A conclave was held from 2 to 6 February 1922 to elect a new pope to succeed Benedict XV, who had died on 22 January. Of the 60 members of the College of Cardinals, all but seven attended. On the fourteenth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Achille Ratti, the archbishop of Milan. After accepting his election, he took the name Pius XI. During his first appearance on the main loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, he gave the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing to the people in St. Peter's Square, which his predecessors had abstained from since the capture of Rome by Italy in 1870.