Ziggy Stardust became Bowie's second personality (alter ego). For a press conference, he would show up as Ziggy. Bowie let Ziggy Stardust come to an end during a live concert in the Hammersmith Odeon theatre on 3 July 1973. In 1983, this show was released as movie and soundtrack ("Ziggy Stardust – The Motion Picture"). Bowie also produced Lou Reed's "Transformer". He released "Aladdin Sane" (his first number one album in the United Kingdom).
In 1974, after releasing the album "Diamond Dogs", Bowie settled in Los Angeles. He experimented with drugs, especially cocaine. In 1975, "Fame" (from the "Young Americans" album) a song co-written with John Lennon, was number 1 on the United States charts. Bowie played an alien in the movie "The Man Who Fell To Earth". A new second personality was "The Thin White Duke". This was introduced on the "Station to Station" album in 1976. The song "Golden Years" scored high in the pop charts. In 2003, the album was ranked number 323 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
After releasing "Station to Station", Bowie moved to Berlin. He was interested in German music. He wanted to end his drug abuse. In Berlin, he started to work with producer Tony Visconti and with Brian Eno, the "king of oblique strategies". Bowie was a producer for Iggy Pop too. The "Berlin Trilogy Albums" are "Low" (1977), "Heroes" (1977) and "Lodger" (1979) although only Heroes was recorded entirely in Berlin.
Bowie left Berlin in 1980. In 1980 he recorded and released the album "Scary Monsters And Super Creeps", featuring the United Kingdom number 1 single "Ashes To Ashes". In 1981, he had a big hit with "Under Pressure", together with Queen: it peaked at number 1 on United Kingdom charts. In 1983, Bowie released "Let's Dance", his biggest selling album. The title track peaked at number 1 in the United Kingdom and The United States Of America.
In 1984, Bowie won a Brit Award as Best Male Artist. In 1985, he won a Grammy Award for Best Video (Short Form). Yet in 1985, David Bowie and Mick Jagger released the charity single "Dancing In The Street". In 1986, Bowie released the hit-single "Absolute Beginners".
In 1989, Bowie formed the band Tin Machine. This was his first real band since the 1970s. With this band, Bowie recorded three albums: "Tin Machine" (1989), "Tin Machine II" (1991) and "Oy Vey, Baby" (1992).
By the 1990s, Bowie had become more interested in soul, jazz and hip hop. This was first noticed on the album "Black Tie, White Noise".
Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 17 January 1996.
In 2013, after a ten years hiatus, Bowie released his twenty-fourth album, "The Next Day". In 2014, he was nominated for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards and won a Brit Award for Best Male Artist.
His last album, "Blackstar", was released on 8 January 2016. That was his 69th birthday and two days before his death. After Bowie's death, "Blackstar" reached number one in the United Kingdom and in the United States: it was the only Bowie album to peak at number one in the United States. In 2017 "Blackstar" won 5 Grammy Awards. "Blackstar" also won a Brit Award for the Best Album and David Bowie also won a Brit Award for Best Male Artist.
Bowie married Mary Angela Barnett in 1970. Their son, Duncan Jones was born in 1971. The couple divorced in 1980. Bowie married Iman in 1992. The couple's daughter, Alexandria Jones, was born in 2000.
On 10 January 2016, Bowie died after an 18-month battle with liver cancer in Manhattan, New York City. He was 69 years old. His remains were later cremated on 14 January in a private ceremony in New York.
Bowie covered many genres including art rock, hard rock, glam rock, alternative rock, krautrock, protopunk, post-punk, electronica, Blue-eyed soul, New Wave, Industrial, Techno, Jazz, Dance music, Funk, Disco, Experimental rock, Folk, Instrumental, Ambient and house.
1952
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini KSMOM GCTE (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist. He was also the Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 until 1943. He was the leader of the National Fascist Party.
Benito Mussolini was named after Benito Juarez, a Mexican opponent of the political power of the Roman Catholic Church, by his anticlerical (a person who opposes the political interference of the Roman Catholic Church in secular affairs) father. Mussolini's father was a blacksmith. Before being involved in politics, Mussolini was a newspaper editor (where he learned all his propaganda skills) and elementary school teacher.
At first, Mussolini was a socialist, but when he wanted Italy to join the First World War, he was thrown out of the socialist party. He 'invented' a new ideology, Fascism, much out of Nationalist and Socialist views.
In 1922, he took power by having a large group of men, "Black Shirts," march on Rome and threaten to take over the government. King Vittorio Emanuele III gave in, allowed him to form a government, and made him prime minister. In the following five years, he gained power, and in 1927 created the OVRA, his personal secret police force. Using the agency to arrest, scare, or murder people against his regime, Mussolini was dictator of Italy by the end of 1927. Only the King and his own Fascist party could challenge his power.
Mussolini's form of Fascism, "Italian Fascism"- unlike Nazism, the racist ideology that Adolf Hitler followed- was different and less destructive than Hitler's. Although a believer in the superiority of the Italian nation and national unity, Mussolini, unlike Hitler, is quoted "Race? It is a feeling, not a reality. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today".
Mussolini wanted Italy to become a new Roman Empire. In 1923, he attacked the island of Corfu, and in 1924, he occupied the city state of Fiume. In 1935, he attacked the African country Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia). His forces occupied it in 1936. Italy was thrown out of the League of Nations because of this aggression. In 1939, he occupied the country Albania. In 1936, Mussolini signed an alliance with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany.
In 1940, he sent Italy into the Second World War on the side of the Axis countries. Mussolini attacked Greece, but he failed to conquer it. In 1943, the Allies landed in Southern Italy. The Fascist party and King Vittorio Emanuel III deposed Mussolini and put him in jail, but he was set free by the Germans, who made him ruler of the Italian Social Republic puppet state which was in a small part of Central Italy. When the war was almost over, Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland with his mistress, Clara Petacci, but they were both captured and shot by partisans. Mussolini's dead body was hanged upside-down, together with his mistress and some of Mussolini's helpers, on a pole at a gas station in the village of Millan, which is near the border between Italy and Switzerland.
After the war, several Neo-Fascist movements have had success in Italy, the most important being the Movimento Sociale Italiano. His granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini has outspoken views similar to Fascism.
Puppet state
A puppet state is a country that is officially independent, but not in practice. Puppet governments are usually kept in power by military force provided by an occupying country. Puppet state is a biased term. It is used to criticize the government of the alleged puppet state.
Examples of puppet states before World War II are:
In World War II the Axis countries created some puppet states, like:
After Italy surrendered in World War II the Italian Social Republic was a puppet state created by Germany.
During the Cold War (1945-1989) these Eastern European countries were puppet states of the Soviet Union:
Republic (Soviet Union)
(Soviet Union)
Next are economic puppets: