The Explorers' Club, № MCL

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
7 April 1926: Italian Duce Benito Mussolini was shot in Rome by Violet Gibson, an Anglo-Irishwoman, the first of three assassination attempts in 1926; he had just addressed an international conference of surgeons; the bullet only grazed Mussolini's nose, & he was able to carry on with his itinerary; Italian police saved Gibson from being lynched & she spent the rest of her life in a British insane asylum.

Commentary: In 2022, Dublin, Ireland unveiled a plaque honoring Gibson as a "committed anti-fascist," brushing aside her own Unionist political convictions (born & raised in Dublin, she refused to hold Irish citizenship after the Anglo-Irish War) & the inconvenient fact that her failed assassination boosted Mussolini's popularity, thus aiding the Fascist consolidation of power in Italy.

Lest we forget.