Suez 1956, just a few days after the fourth anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Egyptian government under President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, which had been run by the French and owned privately, with the British as the largest shareholders. The Israeli–British–French invasion of Egypt which followed is known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression but elsewhere as the Suez Crisis. Following Israel's invasion and occupation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in the Six-Day War of 1967, the Canal was closed, and did not reopen until 1975. Today, the Canal is a vital link in world
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Nubian origin, joined the Egyptian Military Academy in 1952 and received his commission as an Army officer on 1 April 1955 in the infantry. Later that year he took part in the Suez War (or the Tripartite Aggression as it is often known in Egypt) as an infantry platoon commander. He was promoted to Major in 1961 and commanded an infantry company in Yemen during the North Yemen Civil War. Later in his career he was involved in the Six-Day War of 1967 as a Lt.Colonel and Battalion commander, the War of Attrition of 1967–1970, and the October or "Yom