After the aggression, the Soviet Union threatened to intervene to support Egyptians and attack London and Paris with nuclear weapons. The United Nations also played a role as it threatened to impose sanctions on the three nations. All these parts are still occupied until now except Sinai.
Abdel Nasser decided to resign but reversed his decision after massive protests urged him to remain in power. The Egyptian coup of , better known as the July 23 Revolution, was an attempt to overthrow the reigning King Farouk and oust the British occupation. He had to leave a thousand suits and his pornographic necktie collection behind, but with him went crates labelled champagne and whisky which had been surreptitiously packed with gold bars.
His baby son, Prince Ahmed Fuad, was proclaimed king and a regency council appointed. In September, however, Egypt became a republic, with General Neguib as president. He was a figurehead who would soon be ousted by Nasser. Meanwhile, Farouk had made for Capri and stayed, ironically enough, at the Eden Paradiso Hotel to begin with, eventually settling in Monaco.
He died in Rome in , soon after his 45th birthday, after collapsing at a restaurant where he had been entertaining a blonde of 22 to a midnight supper. Months Past. King Farouk was 32 when he lost his throne on 26 July And now, on July 25, , he was racing through the streets of Alexandria in his Mercedes Benz at 80 mph with his wife, infant son, three daughters, an English nanny and aide-de-camp in tow, chased by the very military who had served him.
Several army officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, an Egyptian deputy commander who would later become president of Egypt, sought to overthrow what they saw as a scandalous, corrupt, out-of-touch king. Known as the Free Officers Movement, their coup had been some time in the making. To gain the respect of other non-involved officers, Nasser sought out Mohammad Naguib - a widely respected general - to spearhead the coup.
However, like everyone with power, Farouk had his sources of information. The plotters realized that there was no going back. The eventful first day of the coup, July 23, has surprisingly mundane beginnings. As Farouk himself wrote in his memoirs, which were first published in serial form from Oct.
With the officers in control of most of Cairo's military, including army aircraft, Farouk had lost control of the capital in just one day. Now, on the 24th, the consolidated Free Officer-led army, was preparing for a military advance on Alexandria, a coastal city where the king was in residence. Upon their arrival in the city on the evening of the 25th, the officers announced a curfew that all people and vehicles on the streets of Alexandria would be fired upon.
After all, as Farouk said, he did not want rumors to abound that he had committed suicide. Packing his family into two cars, with a submachine gun resting on the knee of his aide-de-camp, Farouk sped through the empty streets - narrowly avoiding an encounter with two armored cars - hoping to get to Ras el-Tin as fast as possible.
Shortly upon arrival, Farouk, his family, servants and around army loyalists who had braved the drastic Officer-enforced curfew barricaded the entrance of the palace.
During the hardships of World War II, Farouk attracted opprobrium for keeping the lights burning at his palace in Alexandria while the rest of the city was blacked out as a defence against Axis bombing. The humiliated Farouk sought solace in torrid evenings at the Hotel Auberge in Cairo. Among the gifts received was a jewelled vase from Haile Selassie and a writing set with Russian gemstone surround from Stalin; Sadek also bore Farouk his much-needed son and heir.
Farouk abdicated in favour of his infant son, and went into exile in Italy and Monaco, leaving his silk suits to the not-so-tender ministrations of that same army; Egypt became a republic in Farouk was not unaware of his precarious status; he once quipped that soon there would be only five kings left: the king of England, and the kings of hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs.
He now threw himself into closer acquaintance with the latter, haunting the resorts and rivieras of Europe while the Egyptian state sold off his coins and watches and displayed his jewellery collection in museums.
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