Egypt nationalises the Suez Canal (1956), and Liberia declares independence from the United States (1847). Born on this day: Stanley Kubrick, George Bernard Shaw and Sandra Bullock. Died: Eva Perón, Olivia de Havilland and Sinéad O’Connor.
30 events, 60 births and 61 deaths on this date.
Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of the Suez Canal, which had been run by a company owned mostly by British and French shareholders. Nasser's move angered London and Paris and helped trigger the Suez Crisis.
Pierre Markuse from Hamm, Germany · CC BY 2.0Settlers of African American and Caribbean descent, backed by the American Colonization Society, proclaimed the republic of Liberia on the West African coast. France and Britain were the first powers to recognise it, though the United States waited until 1862.
A single day of rain, nearly a metre of it, swamped the city and its low-lying suburbs. The floods that followed killed more than 5,000 people, making it one of the deadliest urban disasters in India's recent history.
Disney's animated version of Lewis Carroll's story had its first screening in London. It was the studio's thirteenth animated feature, and it was made from a book that had long been a favourite with children.
The National Assembly passed a law making French the required working language of Quebec's government, a move that reshaped the province's public life. It was part of a wider push to protect French in a largely English-speaking continent.
Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy agreed to send military support to General Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. It was one of the first times the Nazi regime committed forces to a conflict outside its own borders.
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Stanley Kubrick was an American filmmaker and photographer who later settled in England. He is remembered for meticulous films such as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange.
Phillip A. Harrington, an American photographer and staffer for Look magazine between 1949–1971 · Public domain
Irish playwright, critic and polemicist, known for wit and sharp social satire in plays such as Pygmalion and Saint Joan. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.
Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain
Sandra Bullock is an American film actress and producer best known for Speed, Practical Magic and The Blind Side, which won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also founded the production company Fortis Films.
Kevin Paul · CC BY 4.0
Eva Perón rose from a poor rural childhood to become an actress and then a major political force in Argentina. As First Lady beside President Juan Perón, she ran a charity foundation, backed women's suffrage and founded the Female Peronist Party.
Pinélides Fusco · Public domain
Best known for playing Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind, she won two Best Actress Oscars, for To Each His Own and The Heiress. She also partnered Errol Flynn in swashbuckling hits such as Captain Blood, and lived to 104.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Irish singer, songwriter and activist whose 1990 hit Nothing Compares 2 U became her signature song. She was also known for speaking openly about faith, mental health and social issues, and her memoir Rememberings became a bestseller.
Bryan Ledgard · CC BY 2.0
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