On this day in 1920 Italy began its military occupation of Fiume.
The spat over Fiume is almost incomprehensible today, featuring an effort by Italian patriots to seize the city for Italy in spite of it having a mixed population. 62% of the town's residents were, however, of Italian ethnicity. Italy negotiated around the problem of the city and it became a "free city" as a result, with the accompanying result being that the Italian leaders within the city declared war on Italy, a moronic move under the circumstances. On this day the Italians, who had enough of it, started to occupy the city leading to what was called "Bloody Christmas" as the occupation did result in some loss of life.
Today the city is known as Rijeka and is in Croatia.
On the same day, Enrico Caruso gave his last public performance at the Met in New York.
The 48 year old Caruso was not well and would die that following August.
Elsewhere, the day before Christmas looked much like it normally does.
No comments:
Post a Comment