anti-apartheid activist
fondly known as "Mama Africa," died in southern Italy after performing
at a concert against organized crime.
(AP, 11/10/08)(SFC, 11/11/08, p.B5)
2008 Nov 18, Italian authorities
in Sicily seized assets worth euro700 million ($885 million) from
Giuseppe Grigoli, a supermarket chain owner, suspected of letting the
Mafia use his businesses to launder money.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Dec 1, In Italy the worst
flooding in Venice in more than 20 years forced residents and tourists
to wade through knee-high water.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 6, In Denmark "Gomorra,"
a movie by Italian director Matteo Garrone about Naples' criminal
underworld, won the best film prize at the 21st annual European Film
Awards.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 10, In Italy a bumper
harvest was expected to push wine production above that of neighboring
France for the first time in a decade, making Italy the world's largest
wine producer.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 13, Alex Bellini, an
Italian adventurer, was rescued a mere 65 nautical miles short of
his goal, Australia, after rough weather sapped him of his final shreds
of energy. He had spent 10 months rowing more than 9,500 nautical miles
(18,000 kilometers) across the Pacific.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 16, Italian police backed
by helicopters arrested almost 90 suspected mobsters and thwarted a
plan by the hobbled Sicilian Mafia to reconstitute itself and form a
new ruling commission to set strategy. Gaetano Lo Presti (52), the
alleged Mafia boss of a Palermo neighborhood, hanged himself in jail,
hours after he was arrested in a blitz against Cosa Nostra.
(AP, 12/16/08)(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 16, In Italy Fiat Group
SpA for the first time shut down most of its Italian plants for a
month, laying off nearly 50,000 workers for an extended holiday as it
copes with the precipitous drop in demand for new cars.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 18, In Italy Parmalat
founder Calisto Tanzi was sentenced to 10 years in prison over a
14-billion-euro fraud scandal that led to one of Europe's largest
corporate bankruptcies.
(AFP, 12/18/08)
2008 Dec 30, Paul Hofmann (96),
Austria-born writer, died in Rome. During WWII he informed on his Nazi
commanders in occupied Rome and later became a New York Times
correspondent. Hofmann authored over a dozen books, including "That
Fine Italian Hand," "The Seasons of Rome: A Journal" and "O Vatican! A
Slightly Wicked View of the Holy See."
(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Dec 31, The Vatican announced
that it will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws as its own,
citing the vast number of laws Italy churns out, many of which are in
odds with Catholic doctrine.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Dec, Italy’s public debt, the
world’s 3rd biggest, was the equivalent of 104% of GDP.
(Econ, 12/13/08, p.61)
2008 The US signed weapons
agreements this year valued a $37.8 billion, or 68.4% of all business
in the global arms bazaar, up from $25.4 billion in 2007. Italy was 2nd
with $3.7 billion and Russia 3rd with $3.5 billion.
(SFC, 9/7/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 7, Freezing temperatures
and exceptional snowfall caused travel delays across Europe and were
blamed for at least 12 deaths, including that of a man in Milan who was
crushed when a canopy collapsed under the weight of snow.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 12, Alitalia's board
accepted Air France-KLM's offer to buy 25 percent of the company and
become its international partner.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 14, Italian police
arrested Giovanni Setola, a top Mafia fugitive, who had eluded capture
earlier this week by climbing through a trap door and into a sewer
below his hideout.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Brazil Cesare
Battisti (54), a leftist fugitive who wrote police thrillers while
evading a life sentence for two political murders, was granted refugee
status in Brazil and an official said he could go free this week.
Italy's government protested the decision. Battisti escaped from an
Italian prison in 1981 while awaiting trial on four counts of murder
allegedly committed when he was a member of the Armed Proletarians for
Communism. He fled to France and reinvented himself as a mystery
writer. Battisti has repeatedly insisted on his innocence.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 19, An Atheist Bus
Campaign's message, translated into Catalan, began appearing on two
routes in Barcelona, with plans to extend the campaign to the rest of
the country. A campaign with the concise message "There's probably no
God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," took to the road in
Britain this month. In Italy buses with the slogan "The bad news is
that God does not exist. The good news is that we do not need him" will
begin traversing the northern Italian city of Genoa on February 4.
(AFP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 20, Chrysler and Italy’s
Fiat confirmed they had reached an agreement on an alliance that would
give Fiat a 35% stake in Chrysler, but only if Chrysler gets $3 billion
more in financial help from Washington.
(WSJ, 1/21/09, p.B1)
2009 Jan 24, In Italy some 600
migrants and refugees broke out of an overcrowded immigration facility
on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to protest their treatment. The
migrants returned to the facility after several hours.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Italy an Indian
(35) was attacked while sleeping on a bench in Nettuno, a town 50 miles
(80 kilometers) south of Rome. 3 young men were arrested for allegedly
beating and setting on fire the Indian immigrant.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 3, Eluana Englaro (37), a
woman at the center of Italy's right-to-die debate, was transferred to
a hospital where she is to be allowed to die after 17 years in a
vegetative state.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 9, In northern Italy
Eluana Englaro (38) died at her clinic as the Italian Senate discussed
legislation clarifying the right to die. Englaro had been in a
vegetative state since a 1992 car accident and died after her family
cut off her food and water.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Rome G-7 finance
ministers strongly rejected protectionism, pledging to work together to
support growth and employment and to strengthen the banking system so
the world can overcome its worst financial crisis in 50 years.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 17, A Milan court
sentenced David Mills, the British former tax lawyer of Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi, to four-and-a-half years in jail for corruption.
(AFP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 24, France’s Pres.
Sarkozy and Italy’s Premier Berlusconi signed a deal pairing utilities
from each nation to study the feasibility of building nuclear power
plants in Italy.
(WSJ, 2/25/09, p.A11)
2009 Mar 4, Salvatore Samperi
(64), Italian director, died in his house on Lake Bracciano. He was
best known for erotic comedies that challenged the morals of Italy's
middle class.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 11, Italy's highest court
sided with the government and threw out key evidence in an alleged CIA
kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorism suspect in Italy, dealing a blow to
the trial of 26 Americans charged in the case.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 18, Gianni Giansanti
(52), an award-winning Italian photographer, died in Rome after
battling bone cancer. He shot the 1978 image that for many captured the
horror of that era — the bullet-riddled body of Aldo Moro, the
kidnapped former Italian Christian Democrat premier, in the truck of a
parked car. He also had snapped candid portraits of Pope John Paul II
during his pilgrimages.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 21, Tens of thousand of
people marched in Naples to commemorate the victims of the mafia and
demand an end to the stranglehold of organized crime on southern Italy.
(AP, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 31, Italian police said
they have arrested Mario Chiesa for his alleged role in a scam
involving garbage disposal in Milan and elsewhere in northern Italy. He
was one of eight people apprehended, with two others being placed under
house arrest. Chiesa was arrested in 1992 and convicted for his
involvement in the Clean Hands corruption scandals. He served his
sentences doing socially useful work and was freed in 2000.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 6, In central Italy a
magnitude 6.3 earthquake knocked down whole blocks of buildings as
residents slept, killing 294 people in L'Aquila, capital of the Abruzzo
region, which was near the epicenter. It was the country's deadliest
quake in nearly three decades. Tens of thousands were homeless and
1,500 were injured. 8 students were killed when their dorm
collapsed in L'Aquila. Investigations into shoddy construction
soon followed.
(AFP, 4/6/09)(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 4/9/09)(Econ, 4/18/09,
p.28)(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Apr 11, Somali pirates
hijacked the Italian-flagged tugboat Buccaneer, an American-owned
tugboat, with 16 crew in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates abandoned the
ship on August 9 and all crew members were freed. No random was paid.
(AP, 4/11/09)(AP, 4/26/09)(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Apr 18, About 140 migrants
remained stranded aboard a Turkish cargo ship for a third day as Malta
and Italy argued about which country should accept them.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 19, Italy agreed to
accept 140 migrants stranded aboard a Turkish cargo ship that rescued
them in the Mediterranean, ending a four-day standoff with Malta about
who would take them in.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Italy US and
Russian arms negotiators held a "very productive" initial round of
talks aimed at agreeing a new treaty to curb nuclear weapons as part of
a broader effort to improve relations.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 26, Pope Benedict XVI
named five new saints, including Portugal's 14th century independence
leader and an Italian priest who ministered to factory workers at the
dawn of the industrial era.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 29, Youssef Magied
al-Molqui, one of the 4 Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro
cruise ship and killed an American passenger in 1985, left prison in
Palermo, Sicily, after more than 23 years in jail. Ibrahim Fatayer
Abdelatif, another convicted Achille Lauro hijacker, was released last
year.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 1, Italian PM Silvio
Berlusconi, who has compared himself to Jesus Christ and Napoleon,
boasted that he was the world's most popular leader.
(Reuters, 5/2/09)
2009 May 3, Italian media reported
that PM Silvio Berlusconi's wife wants a divorce, just days after she
publicly criticized his party's selection of young women to run in
European elections.
(Reuters, 5/3/09)
2009 May 4, In Germany Sergio
Marchionne, the boss of Italy's Fiat, drummed up support in Berlin for
audacious plans to snap up General Motors' European arm and merge it
with the bankrupt Chrysler to create a new global auto giant. Germany's
economy minister said Fiat Group SpA wants to take over GM's Opel unit
without running up debt and would preserve the three main German
assembly plants if successful.
(AFP, 5/4/09)(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 7, In Italy Jonathan
Robert Hindenach (24) of Charlotte, Michigan, killing an Italian man in
Florence. He had consumed drugs and alcohol before slaying
Riccardo Nistri (62).
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 10, Italian police
arrested a fugitive crime boss who they found holed up in a secret room
of his brother's house in the southern Italian region of Calabria.
Salvatore Coluccio has been a fugitive since 2005.
(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 12, Italian
anti-terrorism investigators said two French citizens behind bars since
last year on suspicion of smuggling migrants were al-Qaida propaganda
point men in Europe and were heard talking in jail about a possible
attack on a Paris airport. Bassam Ayachi (62) and Raphael Frederic
Gendron (33) were served warrants in jail accusing them of criminal
association for international terrorism. The men have been held in Bari
since November when they were arrested on suspicion of smuggling two
Syrians and three Palestinians into Italy.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 13, Italy's lower chamber
of parliament passed a hotly debated bill making it a crime to enter or
stay in Italy illegally, the latest effort by Premier Silvio
Berlusconi's conservative forces to crack down on illegal migration.
The bill included a fine of up to $13,670 and jail for people housing
illegal immigrants.
(AP, 5/13/09)(SFC, 5/14/09, p.A2)
2009 May 15, In Spain police
arrested of Raffaele Amato, an alleged Camorra boss who investigators
say was one of Italy's top cocaine importers.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, Italian police
arrested Franco Letizia (31), one of the country's "most-dangerous"
fugitives, in raids that netted at least 70 suspected members of the
Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate. The search for dozens more was
still under way.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 22, An Italian warship
arrested nine pirates after helping a US-flagged container vessel and
another ship evade brigands off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 27, Italian police issued
61 arrest warrants against purported members of Naples’ Camorra mob for
allegedly running drug and extortion rings. Suspects arrested included
9 women and several bosses of the Sarno clan.
(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A2)
2009 May, Naples began a six-month
experiment hiring former convicts, including muggers, drug traffickers
and con artists to guide tourists through the art-rich but
crime-plagued city and use their inside knowledge of the local
underworld to keep visitors safe.
(AP, 9/13/09)
2009 May, Chikungunya, a
mosquito-born virus endemic to propical Africa and Asia, was reported
to have arrived in Albania and Italy.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.83)
2009 Jun 10, Italy's Fiat became
the new owner of the bulk of Chrysler's assets, closing a deal that
saves the troubled US automaker from liquidation and places a new
company in the hands of Fiat's CEO.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 10, Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi began his first visit to Italy with a warm embrace from Premier
Silvio Berlusconi, evidence of better ties between the energy-rich
desert nation and its former colonial ruler.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 11, Italian police said
they were carrying out arrests in Rome, Milan and other cities as part
of an investigation into the activities of suspected radical leftist
terrorists.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 12, In New Jersey an
Indictment was unsealed today against three individuals who allegedly
hacked into the telephone systems of large corporations and entities in
the US and abroad and sold information about the compromised telephone
systems to Pakistani nationals residing in Italy. Italian law
enforcement conducted searches of approximately 10 locations in four
regions of Italy and arrested the financiers of the hacking activity.
Those financiers allegedly used the information to transmit over 12
million minutes of telephone calls valued at more than $55 million over
the hacked networks of victim corporations in the US alone.
(SFC, 6/16/09,
p.A2)(http://newark.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2009/nk061209.htm)
2009 Jun 13, In Italy tens of
thousands of gay rights activists demanding rights for same-sex couples
marched through the streets of Rome on Saturday in a gay pride parade.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 13, An Italian court
ordered the recall of 10,000 tons of wood fuel pellets imported from
Lithuania over fears that they could have dangerous levels of
radioactivity. Test results showed that they contained cesium 137, a
highly toxic radioactive substance normally produced by a nuclear
explosion or from the combustion of a nuclear reactor. The contaminated
pellets themselves were not dangerous to humans, but danger comes from
the ashes and the smoke produced when they are burned.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 15, Italy's interior
minister defended plans to allow citizen patrols to beef up security
amid outrage over a new right-wing guard that has put Fascist and
Nazi-like symbols on its uniforms.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, Italian police said
they had arrested 13 people suspected of helping a top Mafia fugitive
hide, communicate with other mobsters and conduct his business.
Investigators said they are closing in on Matteo Messina Denaro, a
fugitive who is among a handful of mobsters vying to take over the
Sicilian Mafia. Most of the arrests were carried out in Trapani, a city
in Western Sicily that is the power base of Messina Denaro.
(AP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 20, Italian police in
Sicily said they have arrested 14 people and placed more than 250 under
investigation in the country's biggest sweep against Internet child
pornography.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, In Venezuela
authorities arrested Salvatore Miceli, suspected of being a key
intermediary in the drug trafficking trade and one of Italy's most
dangerous Mafia fugitives, as he left his apartment in Caracas. Police
also picked up two other Italian suspects.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 22, In Italy Khaled
Hussein (73), a Palestinian man who helped plan the 1985 hijacking of
the Achille Lauro cruise ship, died of a heart attack in a jail in
Benevento.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 25, In Italy foreign
ministers of the industrialized Group of Eight gathered for a 3-day
meeting in Trieste. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he
hoped delegates from the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada,
Japan and Russia will condemn the crackdown in Iran and urge a recount.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 26, Group of Eight
foreign ministers, meeting in Trieste, Italy, criticized Iran's
postelection violence, and urged its ruling clergy to ensure the
outcome of the disputed ballot reflects the will of the Iranian people.
The G8 countries also condemned North Korea's nuclear and missile tests
and called on the country to return to the negotiating table.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 29, In Italy a freight
train carrying liquefied gas derailed and exploded in the midst of the
Tuscan town of Viareggio just before midnight, setting off a fire that
killed 21 people, many as they slept in their homes. At least 50 were
injured. An axle failure was blamed for the rail disaster.
(AP, 6/30/09)(AP, 7/1/09)(AP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Italy Matteo
Salvini, a member of the often xenophobic, anti-immigrant Northern
League party, resigned his seat in the lower chamber of Parliament
after being filmed singing a racist chant about Naples and its
residents.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 8, G8 Leaders met in
L'Aquila, Italy, for talks on threats to global security and stability
at a summit where climate change, a continuing global economic crisis,
nuclear proliferation and world hunger took top billing.
(AP, 7/8/09)
2009 Jul 9, In Italy the G8 opened
their summit to include the G5, which made their fifth straight
appearance at the annual summit, albeit as guests, to discuss climate
change, development aid, global economic growth and international trade.
(AP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 10, In Italy the 3-day G8
summit came to close. World leaders launched a $15 billion initiative
to help farmers in poor countries boost production in a shift in the
way the West tackles world hunger.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 22, Italian authorities
seized some euro200 million ($284 million) in assets and businesses
owned by the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate, including the Cafe de Paris
of "La Dolce Vita" movie fame. 12 other restaurants, apartments and
luxury cars were also impounded in the operation.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 24, In Europe deadly
summer wild fires spread across Spain, France, Italy and Greece with
holidaymakers rescued from beaches and thousands of firefighters
brought into the battle.
(AFP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 30, Italy approved the
use of the abortion drug RU-486, drawing fierce protests by the
Vatican. The Italian Drug Agency ruled that the drug cannot be sold in
drug stores but can only be administered by doctors in a hospital.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 8, In northern Italy
rules for officially condoned vigilante groups took effect.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.46)
2009 Aug 9, Italians newspapers
reported that burglars earlier in the week had made off with jewels and
cash worth 11 million euros (15.6 million dollars) from the hotel room
of a Saudi princess in Sardinia, sparking a diplomatic incident. On Sep
15 Sardinia police said most of the jewels had been recovered.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Aug 20, Italian customs found
a boat with five Eritrean survivors of what it called a "shocking
tragedy. Around 75 African migrants died in the Mediterranean after
their stranded boat ran out of food and water.
(Reuters, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Italy a lucky
lotto player in Tuscany won Italy's record euro147.8 million ($211.8
million) state lottery, pocketing what has been billed as Europe's
biggest jackpot.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 30, Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi and Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi laid the foundation stone for
an ambitious highway stretching along the entire Libyan coast.
(AFP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 8, Mike Bongiorno (85),
called Italy's "Quiz King," died. His big TV break came in the 1950s
when he helped popularize the quiz show on Italian pubcaster Rai. One
of his biggest hits was "Lascia o Raddoppia?" (Double or quits) the
Italian version of "The $64,000 Question."
(www.variety.com/article/VR1118008405.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2562)
2009 Sep 19, Maurizio Montalbini
(56), Italian sociologist, died. He had spent months dwelling in caves
to study how the mind and body cope with complete isolation. In 1987 he
claimed his first world record after spending 210 days alone in a cave
in the Apennine mountains.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 22, A sharply divided EU
failed to protect the threatened bluefin tuna, as the bloc's
Mediterranean nations refused to back even a temporary a ban on
catching the fish prized by sushi aficionados. Greece, Cyprus, Malta,
Spain, France and Italy, with strong fishermen's lobbies at home,
insisted on continuing the hunt despite the precarious state of the
species. Conservation groups had earlier criticized the EU for not
pushing to list the bluefin tuna under the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Oct 2, In Italy rivers of mud
unleashed by heavy rains overnight flooded parts of the Sicilian city
of Messina, leaving at least 22 people dead while sweeping away cars
and collapsing buildings. 40 people remained missing.
(AP, 10/3/09)(AP, 10/4/09)
2009 Oct 3, In Rome tens of
thousands of people gathered to defend freedom of the press accusing
Pres. Silvio Berlusconi of trying to silence critical voices.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.A6)
2009 Oct 7, A top Italian court
overturned a law granting Premier Berlusconi immunity from prosecution
while in office. It had been pushed through by Berlusconi's coalition
in 2008 when the premier faced separate trials in Milan for corruption
and tax fraud tied to his Mediaset broadcasting empire.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 8, Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi said he will go on TV and appear in courtrooms to prove that
corruption and tax fraud charges in two trials against him are false.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Italy Mohamed Game
(35), a Libyan, hurled a home-made bomb at the Santa Barbara police
barracks in Milan, losing his hand from the blast and slightly wounding
a policeman on duty outside. Game had lived in Italy since 2003 and had
never been a suspect. Italian police detained two more suspects and
found a large quantity of bomb-making chemicals during overnight
searches.
(AFP, 10/12/09)(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 15, Italy and NATO denied
a newspaper report that the Italian intelligence secretly paid the
Taliban thousands of dollars to maintain peace in an area in
Afghanistan that was under Italian control. The Times of London had
just reported that Italy had paid "tens of thousands of dollars" to
Taliban commanders and warlords in the Surobi district. It accused Rome
of failing to inform its allies about the payments and of misleading
the French, who took over the Surobi district in mid-2008, into
thinking the area was quiet and safe. An ambush of the French in a
mountain pass on Aug. 18, 2008, was the biggest single combat loss for
international forces in Afghanistan in more than three years.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Italy 4 policemen
were questioned for allegedly attempting to blackmail opposition leader
Piero Marrazzo (51). The case centered on widespread media reports that
a video shows the center-left politician in the company of a
transsexual in a Rome apartment.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 27, An Italian appeals
court upheld the conviction of British lawyer David Mills for accepting
a bribe to lie in court to protect Silvio Berlusconi. A lower court
found Mills guilty of corruption in May and sentenced him to 4 1/2
years.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 31, Italian police
arrested one of the country's most wanted mafia fugitives after tearing
down a wall in a dawn raid at a chicken farm near Naples where he had
built a hideout. Salvatore Russo (51), the head of a Camorra clan
carrying his name, had been sentenced to life in prison for homicide
and links to organized crime and was on the run since 1995.
(AFP, 10/31/09)
2009 In Italy some 7% of the
population was made up of immigrants.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.58)
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