Fall of Mussolini
On the night of 24–25 July 1943, the Fascist Grand Council met for the first time since 1939 and voted 19–7 to restore military command authority to King Victor Emmanuel III, effectively removing Mussolini as supreme commander. The following afternoon Mussolini was summoned to the royal palace, informed that Pietro Badoglio would replace him as head of government, and arrested as he left. The coup ended 21 years of fascist rule without popular uprising or military revolt: it was a palace revolution executed by Mussolini's own Grand Council, enabled by the king's willingness to act once military defeats made the dictator a liability. Mussolini was held at a succession of locations and was liberated by German paratroopers in September 1943, going on to head the puppet Italian Social Republic in the north.
- Year: 1943 CE
- Category: Political
