Aldo Moro

Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (Italian pronunciation: [ˈaldo ˈmɔːro]; September 23, 1916 – May 9, 1978) was an Italian Christian Democratic politician and the 38th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years.

A leader of Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana, DC), Moro was considered an intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party. He was kidnapped on March 16, 1978, by the Red Brigades (BR), a Marxist–Leninist urban guerilla organization, and killed after 55 days of captivity.

Early career

Moro was born in Maglie, in the province of Lecce (Apulia), into a family from Ugento. At 4, he moved with his family to Milan, but they soon moved back to Apulia, where he gained a classical high school degree at Archita lyceum in Taranto. Till 1939 he studied Law at the University of Bari, an institution where he was later to hold the post of ordinary professor (equivalent to a tenured, full professor in the U.S. academic system) of philosophy of Law and Colonial Policy (1941) and of Criminal Law (1942).