1922 in Italy

[Kingdom of Italy]

• Monarch – Victor Emmanuel III
• Prime Minister –
• # Ivanoe Bonomi
• # Luigi Facta
• # Benito Mussolini
• Population – 38,196,000

  Events

January

• January 22 – Pope Benedict XV dies.
• January 26 – Italian forces occupy Misrata in Libya. The reconquest of Libya begins.

  February

• February 2 – Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi steps down.
• February 6 – Pope Pius XI is elected on the Papal conclave's fourteenth ballot.
• February 17 – The attempt of outgoing Prime Minister Bonomi to form a new government fails.
• February 20 – The Alleanza del lavoro, a unified front of left-wing trade unions and political parties is formed against the rise of Fascism and its Blackshirts.
• February 26 – Appointment of Luigi Facta as Prime Minister.

  March

• March 1 – The Second Congress of the Italian Communist Party takes place in Rome. The congressional conclusions, known as "Thesis of Rome," deny any hypothesis of collaboration in anti-fascist coalitions with other socialist forces or bourgeois parties. The PCd'I's main objective remains the prospect of a revolutionary solution.
• March 3 – Nationalists and fascists attack the government building of Fiume and proclaim annexation to Italy. The Italian government refuses to take over the powers in the city and provisionally entrusts it to a military command.

  May

• May 1 – Large fascist crowds in Bologna and Rovigo violently oppose the general strike proclaimed by the Socialists during the Labour Day.
• May 12 – Fascist concentration in Ferrara of 40,000 militants led by Italo Balbo and backed by the agrarian associations. The "fascist strike" of the workers is proclaimed. The aim of the event is to press on the Government to launch a plan for the construction of public works in the province.
• May 26 – Fascist concentration in Bologna to remove the prefect Cesare Mori, accused of having used the police to suppress the actions of fascist squads. Military authorities are granted full powers. They come to terms with the fascists, who, having assured the substitution of the prefect, begin to demobilize.

  June

• June 2 – A group of socialist parliamentarians, led by Filippo Turati, declares to be willing to support a government capable of ensuring the restoration of law and freedom. The following day, the Board of Directors of the CGdL aligns itself with the same positions.

  July

• July 19 – Prime Minister Luigi Facta steps down. Mussolini threatens with Fascist insurrection.
• July 31 – The labour movement decides to engage in a general strike, proclaimed to be an "anti-Fascist legalitarian strike" by the Socialist leader Filippo Turati because destined to fight against Fascist subversion. The failure is total. The National Fascist Party gives the government 48 hours to restore order, otherwise Fascism would move in to "save the state".

  August

• August 1 – Prime Minister Facta forms a new government.
• August 1–3 – The "anti-Fascist legalitarian strike" brings the country on the brink of civil war. The strike is called of on August 2. Fights break out in Milan, Genova, and Ancona, which are occupied by Fascist militias.
• August 13 – At a meeting of the National Council of the Fascist National Party it is decided to start planning the March on Rome. The political direction is entrusted to Mussolini, Michele Bianchi and Cesare Rossi. The organizational and military preparations are entrusted to Italo Balbo.

  October

• October 1 – The Congress of the Italian Socialist Party begins in Rome. The meeting is marked by a fierce controversy against the reformists, whose current, headed by Filippo Turati, Claudio Treves and Giacomo Matteotti, is expelled. The reformists immediately form the Unitary Socialist Party.
• October 6 – At a meeting in Milan, Mussolini declares "In Italy there exists two governments - a fictitious one, run by Facta, and a real one, run by the Fascists. The first of these must give way to the second." He and demands new general elections. Rumours abound about a Fascist takeover of Rome.
• October 24 – Mussolini declares before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in Naples: "Or we will be given the government, or we will take it marching to Rome." Meanwhile, the Blackshirts, who had occupied the Po plain, took all strategic points of the country.
• October 25 – Mussolini proposes to Prime Minister Facta to form a government including Fascists. Facta informs the king about the initiative, who agrees. However, Mussolini withdraws the proposal. At the same time, he also rejects an agreement with Giovanni Giolitti, who offers the participation of four Fascist ministers and four sub-secretaries.
• October 26–28 – March on Rome, led by Italo Balbo, Michele Bianchi, Emilio De Bono and Cesare Maria De Vecchi. Fascist blackshirts converge on Rome from various regions of Italy, occupying prefectures and railway stations. Mussolini is in Milan, where he negotiates at a distance with the king and the government. Civilian authorities hand over power to the military authorities. King Victor Emmanuel III announces his intention to appoint Fascist leader Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister of Italy and refuses to sign a state of siege, proposed by Prime Minister Facta.
• October 31 – Prime Minister Facta steps down. Appointment of Mussolini as Prime Minister.

  November

• November 17 – With 306 votes in favour, 216 against and 7 abstentions, the Italian Chamber of Deputies confides confidence in the Mussolini government.

  December

• December 18–20 – Turin Massacre. Fascists blackshirts attack members of the local socialist and communist movement in Turin, to break the resistance of the labour movement and working class. Eleven people were killed and ten were seriously wounded.

  Births

• January 16 – Ernesto Bonino, Italian pop and jazz singer whose peak of popularity was during the 1940s and 50s
• March 5 – Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual
• March 23 – Ugo Tognazzi, Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter
• March 28 – Felice Chiusano, one of the singers of Quartetto Cetra, a popular Italian vocal quartet
• April 24 – Susanna Agnelli, Italian politician, businesswoman and writer. She was the first woman to be appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in Italy
• May 25 – Enrico Berlinguer, Italian communist politician
• June 12 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist and popular science writer. The asteroid 8558 Hack, discovered in 1995, was named in her honour
• July 23 – Maria-Antonietta Macciocchi, Italian journalist, writer, feminist and politician
• September 1 – Vittorio Gassman, Italian theatre and film actor
• November 22 – Francesco Rosi, Italian film director

  Deaths

• January 22 – Pope Benedict XV, born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa
• January 27 – Giovanni Verga, Italian writer
• June 20 – Vittorio Monti, Italian composer
• September 25 – Carlo Caneva, Italian general
• December 18 – Pietro Ferrero, one of the victims of the 1922 Turin Massacre