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Apr 28, 1945: Benito Mussolini executed
Apr 28, 1945: Benito Mussolini executed On this day in 1945, “Il Duce,” Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland. The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat of the Axis powers all but certain, Mussolini considered his options. Not wanting to fall into the hands of either the British or the Americans, and knowing that the…
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Day by Day: A Personal Story From Japan
APRIL 28, 2011, 5:00 AM Day by Day: A Personal Story From Japan By CHRISTOPH BANGERT When we asked Christoph Bangert to write a journal-style account of his trip through Japan in late March and early April, he hesitated at first, thinking that his life was not the story. However, because he is so frequently asked for details about his travels, he gave it a try. Uster, Switzerland. Friday, March 11. 8:35 a.m. My wife, Chiho, and I are both still wearing our pajamas. We’re staring in disbelief at our computer screens: 8.8. It’s massive. After several attempts, Chiho gets through to her 70-year-old mother in Mishima. She has never…
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‘To To Kill a Mockingbird’ Author Repudiates Journalist’s Memoir About Her
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 April 27, 2011, 5:58 PM By PATRICIA COHEN Harper Lee, the tight-lipped author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” issued a short statement through her sister’s law firm on Wednesday saying that she had nothing to do with a coming book written about her by a former Chicago Tribune reporter. On Tuesday, Penguin Press announced that it had acquired “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee,” a memoir by the former reporter, Marja Mills, that was “written with direct access to Harper and Alice Lee and their friends and family.” Penguin’s announcement said, “The story of Mills’s friendship with the two women recounts all…
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Scores Die in Storms Across South; Tornado Ravages City
Y ANAHAD O’CONNORAND TIMOTHY WILLIAMS April 28, 2011 A deadly tornado stretching a mile wide tore through downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Wednesday evening, killing at least 15 people, flattening homes and buildings, and bringing further damage and death to a region already battered by storms. Across the state, at least 50 people were killed by storms on Wednesday alone, according to officials. The Associated Press reported an additional 11 deaths in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee, bringing the total number of storm-related deaths in the South on Wednesday to at least 64. The late-day tornado, one of several that struck the state, ripped through Tuscaloosa after 5…
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Last in the Line of Succession, Ms. Vogel Is Glad She Isn’t Queen
THE A-HED APRIL 27, 2011 Descendant of Sophia of Hanover, She Would Rule Britain if 4,972 Die By PAUL SONNE ROSTOCK, Germany—Karin Vogel wakes up in this graffiti-pocked east German city and drives to the hospital where she is a therapist who counsels elderly people in chronic pain. Karin Vogel is a direct descendant of an obscure German princess from the 18th century known as Sophia of Hanover. And that puts Vogel in line to inherit the British crown–after 4,972 other people. WSJ’s Paul Sonne reports from Rostock, Germany. a few thousand people would just disappear, Ms. Vogel would be leading a far more enchanting life. She would be the queen…