Timeline of Italian history
Encyclopedia
This is a timeline of Italian
history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Italy
.
This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.
Fuelled by the revolutionary republican ideology of Giuseppe Mazzini
, uprisings lead to revolutionary governments being briefly installed in Rome, Milano and Venezia, and a Constitution being established in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
. Takeover by reactionary forces and the defeat of Piedmont-Sardinia
by Austria lead to a failure in the First Italian War of Independence
.
After having allied with France, under the lead of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia provokes Austria to war and secure the takeover of Milan and Lombardy (Second Italian War of Independence
). Plebiscites subsequently guarantee the annexation of Tuscany, Emilian dukedoms, and Papal-controlled central Italy. Savoy
and Nice
are ceded to France in exchange for recognition.
The capital of the Kingdom of Italy is moved from Turin
to Florence
, in order to approach it to Rome
, considered the natural capital, but still under Papal
rule and French
protection.
Somalia
is established as the second Italian colony in Africa
21-year-old Guglielmo Marconi
invents the radio telegraph
The poet Giosuè Carducci is the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
.
Maria Montessori
establishes her first Casa dei Bambini in Rome.
Ernestina Prola is the first Italian woman to get a driving licence.
Europe's worst earthquake, centered on the strait of Messina
, kills up to 200,000 people in Sicily and southern Italy.
Italy defeats the Ottoman Empire
and gain control over Libya
and the Rhodes archipelago
.
Although it is formerly aligned with Germany
and Austria-Hungary
, Italy enters World War I
on the side of the Anglo-French Allies. After the war, Italy expands his borders well beyond Trento
and Trieste
, including Bolzano/Bozen and Fiume/Rijeka
.
Enzo Ferrari
, having no other job perspective, eventually settles for a job at a small car company called CMN (Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali) redesigning used truck bodies into small passenger cars.
After the lack of a compromise between socialists and Christian-democrats, and the March on Rome
of the fascist militias, Benito Mussolini
is named by the King as prime minister of Italy and in 1926 assumes dictatorial powers
The novelist Grazia Deledda
is the first Italian woman who is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Italian national football team wins its first FIFA World Cup
Following the invasion of Ethiopia
, Italy is expelled from the League of Nations
. Mussolini and Hitler signed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
The Italian national football team wins its second FIFA World Cup.
Enrico Fermi
is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
for his work on induced radioactivity.
Italy enters World War II
by invading Greece
from Albania
, which had been occupied in 1939.
While they are confined on the island of Ventotene
by the Fascist regime, Altiero Spinelli
and Ernesto Rossi compile the Ventotene Manifesto
, entitled "Towards a Free and United Europe". With his Manifesto, Spinelli gives the major contribution to the formulation of the Federalist thinking, and is later one of the main figures of the European Parliament
.
Alcide De Gasperi
becomes Prime Minister, holding the office until 1953. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the European integration.
Primo Levi
publishes If This Is a Man
, based on his experiences in Auschwitz.
The Constitution of the Italian Republic, agreed between Christian-democrats, Socialists and Communists, comes into force. The same year, the general election
sanctions the supremacy of the Christian Democracy
party, and the belonging of Italy to the Western side. Communists are excluded from governments till 2006, although they episodically support them from the outside (1976–79 and 1996–98).
Italy joins NATO
Italy became a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community
The national oil company ENI (Ente Nationale Idrocarburi) is established, with Enrico Mattei
as his first President. The ENI will become a strong actor in Italian foreign policy towards Arab countries.
The state-owned RAI
broadcasts the first Italian official TV program.
The Messina Conference
achieves the basic agreement on the European Economic Community
Italy finally joins the United Nations
, along with other 15 states, after years of stalemate due to opposed vetoes between USA and USSR.
The Treaty of Rome
founds the European Economic Community
.
Valentino
opens his first atelier, in Rome on Via Condotti
.
The “Years of Lead
” are characterized by bombings and shootings, a “strategy of tension
” purportedly aimed at avoiding the “historic compromise
” between DC and PCI.
Umberto Eco
publishes The Name of the Rose
, a medieval murder mystery.
The Italian national football team wins its third FIFA World Cup in Spain.
Bettino Craxi
(PSI
) is premier of a PSI-DC coalition until 1987. Under his government, a television reform allows Berlusconi to build up his media empire. The Concordat
with the Vatican is revised, and salary indexation is abolished to curb inflation
from 12% to 5%, but public debt raises up to 90% of GDP.
At the European Parliament elections, in the wake of the death of the leader Giovanni Berlinguer
, the PCI gains 33,3 % of votes and overcomes the DC as first party in Italy.
Franco Modigliani
receives the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on household savings and the dynamics of financial markets.
In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster
, a referendum put off the use of nuclear plants. The three working plants are slowly decommissioned. The Green party establishes itself in Italy.
Italy hosts the World Football Cup
, but loses in the semi-final against Argentina at penalties.
A man found frozen high in the Alps
turns out to be a Neolithic hunter from about 5000 years ago.
20 skiers (of which 3 Italians) die in the Cavalese cable car disaster, when a US EA-6B Prowler military jet severed the cables supporting the Cermis mountain cable car. Pilots will be later found not guilty by an American court.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
history. To read about the background to these events, see History of Italy
History of Italy
Italy, united in 1861, has significantly contributed to the political, cultural and social development of the entire Mediterranean region. Many cultures and civilizations have existed there since prehistoric times....
.
This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.
19th century
- See also Italian unificationItalian unificationItalian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
, History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World WarsHistory of Italy as a monarchy and in the World WarsThis articles covers the history of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars.-Italian unification :Modern Italy became a nation-state during the Risorgimento on March 17, 1861 when most of the states of the Italian Peninsula and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were united under king Victor...
- 1848
Fuelled by the revolutionary republican ideology of Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
, uprisings lead to revolutionary governments being briefly installed in Rome, Milano and Venezia, and a Constitution being established in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, commonly known as the Two Sicilies even before formally coming into being, was the largest and wealthiest of the Italian states before Italian unification...
. Takeover by reactionary forces and the defeat of Piedmont-Sardinia
Piedmont-Sardinia
Kingdom of Sardinia or Sardinia, also Piedmont-Sardinia, Sardinia-Piedmont or Piemonte, refers to the states of the House of Savoy from 1720 or 1723 onwards, following the award of the crown of Sardinia to King Victor Amadeus II of Savoy under the Treaty of The Hague...
by Austria lead to a failure in the First Italian War of Independence
First Italian War of Independence
The First Italian War of Independence was fought in 1848 between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire. The war saw main battles at Custoza and Novara in which the Austrians under Radetzky managed to defeat the Piedmontese....
.
- 1859-1860
After having allied with France, under the lead of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, of Isolabella and of Leri was a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification...
, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia provokes Austria to war and secure the takeover of Milan and Lombardy (Second Italian War of Independence
Second Italian War of Independence
The Second War of Italian Independence, Franco-Austrian War, Austro-Sardinian War, or Austro-Piedmontese War , was fought by Napoleon III of France and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia against the Austrian Empire in 1859...
). Plebiscites subsequently guarantee the annexation of Tuscany, Emilian dukedoms, and Papal-controlled central Italy. Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
and Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
are ceded to France in exchange for recognition.
- 1861
- 17 March - Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, following the Expedition of the thousands, lead by Giuseppe GaribaldiGiuseppe GaribaldiGiuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
, and the fall of the Kingdom of the Two SiciliesKingdom of the Two SiciliesThe Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, commonly known as the Two Sicilies even before formally coming into being, was the largest and wealthiest of the Italian states before Italian unification...
: most of the states of the Italian peninsula are united under king Victor Emmanuel IIVictor Emmanuel II of ItalyVictor Emanuel II was king of Sardinia from 1849 and, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878...
of the SavoySavoySavoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
dynasty, crowned king of Italy.
- 17 March - Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, following the Expedition of the thousands, lead by Giuseppe Garibaldi
- 1865
The capital of the Kingdom of Italy is moved from Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, in order to approach it to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, considered the natural capital, but still under Papal
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
rule and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
protection.
- 1866
- 19 June - Italy declares war on Austrian EmpireAustrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
as ally to PrussiaPrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
. It's the Third Italian War of IndependenceThird Italian War of IndependenceThe Third Italian War of Independence was a conflict which paralleled the Austro-Prussian War, and was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire.-Background:...
, which paralleled the Austro-Prussian WarAustro-Prussian WarThe Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
. - 3 October - After some heavy losses, like CustozaBattle of Custoza (1866)The Battle of Custoza took place on June 24, 1866 during the Third Italian Independence War in the Italian unification process.The Austrian Imperial army with the old Venetian Army, led by Archduke Albert of Habsburg, defeated the Italian army led by Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora and Enrico Cialdini,...
and LissaBattle of Lissa (1866)The Battle of Lissa took place on 20 July 1866 in the Adriatic Sea near the Dalmatian island of Lissa and was a decisive victory for an outnumbered Austrian Empire force over a superior Italian force...
, and few wins (most of them by Giuseppe GaribaldiGiuseppe GaribaldiGiuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
), thanks to Prussian victories the Kingdom of Italy gains VenetoVenetoVeneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
and western FriuliFriuliFriuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
by the Treaty of ViennaTreaty of Vienna (1866)According to the Treaty of Vienna signed on 12 October 1866, the Austrian Empire ceded Venetia to the French Empire, which in turn would cede it to the Kingdom of Italy, «under the reservation of the "consent of the people duly consulted"»...
. TrentoTrentoTrento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...
and TriesteTriesteTrieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
remains “irredeemed”.
- 19 June - Italy declares war on Austrian Empire
- 1870
- 20 September - Following the defeat of Napoleon III in the French-Prussian War, Italian forces occupy Roma, which becomes the new capital of Italy the following year. The Italian Army breaks into the walls of Rome by the breach of Porta PiaPorta PiaPorta Pia is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Porta Nomentana situated several hundred meters...
. - 2 October - Rome replaces FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
as the capital city of Italy.
- 20 September - Following the defeat of Napoleon III in the French-Prussian War, Italian forces occupy Roma, which becomes the new capital of Italy the following year. The Italian Army breaks into the walls of Rome by the breach of Porta Pia
- 1878
- 3 January - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy dies
- 9 January - His son, Umberto IUmberto I of ItalyUmberto I or Humbert I , nicknamed the Good , was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in far-left circles, especially among anarchists, because of his conservatism and support of the Bava-Beccaris massacre in Milan...
, succeeds to throne
- 1882
- 5 July - The bay of AssabAssabAssab is a port city in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea on the west coast of the Red Sea. In 1989, it had a population of 39,600. Assab possesses an oil refinery, which was shut down in 1997 for economic reasons...
(EritreaEritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
) becomes officially the first italian colonial possession in Africa
- 5 July - The bay of Assab
- 1889
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
is established as the second Italian colony in Africa
- 1895
21-year-old Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
invents the radio telegraph
20th century
- 1906
The poet Giosuè Carducci is the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
.
- 1907
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name...
establishes her first Casa dei Bambini in Rome.
Ernestina Prola is the first Italian woman to get a driving licence.
- 1908
Europe's worst earthquake, centered on the strait of Messina
1908 Messina earthquake
The 1908 Messina earthquake and tsunami took some 100,000–200,000 lives on December 28, 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy.-Quake:On December 28, 1908 from about 05:20 to 05:21 an earthquake of 7.2 on the moment magnitude scale occurred centered on the of city Messina, in Sicily. Reggio...
, kills up to 200,000 people in Sicily and southern Italy.
- 1911
Italy defeats the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and gain control over Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and the Rhodes archipelago
Dodecanese
The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the eastern limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the Southern Sporades island group...
.
- 1915
Although it is formerly aligned with Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, Italy enters World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
on the side of the Anglo-French Allies. After the war, Italy expands his borders well beyond Trento
Trento
Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...
and Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, including Bolzano/Bozen and Fiume/Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
.
- 1919
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer...
, having no other job perspective, eventually settles for a job at a small car company called CMN (Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali) redesigning used truck bodies into small passenger cars.
- 1922
After the lack of a compromise between socialists and Christian-democrats, and the March on Rome
March on Rome
The March on Rome was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy...
of the fascist militias, Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
is named by the King as prime minister of Italy and in 1926 assumes dictatorial powers
- 1926
The novelist Grazia Deledda
Grazia Deledda
Grazia Deledda was an Italian writer whose works won her the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1926.-Biography:...
is the first Italian woman who is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
- 1934
The Italian national football team wins its first FIFA World Cup
- 1936
Following the invasion of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, Italy is expelled from the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. Mussolini and Hitler signed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
- 1938
The Italian national football team wins its second FIFA World Cup.
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
for his work on induced radioactivity.
- 1940
Italy enters World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by invading Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
from Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, which had been occupied in 1939.
- 1941
While they are confined on the island of Ventotene
Ventotene
Ventotene, in Roman times known as Pandataria or Pandateria from the Greek Pandoteira, is one of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Gaeta right at the border between Lazio and Campania, Italy...
by the Fascist regime, Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli was an Italian political theorist and a European federalist. Spinelli is referred to as one of the "Founding Fathers of the European Union" due to his co-authorship of the Ventotene Manifesto, his founding role in the European federalist movement, his strong influence on the first...
and Ernesto Rossi compile the Ventotene Manifesto
Ventotene Manifesto
The Ventotene Manifesto is a political statement written by Altiero Spinelli and by Ernesto Rossi while they were prisoners on the Italian island of Ventotene during World War II. Completed in June 1941, the Manifesto was circulated within the Italian Resistance, and it soon became the programme...
, entitled "Towards a Free and United Europe". With his Manifesto, Spinelli gives the major contribution to the formulation of the Federalist thinking, and is later one of the main figures of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
- 1943
- 25 July - After the Allied occupy Sicily, the government of Mussolini is overthrown by the same Great Council of Fascism
- 8 September - General Badoglio signs the armistice
- Nazi troops occupy Northern Italy, release Mussolini from prison and have him leading the puppet Italian Social RepublicItalian Social RepublicThe Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
. Anglo-American troops fight in the following two years to free the whole peninsula. The Italian Resistance plays a growing role in harassing German occupation forces.
- 1945
- 25 April: Milan is finally liberated on 25 April 1945. Resistance fighters catch Benito MussoliniBenito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
as he flees north in the hope of reaching Switzerland. They shot him along with his lover, Clara PetacciClara PetacciClara Petacci was an upper class Roman whose father had been the personal physician to the Pope. She became the mistress of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who was twenty-eight years her senior...
. The corpses are brought back to Milan and hang in a gas station in Piazzale LoretoPiazzale LoretoPiazzale Loreto is a major town square in Milan, Italy.The name Loreto is also used in a wider sense to refer to the district surrounding the square, which is part of the Zone 2 administrative division...
.
- 25 April: Milan is finally liberated on 25 April 1945. Resistance fighters catch Benito Mussolini
Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi was an Italian statesman and politician and founder of the Christian Democratic Party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive coalition governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics...
becomes Prime Minister, holding the office until 1953. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the European integration.
- 1946
- 2 June - Birth of the Italian RepublicBirth of the Italian RepublicThe Italian constitutional referendum which officially took place on 2 June 1946, is a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, kings of Italy since the Risorgimento and previously rulers of Savoy...
: Italy becomes a republic after the results of a popular referendum. The Constituent Assembly is elected to draft the Republican Constitution. Women are granted suffrage too.
- 2 June - Birth of the Italian Republic
- 1947
Primo Levi
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...
publishes If This Is a Man
If This Is a Man
If This Is a Man is a work by the Italian writer, Primo Levi, describing his 11 months—from February 21, 1944 until liberation on January 27, 1945—in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland, during the Second World War...
, based on his experiences in Auschwitz.
- 1948
The Constitution of the Italian Republic, agreed between Christian-democrats, Socialists and Communists, comes into force. The same year, the general election
Italian general election, 1948
The Italian elections of 1948 were the second democratic elections with universal suffrage ever held in Italy, taking place after the 1946 elections to the Constituent Assembly, responsible for drawing up a new Italian Constitution...
sanctions the supremacy of the Christian Democracy
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
party, and the belonging of Italy to the Western side. Communists are excluded from governments till 2006, although they episodically support them from the outside (1976–79 and 1996–98).
- 1949
Italy joins NATO
- 1952
Italy became a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union...
- 1953
The national oil company ENI (Ente Nationale Idrocarburi) is established, with Enrico Mattei
Enrico Mattei
Enrico Mattei was an Italian public administrator. After World War II he was given the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency Agip, a state enterprise established by the Fascist regime. Instead Mattei enlarged and reorganized it into the National Fuel Trust Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi...
as his first President. The ENI will become a strong actor in Italian foreign policy towards Arab countries.
- 1954
The state-owned RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
broadcasts the first Italian official TV program.
- 1955
The Messina Conference
Messina Conference
The Messina Conference was held from 1 to 3 June 1955 at the Italian city of Messina, Sicily. The conference of the Foreign Ministers of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community would lead to the creation of the European Economic Community in 1958...
achieves the basic agreement on the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
Italy finally joins the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, along with other 15 states, after years of stalemate due to opposed vetoes between USA and USSR.
- 1957
The Treaty of Rome
Treaty of Rome
The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, was an international agreement that led to the founding of the European Economic Community on 1 January 1958. It was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany...
founds the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
.
- 1959
Valentino
Valentino SpA
Valentino SpA is a clothing company founded in 1959 by Valentino Garavani. Nowadays it is a part of Valentino Fashion Group. New creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli will take Alessandra Facchinetti's seat as creative designer...
opens his first atelier, in Rome on Via Condotti
Via Condotti
Via Condotti is a busy and fashionable street of Rome, Italy. In Roman times it was one of the streets that crossed the ancient Via Flaminia and enabled people who transversed the Tiber to reach the Pincio hill. It begins at the foot of the Spanish steps and is named after conduits or channels...
.
- 1960
- Italian film director Federico FelliniFederico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
shoots La Dolce VitaLa Dolce VitaLa Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
, an episodic study of life along Via VenetoVia VenetoVia Veneto is one of the most famous streets in Rome, Italy.The official name is via Vittorio Veneto, after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto....
in Rome. - Rightist riots in Reggio CalabriaReggio CalabriaReggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...
against the regional capital being set in Catanzaro. - Leftist riots in GenoaGenoaGenoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and Reggio EmiliaReggio EmiliaReggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
against the Tambroni CabinetTambroni CabinetThe Tambroni Cabinet was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 25 March 1960 to 26 July 1960. The government only got his necessary vote of confidence by the parliament, thanks to the votes of the fascist Italian Social Movement and the Monarchists...
led by Fernando TambroniFernando TambroniFernando Tambroni Armaroli was an Italian politician of the Christian Democratic Party. He was a lawyer, a prominent supporter of law and order policies, and for a brief time in 1960, the 37th Prime Minister of Italy...
, a coalition between DCChristian Democracy (Italy)Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
and post-fascist Italian Social MovementItalian Social MovementThe Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s... - 25 August - The 1960 Summer Olympics1960 Summer OlympicsThe 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...
opens in RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
- Italian film director Federico Fellini
- 1963
- 30 June - Ciaculli massacreCiaculli massacreThe Ciaculli massacre on 30 June 1963 was caused by a car bomb that exploded in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo, killing seven police and military officers sent to defuse it after an anonymous phone call. The bomb was intended for Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia...
: a bomb intended for the mafia boss Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" explodes in CiaculliCiaculliCiaculli is an outlying suburb of Palermo, Sicily in Italy. It counts less than 5000 residents. Ciaculli is close to the suburb of Croceverde. Ciaculli has been important within the history of the Cosa Nostra. The best known Mafia family is the Greco Mafia clan...
killing seven police and military officers. - 9 October - 2000 people die when a landslide causes the overtopping of the Vajont DamVajont DamThe Vajont Dam is a disused dam, completed in 1959 in the valley of the Vajont river under Monte Toc, 100 km north of Venice, Italy...
north of VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
; the flooding wave completely wipes out several villages. - The DC switches to a strategy of alliance with the socialist PSI. Electric energy is nationalised and the high school system is reformed.
- 30 June - Ciaculli massacre
- 1964
- Sergio Leone directs A Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in...
, the first of his three 'spaghetti westerns' starring Clint EastwoodClint EastwoodClinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
. - An attempted coup (Piano SoloPiano SoloPiano Solo was an envisaged plot for an Italian coup in 1964, planned by then director of the military police, Giovanni De Lorenzo.The coup plans were investigated in 1967, when the journalist Eugenio Scalfari and Lino Jannuzzi uncovered the attempt in the Italian news magazine L'Espresso in May 1967...
) is defused. - Michele, the son of Mastro Pietro Ferrero, modifies his father’s recipe for the “supercrema gianduja” (invented in 1946) and re-names it NutellaNutellaNutella is the brand name of a chocolate spread. Nutella, manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero, was introduced on the market in 1963. The recipe was developed from an earlier Ferrero spread released in 1944. Nutella is now sold in over 75 countries....
.
- Sergio Leone directs A Fistful of Dollars
- 1969
- The “Hot Autumn” of 1969 features occupations of factories and universities, and violence between right and left-wing students.
- 12 December - far-right terrorists bomb the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Milan (Piazza Fontana bombingPiazza Fontana bombingThe Piazza Fontana Bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on December 12, 1969 at 16:37, when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88...
), killing 17 people and wounding 88. Four more bombs detonate without victims. Investigations are blurred, and no responsible party has been held accountable.
The “Years of Lead
Years of Lead
Years of Lead is an European phenomenon not unrelated to the Cold War, characterized by left and right-wing terrorism and the strategy of tension. Some terrorist groups include the German Red Army Faction, and the French Action Directe. In Belgium, the années de plomb or "Bloody Eighties", refers...
” are characterized by bombings and shootings, a “strategy of tension
Strategy of tension
The strategy of tension is a theory that describes how to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions....
” purportedly aimed at avoiding the “historic compromise
Historic Compromise
In Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
” between DC and PCI.
- 1970
- Another rightist coup attempt is defused (golpe BorgheseGolpe BorgheseThe Golpe Borghese was a failed Italian coup d'état allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese, an Italian World War II commander of the notorious Xª MAS unit, the "Black Prince", convicted of war crimes, but still a hero in the eyes of many...
).
- Another rightist coup attempt is defused (golpe Borghese
- 1978
- 16 March - Kidnapping of the former Prime Minister Aldo MoroAldo MoroAldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
by the Red BrigadesRed BrigadesThe Red Brigades was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organisation, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, assassinations, and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead"...
. - 9 May - Moro is killed after the government refuses to negotiate with the Communist group. The “historic compromiseHistoric CompromiseIn Italian history, the Historic Compromise was an accommodation between the Christian Democrats and the Italian Communist Party in the 1970s, after the latter embraced eurocommunism under Enrico Berlinguer. The 1978 assassination of DC leader Aldo Moro put an end to the Compromesso storico...
” is stopped and Giulio Andreotti steps down from government. The Red Brigades begin falling apart.
- 16 March - Kidnapping of the former Prime Minister Aldo Moro
- 1980
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
publishes The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose is the first novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, a medieval murder mystery.
- 1982
The Italian national football team wins its third FIFA World Cup in Spain.
- 1983
Bettino Craxi
Bettino Craxi
Benedetto Craxi was an Italian politician, head of the Italian Socialist Party from 1976 to 1993, the first socialist President of the Council of Ministers of Italy from 1983 to 1987.-Political career:...
(PSI
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
) is premier of a PSI-DC coalition until 1987. Under his government, a television reform allows Berlusconi to build up his media empire. The Concordat
Concordat
A concordat is an agreement between the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a sovereign state on religious matters. Legally, they are international treaties. They often includes both recognition and privileges for the Catholic Church in a particular country...
with the Vatican is revised, and salary indexation is abolished to curb inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
from 12% to 5%, but public debt raises up to 90% of GDP.
- 1984
At the European Parliament elections, in the wake of the death of the leader Giovanni Berlinguer
Giovanni Berlinguer
Giovanni Berlinguer , Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian politician and Professor of Social Medicine.He was born in Sassari, Sardinia, the son of Mario Berlinguer...
, the PCI gains 33,3 % of votes and overcomes the DC as first party in Italy.
- 1985
Franco Modigliani
Franco Modigliani
Franco Modigliani was an Italian economist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and MIT Department of Economics, and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1985.-Life and career:...
receives the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on household savings and the dynamics of financial markets.
- 1986
- Italy took its most visible steps toward fighting organized crime, convicting 338 Mafia members of criminal activities.
- Italy-US relations are strained by the Libyan retaliation after the American bombing of Tripoli, and by the Sigonella crisis following the kidnapping of the Achille LauroMS Achille LauroMS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. Built between 1939 and 1947 as MS Willem Ruys, a passenger liner for the Rotterdamsche Lloyd. It is most remembered for its 1985 hijacking...
liner ship by the Palestinian Liberation Front. - The neurologist Rita Levi-MontalciniRita Levi-MontalciniRita Levi-Montalcini , Knight Grand Cross is an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor...
, together with Stanley Cohen, receives the Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of Nerve growth factorNerve growth factorNerve growth factor is a small secreted protein that is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons . It also functions as a signaling molecule. It is perhaps the prototypical growth factor, in that it is one of the first to be described...
(NGF). Since 2001, she has also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life.
- 1987
In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
, a referendum put off the use of nuclear plants. The three working plants are slowly decommissioned. The Green party establishes itself in Italy.
- 1990
Italy hosts the World Football Cup
1990 FIFA World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event twice. Teams representing 116 national football associations from all six populated...
, but loses in the semi-final against Argentina at penalties.
- 1991
A man found frozen high in the Alps
Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi the Iceman , Similaun Man, and Man from Hauslabjoch are modern names for a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived about 5,300 years ago. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from the...
turns out to be a Neolithic hunter from about 5000 years ago.
- 1992
- Paolo BorsellinoPaolo BorsellinoPaolo Borsellino was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate who was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo, less than two months after his fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone had been assassinated....
and Giovanni FalconeGiovanni FalconeGiovanni Falcone was an Sicilian/Italian prosecuting magistrate born in Palermo, Sicily. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Mafia in Sicily...
, two Italian anti-Mafia magistrates, are assassinated by the mafia. - Mani puliteMani puliteMani pulite was a nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s. Mani pulite led to the demise of the so-called First Republic, resulting in the disappearance of many parties. Some politicians and industry leaders committed suicide after their crimes were...
(clean hands), a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption and influence-peddling, leads to the fall and dissolution of the Christian Democracy, and of the Socialist party, which had been the most influential political parties in Italy since 1948. Craxi flees to TunisiaTunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
to avoid prosecution.
- Paolo Borsellino
- 1994
- 27 April - Media magnate Silvio BerlusconiSilvio BerlusconiSilvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
becomes Prime Minister for a rightist coalition. However, the pact between northern autonomists and southern post-fascists collapsed late in the year, and Berlusconi is forced to resign as prime minister. - The Italian film Il PostinoIl PostinoIl Postino is a 1994 Italian film directed by Michael Radford. The film was originally released in the U.S. as The Postman, a straight translation of the Italian title...
depits poetry entering the life of a postman who delivers mail to the Chilean poet Pablo NerudaPablo NerudaPablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
.
- 27 April - Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi
- 1996
- 17 May - Romano ProdiRomano ProdiRomano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
becomes Prime Minister for the Olive Tree coalition, voted into power with the external support of the communists. By 2001, Italy has secured his place in the Eurozone.
- 17 May - Romano Prodi
- 1997
- Valentino RossiValentino RossiValentino Rossi, , is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class.Following his father, Graziano Rossi,...
wins his first (out of 9) World Championship, racing in Grand Prix for Aprilia in the 125cc category. - Dario FoDario FoDario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...
, an Italian avant-garde playwright, manager-director, and actor-mime, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A theatrical caricaturist with a flair for social agitation, he has often faced government censure.
- Valentino Rossi
- 1998
20 skiers (of which 3 Italians) die in the Cavalese cable car disaster, when a US EA-6B Prowler military jet severed the cables supporting the Cermis mountain cable car. Pilots will be later found not guilty by an American court.
- 1999
- Roberto BenigniRoberto BenigniRoberto Remigio Benigni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director of film, theatre and television.- Early years :...
’s Life is BeautifulLife Is BeautifulLife Is Beautiful is a 1997 Italian film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice , who must employ his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor and...
is nominated for seven Academy Awards. The film wins the awards for Best Actor (the first for a male performer in a non-English-speaking role, and only the third overall acting Oscar for non-English-speaking roles), the Best Original Dramatic Score and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. - Italy takes part in the Kosovo WarKosovo WarThe term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, a NATO-led aerial operation against Milosevic’s Serbia to prevent genocide in Kosovo. The premier is Massimo D’Alema, of the post-communist Partito Democratico della Sinistra. - Italy is accepted in the eurozoneEurozoneThe eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...
- Roberto Benigni
21st century
- 2001
- 11 june - Berlusconi's second term as Prime Minister begins.
- 20–22 July - violence erupts at the G8 demonstrations27th G8 summit-Overview:The Group of Seven was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition...
in Genoa. The police is accused of severe abuses; one demonstrator is shot dead. - October - Italy takes part in the Afghanistan WarWar in Afghanistan (2001–present)The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
- 2002
- 1 January - The euroEuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
begins circulating as new official currency of Italy.
- 1 January - The euro
- 2003
- March - Italy takes part in the Iraq War, although populations show disapproval through the “peace flagPeace flagThere have been several designs for a peace flag.-White-bordered national flag:The white flag is recognized in most of the world as a flag of surrender, truce or ceasefire. The first mention of a white flag used in this context is made during the Eastern Han dynasty...
s” movement.
- March - Italy takes part in the Iraq War, although populations show disapproval through the “peace flag
- 2005
- 4 March - Nicola CalipariNicola CalipariNicola Calipari was an Italian SISMI military intelligence officer with the rank of Major General. Calipari was killed by United States soldiers while escorting a recently released Italian hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, to Baghdad International Airport.- Career :Calipari was born in Reggio...
, Italian secret agent, is shot dead by friendly fire from an US patrol during the rescue of journalist Giuliana SgrenaGiuliana SgrenaGiuliana Sgrena is an Italian journalist who works for the Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto and the German weekly Die Zeit. While working in Iraq, she was kidnapped by insurgents on February 4, 2005. After her release on March 4, 2005, Sgrena and the two Italian intelligence officers who...
from kidnappers in BaghdadBaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. US later refused the extradition of the identified shooter, Mario LozanoMario LozanoMario Lozano is a member of the U.S. Army holding the rank of specialist , who was once indicted by an Italian court for his role in the death of Italian Secret Service officer Nicola Calipari in an incident on Route Irish, immediately following the Rescue of Giuliana Sgrena...
.
- 4 March - Nicola Calipari
- 2006
- 17 May - Prodi's second term as Prime Minister begins.
- 10–26 February - The 2006 Winter Olympics2006 Winter OlympicsThe 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...
are held in TurinTurinTurin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat... - September - Italy’s engagement is pivotal in the deployment of the UNIFIL peace force after the 2006 Lebanon War.
- The Italian national football team wins its fourth FIFA World Cup in Germany2006 FIFA World CupThe 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
. - Roberto SavianoRoberto SavianoRoberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...
publishes GomorraGomorrah (book)Gomorrah is a book by Roberto Saviano published in 2006.-The book:The book describes the clandestine particulars of the business of the Camorra, a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization...
, where he describes and denounces the system of CamorraCamorraThe Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
criminal organization around Naples and its ramifications.
- 2008
- Berlusconi's third term as Prime Minister begins.
- 2009
- 6 April - An earthquake strikes L’Aquila2009 L'Aquila earthquakeThe 2009 L'Aquila earthquake occurred in the region of Abruzzo, in central Italy. The main shock occurred at 3:32 local time on 6 April 2009, and was rated 5.8 on the Richter scale and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale; its epicentre was near L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, which together...
, causing the death of 308 persons and making about 65,000 homeless.
- 6 April - An earthquake strikes L’Aquila