Mussolini, Milk and the Cafe de Paris: 14th October: today's top history news

Mussolini was paid by MI5 during the First World War to ensure that Italy continued to fight alongside the allies. Tom Kington reports on an interview with Cambridge historian Peter Martland on the website of The Guardian.

Michael Hirst, the creator of the television series The Tudors, has signed up to write the screenplay for a new film about the battle of Agincourt. The Times considers how the British film is likely to cause cross-channel disputes about the battle.

Schwarzenegger has signed a bill proclaiming May 22nd, Harvey Milk’s birthday, as a day of significance in California. The decision is reported on the website of CNN.

George Mason University’s excellent History News Network (HNN) website reports on how a dramatic lifesaving effort during a press conference quelled the last great Nobel Prize scandal, in 1985.

The Prince of Wales, murders and the introduction of the Charleston to London by a 17-year-old: it can only be the incredible story of the Café de Paris on Coventry Street, as illustrated by Another Nickel In The Machine blog.

The English-language The St Petersburg Times relays news of the destruction of a 19th-century historic house in Moscow, as well as the wider threats posed to the architectural heritage of Russia’s capital by ruthless property developers.

The website of the New Straits Times features a fascinating video of the first part of a series about the fight in Malaya against the terrorism of the Communist party and the Malayan Peoples’ Anti-Japanese Army in the aftermath of the Second World War.