Dear readers,
October, official or not, will always be Italian Heritage Month in the hearts of Italian-Americans throughout the United States. www.italic.org is where you can make an Italian connection
any day of the year: all you need is your home computer or your iPhone. Grazie to my marito, I can give you a sample of the abbondanza of italianità that awaits you when you visit the website: Our Classical Thought and Roots by John Mancini, founder, and director; the almanac; the Italian jukebox – Italian music on records; a gallery of Italian videos; thoughts and opinions on all things Italians Bill Dal Cerro on movies.
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From the October Almanac:
On October 2, a plebiscite in Rome annexed the city to the Italian Kingdom in 1870.
On October 4, the first Italian railroad began operation in 1839, covering a 5-mile stretch between Naples and Portici. On the same day, the use of the new, more astronomically precise Gregorian calendar began in Italy and other Catholic countries in 1582. Anti-Catholic Protestant countries adopted it later. Always on the 4th, St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1181. He died in 1226.
On October 5, Maria Beatrice d’Este was born in 1658. She became the wife of King James II of the United Kingdom.
On October 6, 1600, the first opera Euridice by Jacopo Peri was performed in Florence. On the same day in 1924, regular commercial broadcasting began on Italian radio.
On October 7, 1918, Italian forces advanced into Albania over which Italy had proclaimed a protectorate in June 1917 during the First World War. On the same day, the Italian cruise ship
Achille Lauro was hijacked by Palestinian extremists in 1985 while sailing off the Egyptian coast. A combined fleet of Italian city-states, Papal, and allied ships defeated the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto on October 7th, 1571. That was a major event in world history. Always on October 7th, Candido Iacuzzi, inventor of the first whirlpool bath, died in 1986 at age 83.
On October 8 Argentine dictator Juan Perón, (né Peroni), was born in 1895.
On October 9, 1963, several towns in northeastern Italy were literally washed off the map when an Alpine avalanche caused millions of tons of water to spill over the Piave River’s 873-foot-high Vajont Dam. Two thousand lives were lost. On the same day, in 1562, scientist Gabriello Falloppio died. He studied the anatomy of the ear and the reproductive system.
On October 19, Joseph Petrosino became the first Italian-American police officer in New York City. He formed the Italian squad to fight crime in Little Italy and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He also founded the NYPD bomb squad.
On October 20, Renaissance sculptor and master of enameled reliefs Andrea della Robbia was born in Florence in 1435.
On October 21, the silent film The Sheik premieres in 1921. It
solidified Rudolf Valentino’s image as the “Latin Lover.”
On October 22, the actress Annette Funicello was born in 1942.
On October 23, 1933, the Royal Italian Air Force test pilot Francesco Aggello tried for a new speed record in a propeller plane. He reached the amazing speed of 709 km per hour and came close to breaking the sound barrier.
On October 24, Italian troops with Napoleon won their first victory in Russia in 1812 at the Battle of Malo-Jaroslavetz.
On October 25, heavyweight champion of the world Primo Carnera was born in Italy in 1906. The huge fighter was nicknamed the Ambling Alp. He lost his title to Joe Louis.
On October 26, 1860, upon victory over Bourbon forces, Giuseppe Garibaldi ceded Southern Italy and Sicily to King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy with a handshake at a meeting on horseback outside Naples. Italy was reunified after 1400 years. On the same day, boxer Rocky Marciano defeated one-time champ Joe Louis, in 1951.
On October 27, master violinist Nicolò Paganini was born in
1782.
On October 28, 1922, the King of Italy invited Benito Mussolini and his fascist party to form a new government to restore order in a strife-torn nation.
On October 29, 1908, one of the world’s largest producers of electronic office equipment, Olivetti & Company, was founded in
Ivrea, near Torino. On the same day, the six-day battle of Vittorio Veneto ended in 1918. The Italians defeated an Austro-Hungarian-German army, killing 30,000 and capturing 427,000. The loss of Austria severely affected the Germans’ morale and contributed to the armistice on the Western Front two weeks later.
On October 30, fitness guru and inventor of dynamic tension Charles Atlas, born Angelo Siciliano, was born in 1892.
On October 31, 1922, King Vittorio Emanuele III appoints Benito Mussolini Prime Minister of Italy. On the same day,
Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris was born in Livorno in 1847. His research made the alternating current electric motor possible.
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