X-Nico

23 unusual facts about sicily


1944 in organized crime

September 16 - Leaders of the Blocco del popolo (The Popular Front) in Sicily, the communist Girolamo Li Causi and socialist Michele Pantaleone, went to speak to the landless labourers at an election rally in Villalba, challenging Mafia boss Calogero Vizzini in his own personal fiefdom.

Angelo Bruno

Born in Villalba, Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, Bruno emigrated to the United States in his teens and settled in Philadelphia.

Antonio Saverio De Luca

Born Bronte, Sicily, he was ordained on 10 February 1839, aged 33, as Priest of Monreale, Italy.

Bronte House

Lowe completed the construction of the house and its gardens and named it after Lord Nelson, who was known as the Duke of Bronte (a town in Sicily).

Dago Creek

The name derives from the numerous Sicilian fishermen who would anchor in the protected waters during closed fishing periods and collectively celebrate their heritage with plenty of food and wine.

Franciscan Order in modern times

They form less than a score of houses—two in Rome, five in Sicily, seven in Austria, and two in the United States.

Italian submarine Enrico Toti

1- patrol the mediterranean sea with special attention to the Channel of Sicily during the Cold War; for this reason their main base was the Military Arsenal of Augusta (Syracuse);

Kamarina

Kamarina, Sicily, an ancient city of Sicily, founded by Syracuse in 599 BC

Kempinski Hotel Giardino di Costanza

The Resort stands among rows of vineyards and olive groves in the western side of Sicily, near Mazara del Vallo, in the province of Trapani.

Kewullay Conteh

After two seasons for Venezia, one in Serie B and one in Serie A, Conteh, together with many other team players, left Venezia for Palermo in 2002 after chairman Maurizio Zamparini bought the Sicilian team.

Kirk Haston

He and his wife Kasey soon returned from Sicily to Middle Tennessee when he was waived due to a right knee injury prior to the start of the season.

Lucy Tyler-Sharman

In 1994 she won an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship as a sprinter and represented Australia in the World Championships in Sicily finishing fourth.

Ludwig Heilmann

His battalion fought near Francoforte and Centuripe near Regalbuto, Bronte and Maletto.

Muslim conquest of Sicily

The new emir sent fresh troops to Sicily, where the Muslims regained the upper hand after Mousele's departure: in 839–840, the Muslims reduced the fortresses of Corleone, Platani, Caltabellotta, and possibly also Marineo, Geraci and other forts, and in 841, they raided from Enna as far as Grotte.

Rock Partridge

While it generally manages to hold its own, the status of the Sicilian population may be more precarious and certainly deserves attention (Randi 2006).

Silvermane

Silvio Manfredi, nicknamed "Silvermane" for his near-white hair, is a professional criminal originally from Corleone, Sicily that started his criminal career as a racketeer in an organized crime group called the Maggia, eventually becoming a criminal organizer and mastermind.

Sinagra, Western Australia

The City of Wanneroo established a sister city relationship with Sinagra, Sicily as a large number of families migrated from there to make a new home in Wanneroo.

SS Empire Cameron

Empire Cameron was on a voyage from Alexandria, Egypt, joining the convoy at Oran and leaving at her destination of Augusta, Italy.

SS Empire Candida

Empire Candida joined the convoy at Algiers and left it at Augusta, Italy.

Tortorici

Located in the Nebrodi regional park, Tortorici borders the following municipalities: Bronte, Castell'Umberto, Floresta, Galati Mamertino, Longi, Randazzo, San Salvatore di Fitalia, Sinagra, Ucria.

Uzeda

Uzeda is a Sicilian math rock group founded in 1987, consisting of lead singer Giovanna Cacciola, guitarists Agostino Tilotta and Giovanni Nicosia, bassist Raffaele Gulisano and drummer Davide Oliveri.

Via Valeria

A second Via Valeria, the Via Valeria of Sicily, connected Messina and Siracusa.

Zelkova sicula

The only known population, found in 1991, consists of 200–250 plants growing on the Monti Iblei area, in Buccheri, in southeast Sicily near Syracuse.


1983 in organized crime

Sicilian mafioso Salvatore Contorno begins anonymously writing letters to the police with information on the mafia.

2005–06 Serie C2

Division C2/A was mainly composed by Northern Italy and Sardinian teams, whereas division C2/B included North-Central and Central Italy teams, with the exception of two teams from Campania (Benevento and Cavese), and division C2/C was represented by teams hailing from Central-Southern Italy and Sicily.

8th Airlift Squadron

The history of the 8th includes airborne assaults on Sicily and Southern France, support of partisans in Northern Italy and the Balkans, and transportation of personnel and supplies in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, during World War II.

A.C.R.D. Acicatena

Associazione Calcio Riunite Dilettantistica Acicatena is an Italian association football club located in Aci Catena, Sicily.

Agonum muelleri

In Europe, it is found in Albania, the Azores, Baltic states, Belarus, Benelux, Great Britain including the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, mainland Portugal, Russia, Sardinia, Sicily (doubtful), mainland Spain, Ukraine, Scandinavia, Yugoslavian states, and Central Europe.

Álvaro de Bazán, 2nd Marquis of Santa Cruz

The other male of the family, Fernando, became Chancellor, Rector, of the University of Salamanca, and later, after ecclesiastical jobs at Seville and Cordoba, Archbishop of Palermo, Sicily, Italy .

Amatus of Montecassino

Amatus describes the Norman sieges of Bari and Salerno, the conquest of Sicily, and the career of Robert Guiscard, as well as the Gregorian Reforms seen from the papal point-of-view, interspersed with reports of miracles and prophecies.

Antonino Giuffrè

Giuffrè became part of the "directorate" that was established by Bernardo Provenzano, according to Antonio Ingroia, a leading anti-Mafia magistrate in Sicily.

Battle of Panormus

Towards the end of 252 BC or early 251 BC, Carthage had put down a Libyan revolt in Africa and sent an army under the command of Hasdrubal, son of Hanno the Great, to Sicily.

Benedict T. Viviano

In a city of French foundation but mainly German population with a strong African American minority, his family belonged to the city's community of Italian people, itself divided into Lombards and Sicilians.

CAID

Qaid (also caid or kaid), various forms of responsible official found in places ranging from the Kingdom of Sicily to rural North Africa

Charles Anthony Schott

Mr. Schott was a member of the Government parties that observed the total eclipse of the sun in August, 1869, at Springfield, Illinois, and at Catania, Sicily, in December, 1870.

David ben Judah Messer Leon

However, in 1495 the city fell to the French under Charles VIII, and he fled east to the Ottoman Empire to escape the violent pogroms that ensued, spending time in Istanbul before moving sometime between 1498 and 1504 to teach Torah in Salonica, at that time in a state of intellectual vibrancy due to the settlement there of many Sephardi exiles forced to leave after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sicily in 1493, and Portugal in 1496.

Dusán Sžetzetižicž

Dusán Sžetzetižicž (born 8 December 1990 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina), is a Bosnian football (soccer) player who currently plays in Italy for Sicilian club A.S.D. Castiglione.

Edward Rooker

Among Rooker's early works are a view on the Thames from Somerset House (1750), and a view of Vauxhall Gardens (1751), both after Canaletto; a view of the Parthenon for Dalton's 'Views of Sicily and Greece' (1751), and a section of St. Paul's Cathedral, decorated according to the

Edward Sciandra

Edward "Eddie The Conductor" Sciandra, was born in Montedoro, Sicily on November 13, 1912 and he died on July 13, 2003 in Hallandale, Florida.

Enna

In the time of Agathocles we find Enna for a time subject to that tyrant, but when the Agrigentines under Xenodicus began to proclaim the restoration of the other cities of Sicily to freedom, the Ennaeans were the first to join their standard, and opened their gates to Xenodicus, 309 BC.

Ferdinando d' Aragona y Guardato, 1st Duke of Montalto

1.2.1) Maria d'Aragona y de Luna, 5th Duchesa of Montalto; she married, 1590, Sicilian Francesco de Moncada y de Luna, 3rd Prince di Paternò, deceased 1595.

Francesco Brancati

Francesco Brancati (1607 in Sicily – 1671 in China) was an Italian Jesuit missionary.

Gigi D'Amico

In 1995 he began a sound engineer course at Centro Professione Musica (CPM), while working as a sound engineer touring Sicily in support of several international artists, including Tom Harrell, Tonino Horta, Rickie Lee Jones, Gloria Gaynor, Temptation, Blonde Redhead, Warmers, and Uzeda.

Giuseppe Di Cristina

Giuseppe Di Cristina (April 22, 1923 – May 30, 1978) was a powerful mafioso from Riesi in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, southern Italy.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara

Honorary citizenship of the town of Sciara, in Sicily, founded in 1670 by Filippo Notarbartolo (the grandfather of the great-grandfather of Giuseppe’s great-grandfather), received from the Mayor of Sciara on 12 December 1999.

Harpalus affinis

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Novaya Zemlya, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

History of Thessaloniki

However, after the death of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire began to decline and in 1185, Norman rulers of Sicily, under the leadership of Count Baldwin and Riccardo d'Acerra, attacked and occupied the city, resulting in considerable destruction.

Illyrius

The children of Polyphemus all migrated from Sicily and ruled over the peoples named after them, the Celts, the Illyrians, and the Galatians.

Isabella del Balzo

A combination of King Louis XII of France and King Ferdinand II of Aragon had continued the claim of Louis' predecessor, King Charles VIII of France, to Naples and Sicily.

John Thomas Jones

From Naples the troops sailed for Sicily, and, on the dethronement of the king, garrisoned Messina and Melazzo.

Kingdom of Southern Italy

A kingdom comprising Southern Italy prior to breaking up into the Kingdom of Naples comprising mainland southern Italy, and the Kingdom of Sicily comprising the island of Sicily.

Margaret of Sicily

Margaret of Sicily (also called Margaret of Hohenstaufen or Margaret of Germany) (1 December 1241, in Foggia – 8 August 1270, in Frankfurt-am-Main), was a Princess of Sicily and Germany, and a member of the House of Hohenstaufen.

Metapontum

At the time of the Athenian expedition to Sicily, 415 BCE, the Metapontines at first, like the other states of Magna Graecia, endeavoured to maintain a strict neutrality; but in the following year were induced to enter into an alliance with Athens, and furnish a small auxiliary force to the armament under Demosthenes and Eurymedon.

Military of ancient Carthage

Beginning with the reign of King Hanno the Navigator in 480 BC, Carthage began regularly employing Iberian infantry and Balearic slingers to support Carthaginian spearmen in Sicily, a practice which would continue until the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.

Morgantina treasure

The Morgantina treasure is a set of 16 pieces of Greek silverware with details in gold dating from the third century BC, which was illegally excavated from Morgantina, an Ancient Greek city in Sicily, near modern Aidone.

Necropolis of Pantalica

Pantalica is located on a limestone promontory surrounded by a deep gorge formed by the Anapo and Calcinara rivers between the towns of Ferla and Sortino in south-eastern Sicily.

Pierre de Brézé

He had made his name in the English wars when in 1433 he joined with Yolande, queen of Sicily, the constable Richmond and others, in chasing from power Charles VII's minister La Trémoille.

Reggiane Re.2001

Finally, on 4 May 1942 it moved to Caltagirone in Sicily, with 18 Reggiane under command of Colonnello Bajlon.

Richard J. Burke

He was married on October 19, 1940 to Josephina Battaglia the daughter of Carmelo Battaglia of Monte Maggiore Belsito, Palermo, Sicily, and Antonia Fasulo of Burgio, Agrigento, Sicily.

Salvatore Contorno

Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno (born May 28, 1946) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta.

Seguenzia monocingulata

It was originally described by Seguenza in fossil form during the Miocene in Calabria and during the Pliocene in Sicily.

Seventh United States Army

The headquarters of the Seventh Army remained relatively inactive at Palermo, Sicily, and Algiers until January 1944, when Lieutenant General Mark Clark was assigned as commander and the Army began planning for the invasion of southern France.

Southern Italy

The peninsular territories, contemporaneously called Kingdom of Sicily, but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it.

The Ruby in her Navel

Writing in the Guardian, John Julius Norwich said that the novel made him feel what it felt like to live, work and travel in the Sicily of that time.

The Sicilian

He is a very close personal friend of the Guiliano family, a mentor for Turi, and a man who caters to the Friends of the Friends (the word Mafia is rarely spoken in Sicily).

Treaty of Benevento

One of the chief authors of the treaty as it stands was a young notary named Matthew of Ajello, later of much fame in Sicily.

Valdrada of Sicily

Valdrada of Sicily, was a Sicilian Princess and the Dogaressa of Venice by marriage to the Doge Jacopo Tiepolo (r. 1229-1249).

Walter of the Mill

He was long thought to be an Englishman who came to Sicily with Peter of Blois and Stephen du Perche at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily and Margaret.

William Steger

He flew fifty-six combat missions piloting British Spitfire aircraft in the Tunisian, Sicilian, and Italian campaigns.