Closure of the Suez Canal (1956–1957)

The closure of the Suez Canal from November 1956 to April 1957 was caused by the Second Arab–Israeli war also known as the Suez Crisis in 1956. On 26 July 1956 Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal from British and French investors who owned the Suez Canal Company, causing Britain and France to devise a military operation with the help of Israel to invade the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and have British and French paratroopers drop in to protect the Suez Canal, but the objective was to take the canal back. The United States and Soviet Union condemned the invasion and de-escalated the situation by early 1957.