7 April 1926 (100 years ago): Violet Gibson shoots Mussolini in the face, who at that moment turns and grazes him in the nose

As chance would have it, at the precise moment in which Violet Albina Gibson pulled the trigger the song “Youth” was sung by the students: the prime minister turned towards the side from which the melody came and that sudden movement meant that the bullet, instead of hitting him in the face, just grazed his nose.

It was never known with certainty whether Gibson really had mental health problems (she was declared “chronic paranoia with hallucinations” by Italian psychiatrists), or it was a diagnosis ‘pushed’ also by England who did not want a case to be created, given that her father was an English noble figure. And in reality there was a bigger “international conspiracy” behind it, even if she was subsequently expelled from Italy and sent back to England.