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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio Welcome Back. I'm your host Eves, and You're

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Speaker 1: tuned into This Day in History Class, a show that

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Speaker 1: takes history and squeezes it into bite sized stories. Today's

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Speaker 1: March eighth. The day was March eighth, nineteen fifty seven.

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Speaker 1: The Suez Canal was reopened after being closed for several

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Speaker 1: months due to Britain, France, and Israel occupying Egypt during

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Speaker 1: the sus Crisis. The Suez Canal is an artificial waterway

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Speaker 1: that runs north to south in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean

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Speaker 1: and Red Seas. Construction began on the canal in eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifty nine. The project was completed by French engineers in

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine. It provided Britain with a shorter sea

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Speaker 1: route to its empire and a shipping route for oil

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Speaker 1: from the Middle East to Europe. The canal was owned

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Speaker 1: and operated by the sus Canal Company, a joint British

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Speaker 1: and French enterprise. After World War One began, Britain declared

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Speaker 1: Egypt Protectorate, and British and Indian forces were sent to

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Speaker 1: protect the strategically important sus Canal. The United Kingdom and

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Speaker 1: Egypt signed the Anglo Egyptian Treaty of nineteen thirty six

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Speaker 1: in London. The treaty required Britain to withdraw its troops

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Speaker 1: from Egypt, except for those protecting Britain's interest in the canal.

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Speaker 1: Those troops could remain in the area for twenty years,

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Speaker 1: at which point the need for the presence of British

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Speaker 1: troops would be reassessed. But in the early nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: political tensions between Egypt, Britain and France were escalating. Anti

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Speaker 1: British sentiment was growing in Egypt, but in nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: four Britain and Egypt reached an agreement that British troops

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Speaker 1: would be withdrawn from Egypt by June of nineteen fifty six.

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Speaker 1: Egypt would honor freedom of navigation through the Sious Canal,

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Speaker 1: and British troops would be allowed to return if the

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Speaker 1: canal was threatened by an outside power. In nineteen fifty four,

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Speaker 1: Gamal Updal Nasser became the second president of Egypt. He

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Speaker 1: aimed to improve Egypt's economy by constructing a high dam

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Speaker 1: at as Swan to irrigate the Nile Valley. Because other

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Speaker 1: goals included ending British occupation in Egypt and building up

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Speaker 1: Egyptian forces for an attack on Israel. Britain and the

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Speaker 1: US had agreed to finance the construction of the Swan

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Speaker 1: High Dam, but the two countries withdrew their offer due

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Speaker 1: to Egypt's ties with communist Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.

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Speaker 1: The US also wanted to reduce spending on a foreign aid,

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Speaker 1: so in nineteen fifty six, President Nasa declared martial law

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Speaker 1: in the canal zone and nationalized the Suez Canal Company.

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Speaker 1: He said that tolls collected from ships passing through the

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Speaker 1: canal would finance the construction of the dam, even though

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Speaker 1: Nassa agreed to compensate the shareholders the nationalization via related

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Speaker 1: terms of the nineteen fifty four agreement, and France, Israel,

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Speaker 1: and Britain opposed it. The three countries formed a joint

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Speaker 1: plan to invade Egypt and overthrown Nasser. It's Raeli troops

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Speaker 1: invaded Egypt in late October, and days later British and

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Speaker 1: French troops began occupying the canal and other SUS territory,

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Speaker 1: but the US pressured France and Britain to accept a

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Speaker 1: United Nations ceasefire. The US also voted for UN resolutions

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Speaker 1: denouncing the invasion and approved the creation of a U

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Speaker 1: N peacekeeping force. By the end of nineteen fifty six,

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Speaker 1: Britain and France withdrew it's. Raeli forces withdrew in March

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Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty seven. Egypt then took control of the

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Speaker 1: canal and reopened it to commercial shipping on March eighth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven. Britain's influence in the Middle East and

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Speaker 1: its relations with the US were strained as a result

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Speaker 1: of the CS crisis. The Egyptian government continues to have

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Speaker 1: complete control over the canal through the US Canal Authority.

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Speaker 1: I'm Eve Chef Coote and hopefully you know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: find us on social media at t d I h

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Speaker 1: turn it into a PDF and send it to us

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Speaker 1: via email at this day at i heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll be back tomorrow.

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