October 29, 1956: The Suez Crisis

October 29, 1956: On the orders of dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt closes the Suez Canal, triggering a crisis that could have blown up into World War III.

However, President Dwight D. Eisenhower refuses to take sides, hoping that isolating Britain and France will prevent war, and also prevent the crisis from affecting Israel. "Ike" turns out to be right, and this is often seen as the end of Britain and France as true world powers. The Suez Crisis was a major factor in the fall of France's Fourth Republic, and its replacement with the Fifth Republic, in 1958.

But stuff like this is why the rest of the Middle East doesn't trust Israel. Since 1974, even though it is on the continent of Asia, Israel's national sports teams have been denied entry into Asian tournaments, because Muslim countries in Asia refuse to allow Israeli athletes onto their soil. Since 1992, they have competed in European tournaments.

The Suez Crisis was a huge regional boost for Nasser. A key figure in the coup that overthrew King Farouk in 1952, he set the standard for Middle East dictators to follow, with his cult of personality, his prominent mustache, and his willingness to wear whatever was required for the occasion, be it business suit, military uniform or religious attire.

But he lost the next war with Israel, the Six-Day War of June 1967. And his health was poor: He was a heavy smoker, and by this point had arteriosclerosis and diabetes. He died in 1970, only 52 years old. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Anwar Sadat, who would launch yet another war against Israel in 1973, lose it, and then do something unthinkable to Nasser: Make peace.

Also on this day, NBC debuts its new evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report. With the Suez Crisis beginning that day, the Hungarian Revolution, and a Presidential election campaign entering its final stages, the timing was excellent.

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October 29, 1956 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no Monday Night Football in those days, nor were any college football games played. The NBA and NHL seasons had just started, but there were no games scheduled for this day in either league. So there were no scores on this historic day.

Boxer Wilfredo Gómez was born on that day. The Puerto Rican known as "Bazooka" was the Super Bantamweight Champion from 1979 to 1983, the Featherweight Champion in 1984, and the Super Featherweight Champion in 1985 and 1986.

October 15, 1945: Pierre Laval Is Executed

October 15, 1945: Pierre Laval is executed by firing squad at a prison in Fresnes, in the suburbs of Paris, for his collaborations with the Nazis under the Vichy regime. He was 62.

Born on June 28, 1883 in Châteldon, in the French Alps, he became a labor union leader, was elected to France's Chamber of Deputies and then to its Senate during the Third Republic, and was elected Prime Minister in 1931. Later that year, for his efforts at keeping peace between Germany and the rest of Europe, he was given a ticker-tape parade upon his visit to New York City, and Time magazine named him its Man of the Year.

(It's worth noting that the distinction now known as the Time Person of the Year is not an "award" that is "won." It's for the person who, according to the magazine's editors, most affected the news during the year. Wallis Simpson was the 1st woman to receive it, in 1936; Chiang Kai-shek and his wife were the 1st multiple entry, in 1937; Adolf Hitler received it in 1938; Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942; John Foster Dulles in 1954; Nikita Khrushchev in 1957; Richard Nixon in 1971, and sharing it with Henry Kissinger in 1972; King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in 1974; Deng Xiaoping in 1978 and 1985; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979; Ronald Reagan in 1980, and sharing it with Yuri Andropov in 1983; Newt Gingrich in 1995; Bill Clinton had to share it with Kenneth Starr in 1998; Jeff Bezos in 1999; George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004; Rudy Giuliani in 2001; Vladimir Putin in 2007; Mark Zuckerberg in 2010; Donald Trump in 2016; and Elon Musk in 2021.) (UPDATE: It went to Trump again in 2024.)

Laval's government fell after only a year, but he became Foreign Minister in 1934, and returned to the premiership for 6 months in 1935 and 1936. When France fell in 1940, the Nazis offered him its governance, knowing that he had been conservative, and had previously been friendly to Germany in general and to Hitler (and Italy's Benito Mussolini) in particular.

Laval thought that, by accepting, he was helping to protect his country. His country didn’t see it that way, and, after The War, he was found guilty of plotting against the security of the state, and of collaboration with the enemy.

Laval was the head of government for Vichy France. The head of state was Philippe Pétain. The Marshal became known as the Lion of Verdun for his heroic stand against the Kaiser's troops in World War I. His 1914 declaration at the Marne, "They shall not pass!", became a willingness in 1940 to let them pass. When outgoing Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned after the fall, he recommended Pétain to the Nazis, as a unifying figure. They accepted, and so did he.

He was 88 years old when France was liberated, and he remains the oldest head of state in France's history, older than any of its monarchs. (Even King Louis XIV was "only" 76.) After the war, the new Fourth Republic convicted him of treason, but sentenced him to life in prison, rather than death, due to his age. He died in 1951. Charles de Gaulle said his remarkable life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre."

Given that he seemed to have considerably less choice in the matter, history has been kinder to Pétain than it has been to Laval.

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October 15, 1945 was a Monday. The World Series had ended 5 days earlier, when the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs in Game 7. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start for another 9 days. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 4, 1958: France Establishes Its Fifth Republic

October 4, 1958: France adopts a new Constitution, beginning its Fifth Republic. Charles de Gaulle demanded it, and Michel Debré did most of the writing. In the new government established in the new Republic, de Gaulle served as President, head of state; and Debré as Prime Minister, head of the government.

The First Republic was founded on September 21, 1792, when the French Revolution overthrew the monarchy of King Louis XVI. Napoleon Bonaparte brought it to an end when he declared the First Empire on May 18, 1804. That Empire lasted until April 11, 1814, and was restored briefly from March 20 to July 7, 1815.

The Bourbon Restoration lasted until February 23, 1848, when France's branch of the European Revolutions of 1848 established the Second Republic. That ended on December 2, 1852, when Napoleon's grandnephew, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, proclaimed the Second Empire, and himself as Emperor Napoleon III. (He considered Napoleon's son, who never actually reigned, to be Napoleon II.)

The Second Empire fell on September 4, 1870, after Napoleon III was captured in the Battle of Sedan 2 days earlier, costing France the Franco-Prussian War. The Third Republic lasted through the Dreyfus Affair, World War I and the Great Depression, until falling to the Nazis on July 10, 1940.

After de Gaulle's provisional government following the Liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, the Fourth Republic began with the adoption of its Constitution on October 13, 1946. It was basically a resumption of the Third Republic. But it suffered from a lack of political consensus, a weak executive, and governments forming and falling in quick succession.

Finally, the Algieria Crisis of 1958 forced the government's hand. On June 1, it voted to return de Gaulle to power. He had offered himself as the savior of the nation. It was not the first time, and it would not be the last.

Many opposed him. Writer-philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, publicly known to be a militant atheist in the mold of a new Voltaire, said, "I would rather vote for God." de Gaulle himself said, "Who honestly believes that, at age 67, I would start a career as a dictator?" Many did. But, as has so often been the case, a people's desire for stability topped all other concerns. de Gaulle once again turned out to be the right man for the job... for the moment.

On June 3, de Gaulle called for a new constitution. On September 28, the nation's voters approved it. It took effect on October 4, and de Gaulle was elected President on December 21, taking office on January 9, 1959. On its issue dated 5 days earlier, January 5, Time magazine named de Gaulle its Man of the Year for 1958.

The 1958 constitution also replaced the French Union with the French Community, similar to the British Empire transitioning to the British Commonwealth. Over the course of calendar year 1960, 14 French colonies in Africa declared their independence. Finally, Algeria was allowed to become independent on July 5, 1962. This kept France stable until the "May Days" of 1968, when de Gaulle sent troops in to settle things. France has not even approached the need for a Sixth Republic since then.

The Constitution of the Fifth Republic has been amended 24 times, most recently in 2008.

So, to recap. Chronologically:

1792-1804: First Republic

1804-1815: First Empire

1815-1848: Bourbon Restoration

1848-1852: Second Republic

1852-1870: Second Empire

1870-1940: Third Republic

1940-1944: Third Reich

1944-1946: Provisional Government

1946-1958: Fourth Republic

1958-present: Fifth Republic

By time: Third Republic, 70 years; Fifth Republic, 64 years and counting as of October 4, 2022; Bourbon Restoration, 33 years; Second Empire, 18 years; Fourth Republic, 12 years; First Republic, 11 years; First Empire, 11 years; Second Republic, 4 years; Third Reich, 4 years; post-WWII provisional government, 2 years.

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October 4, 1958 was a Saturday. Game 3 of the World Series was played at Yankee Stadium, and the New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves, 4-0. Don Larsen was not perfect, as he was 2 years earlier, but effective enough to combine with reliever Ryne Duren for a 6-hit shutout. Hank Bauer hit a home run. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Hank Aaron went 0-for-3 with a walk. The Yankees went on to win the Series in 7 games.

There was college football played that day, including the following games:

* Number 1 Oklahoma beat Oregon, 6-0 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma went on to win the Big Seven Conference (it became the Big Eight when Oklahoma State joined in 1960). The next week, they lost to Texas in the Cotton Bowl, which would be their only loss of the season.

* Number 2 Auburn beat Chattanooga, 30-8 at Cliff Hare Stadium (now Jordan-Hare Stadium) in Auburn, Alabama.

* Number 3 Ohio State beat the University of Washington, 12-7 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 4 Michigan State and Number 16 Michigan played to a 12-12 tie at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan.

* Number 5 Army beat Penn State, 26-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. Army had the season's Heisman Trophy winner, running back Pete Dawkins.

* Number 6 Mississippi beat Trinity College, 21-0 at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio. Trinity now play in NCAA Division III.

* Number 7 Notre Dame beat Number 17 Southern Methodist (SMU), 14-6 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. In those days, Notre Dame didn't accept invitations to bowl games, so they did not go on to play in the Cotton Bowl game, or any other.

* Number 8 Iowa were held to a 13-13 tie by the Air Force Academy, at Iowa Stadium (now Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City. Iowa still won the Big 10 Conference title.

* Number 9 Wisconsin beat cross-State Marquette, 50-0 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. Marquette, a participant in the 1st-ever Cotton Bowl (losing to Texas Christian on New Year's Day 1937), dropped its football program after the 1960 season.

* Number 10 Clemson beat Maryland, 8-0 at Byrd Stadium (now SECU Stadium) in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. Clemson went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

* Number 11 Mississippi State were upset by Tennessee, 13-8 at Crump Stadium in Memphis. Although the venue was in Tennessee's State, it was much closer to MSU's campus.

* Number 13 Louisiana State beat Hardin-Simmons, 20-6 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU went on to win the Southeastern Conference title, and beat Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, to win the National Championship.

* Number 15 Navy beat Boston University, 28-14 at Nickerson Field in Boston.

* The University of California beat Washington State, 34-14 at California Memorial Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Berkeley. Neither team was then ranked. Cal went on to win the title of the American Association of Western Universities (AAWU, a precursor to the league now known as the Pacific-12 Conference), but lost the Rose Bowl to Iowa.

* Holy Cross beat Syracuse, 14-13 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts. Neither team was then ranked. This would be the only game that Syracuse lost in the regular season, and they advance to the Orange Bowl, but were beaten by Oklahoma.

* Texas Christian beat Arkansas, 12-7 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. Neither team was then ranked. TCU went on to win the Southwest Conference title, and beat Air Force in the Cotton Bowl.

* Among New Jersey's teams, Rutgers beat Colgate, 21-7 at Colgate Athletic Field (now Andy Kerr Stadium) in Hamilton, New York; while Princeton beat Columbia, 43-8 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

The NHL season began 4 days later; the NBA season, 11 days after that. In English soccer, Arsenal beat Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion, 4-3 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury. France? Like most countries on the European continent, they traditionally play soccer on Sundays.