Brief Look at Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Predappio. The son of a blacksmith he was largely self-educated. He became a schoolteacher and a socialist journalist in northern Italy. In 1910 he married Rachele Guidi who bore his five children. Mussolini was jailed in 1911 for his opposition to Italy’s war in Libya. Soon after his release in 1912 he became editor of the socialist newspaper in Milan, “Avanti!”. When WWI began in 1914 Mussolini advocated Italy’s entrance into the war on the allied side and was expelled from the socialist party. He then st