On November 17, 2003, the actor and former bodybuilder
Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor
of California at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

Prior to Schwarzenegger, another famous actor, Ronald
Reagan, served as the 33rd governor of California from
1967 to 1975 before going on to become the nation’s
40th president in 1980.

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is 78.

The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red
seas, was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended
by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.

In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul
to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor
of Egypt to build a canal 100 miles across the Isthmus of
Suez.

An international team of engineers drew up a construction
plan, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and
granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after
completion of the work.

Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was
done by hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced
laborers.

Empress Eugénie (1826 – 1920)