John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was a Southern Democrat and youngest vice president (under James Buchanan) in US history. Breckinridge lost a presidential bid against Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 US elections.

Breckinridge held pro-slavery views and moved South to become a Confederate General having served in the Mexican American War as part of an occupation force. He served under Braxton Bragg until being appointed the CSA Secretary of War by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

At the end of the war Breckinridge fled to Europe by way of Havanah and later to Canada. When former Confederates were granted amnesty by President Andrew Johnson in 1868 Brekinridge returned to Kentucky. There he worked as a lawyer and invested in real estate. He attempted to gain a railroad contract through his lands. Breckinridge never returned to politics and died in 1875.

Benito Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was a politician and journalist who became the Prime Minister and fascist dictator of Italy.

Mussolini achieved good grades in school and was appreciated by his teachers despite his violent character. He qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in July 1901. Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland to avoid compulsory military service in 1902. There he studied Nietzsche, Pareto and Sorel. He became involved in the Italian Socialist movement as a writer for Avanti!, a counterpart to the German Socialist newspaper Vorwarts.

In 1904 Mussolini returned to Italy after amnesty was granted for military deserters. He had unknowingly been convicted in absentia and was required to serve to be pardoned. He served for two years and returned to teaching in 1906. He learned French and German and studied Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He became one of the prominent members of the Italian Socialist Pary.

Mussolini rejected egalitarianism, a core doctrine of socialism. He was influenced by Nietzsche’s anti-Christian ideas and negation of God’s existence. Mussolini felt that socialism had faltered, in view of the failures of Marxist determinism and social democratic reformism, and believed that Nietzsche’s ideas would strengthen socialism. Mussolini’s writings came to reflect an abandonment of Marxism and egalitarianism in favor of Nietzsche’s übermensch concept and anti-egalitarianism. Wikipedia

When World War I began the Italian Socialists opted for neutrality. Mussolini saw the war as an opportunity and eventually threw his lot in with the Italian Nationalists; wanting to join the war on the side of the allies to liberate their country from Austria-Hungary and the Habsburgs. This got him expelled from the ISP.

He joined the Italian military in 1915 and fought in WWI until being injured by shrapnel in 1917. He was discharged from the hospital in August 1917 and resumed his editor-in-chief position at his new fascist paper, Il Popolo d’Italia. This paper helped him rise to be the leader of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento and later the Italian National Fascist Party.

Mussolini and his fascists staged a coup against the government of King Victor Emmanuel III in October of 1922. The attempt was a failure but resulted in a power sharing agreement with Mussolini as the Prime Minister. Mussolini formed the Grand Council of Fascism and became the defacto ruler of Italy. He started a fascist youth organization called Youth Fasces of Combat. On June 10, 1940 Mussolini (il Duce) announced the entry of Italy into World War II on the side of Germany and the axis nations.

After the invasion of Italy by the Allies the Grand Council of Fascism asked King Emmanuel III to resume his authority. They arrested Mussolini in July of 1943. Mussolini was rescued by the German Nazis. There was an attempt to reinstall him as the leader of Italy in the northern part of the country called the Salo Republic. The allied victory led to the Salo Republic’s fall and Mussolini, with his wife and entourage, fled. They were apprehended and executed, presumably by the partisan Walter Audiso; their bodies sent to Milan where crowds threw vegetables, spit and urinated on and beat the corpses. They were later hung upside down from girders of a service station.

The reign of Benito Mussolini<<< had come to an end

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