1956 — The Suez Crisis Begins

On October 29, 1956, Israel's army invaded Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, opening the Suez Crisis. Three months earlier, Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, had nationalized the Suez Canal, seizing the vital waterway from its British and French owners. London and Paris answered in secret, backing the assault in a pact with Israel, and then bombed Egyptian cities themselves under the pretense of protecting the canal they had lost.

The plan backfired swiftly. The United States and the Soviet Union, rivals who agreed on almost nothing, both demanded a ceasefire, and all three invaders withdrew. Britain and France left humiliated, while Nasser, who had refused to bend, emerged a hero across the Arab world.