In the spring of 1936, newspapers throughout Upstate New York wrote about strange marriage ceremonies happening throughout the region and around the country. Hundreds of husbands and wives were getting remarried after exchanging polished steel rings sent to them by the Fascist leader of Italy, Benito Mussolini, after sending him their gold ones.
On Oct. 3, 1935, Mussolini, known as "Il Duce" (The Leader), had invaded Ethiopia, at that time one of the few independent states in European-controlled Africa. The short Italo-Ethiopian War was used by Mussolini to boost Italy's national prestige and to avenge the Italian army's defeat at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, considered by historians to be one of the worst losses by a European army at the hands of an African one.
