Silvio Berlusconi may have had his nose broken and teeth shattered during the recent attack on him but an Irish woman meant deadly harm to Berlusconi's predecessor Benito Mussolini when she tried to kill him in 1926.

Albina Gibson, described as " a gray haired Irish woman" accosted Il Duce as he left an event and sat in a car and put a revolver to his face. She pressed the trigger three times. Mussolini reared back his head and the bullets seared his nostrils. but did not seriously injure him.

Mussolini brushed the assassination attempt off.

Outraged fascists grabbed the Irishwoman and tried to injure her but she was rescued. She was later committed to an insane asylum in England where she ended her years.