7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

On July 24, at a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council,

an overwhelming majority passed a resolution that in

effect dismissed Mussolini from office. Disregarding the

vote as a matter of little concern, Mussolini appeared at

his office the next morning as though nothing had hap-

pened. That afternoon, however, he was arrested and

imprisoned. German commandos rescued him on Sept. 12,

1943, and provided for his escape by air to Munich. Rather

than allow the Germans to occupy and govern Italy entirely

in their own interests, Mussolini agreed to Hitler’s sugges-

tion that he return to Italy, establish a new Fascist

government in the German-controlled north, and execute

those members of the Grand Council who had dared to

vote against him.

As German defenses in Italy collapsed and the Allies

advanced rapidly northward, the Italian Communists of

the partisan leadership decided to execute Mussolini.

Disguised as a German soldier, Mussolini tried to escape

from the Allied advance, but he and his mistress, Clara

Petacci, were recognized and shot near Como by Italian

partisans on April 28, 1945. Their bodies were hung, head

downward, in the Piazza Loreto in Milan. Huge, jubilant

crowds celebrated the fall of the dictator and the end of

the war.

Eleanor Roosevelt

(b. Oct. 11, 1884, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 7, 1962,

New York)

E

leanor Roosevelt was one of the world’s most widely

admired and powerful women. She was the wife of

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States,

but was also a towering figure in her own right, a humani-

tarian, and a United Nations diplomat.