This Day in History.

Today in 1945. Benito Mussolini and his mistress were executed by the Italian resistance movement. Mussolini was captured while escaping the Switzerland. several high-ranking Fascist officials, and some other Fascist hanger-ons were taken to Dongo. On April 28 they were summarily executed. Many of the corpses, including those of Mussolini and Petacci, were later taken to Milan and hung up-side down in a square near Milan's Central Station. This place was chosen because it had been the site of a massacre of anti-Fascists by Fascist militia under German orders the previous year. Fifteen Fascists were exhibited in the square; this number had significance seeing as 15 anti-Fascists had been displayed in the square in 1944.