1967 — Nasser Closes the Straits of Tiran

On May 22, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, cutting off ninety percent of Israel's oil. The declaration followed the expulsion of United Nations peacekeepers from Sinai, removing the buffer that had kept a tense frontier quiet for years along the desert border.

Israel treated the closure as an act of war. After three agonizing weeks of tension, Israel struck first on June 5, igniting the Six-Day War that redrew the Middle East and ended the era of pan-Arab nationalism. A single announcement about a narrow waterway had set in motion a war that changed a region.