At 10:58 am on Wednesday, April 7, 1926, the 50 year old daughter of the former Lord Chancellor of Ireland stepped out of a crowd, drew a revolver, and shot Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in the face. Had she done so a decade later, she might have been hailed as a hero. Had she been a better shot, history might have been different.
Three classic episodes of The History Guy about how the Christmas season survives even tragedy.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.