Giuseppe Verdi Verdi and Giuseppina decided to adopt Carlo's great-niece Filomena Maria Verdi, then seven years old, as their own child. She was to marry in 1878 the son of Verdi's friend and lawyer Angelo Carrara and her family became eventually the heirs of Verdi's estate. "Aida" was commissioned by the Egyptian government for the opera house built by the Khedive Isma'il Pasha to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The opera house actually opened with a production of "Rigoletto". The prose libretto in French by Camille du Locle, based on a scenario by the Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, was
1974 Suez Canal Clearance Operation operations were completed by 19 December 1974. 1974 Suez Canal Clearance Operation Following the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel in 1973, an international agreement was reached in October 1973 to provide measures to reopen the Suez Canal. The U.S.-led clearing effort undertaken in 1974 consisted of three operations. The sweeping of mines in the Suez Canal by naval units from the United States, the United Kingdom and France (Operation Nimbus Star), the provision of training and advisory assistance for land and water explosive ordnance clearance for Egyptian forces (Operation Nimbus Moon) and the removal and salvage of wrecks