ON THIS DAY- On this day in 1801, forces of the French Campaign in Egypt, led at the time by Jacques-François Menou, was permitted to evacuate after being defeated by British forces. In 1967, the Soviet Union announced it had successfully sent a space probe, the Venera 4, into the atmosphere of the planet Venus for the first time. 100 years earlier, in 1867, the US took possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for USD 7.2 mn. The Communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, was forced to step down on this day in 1989. Former Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau and tennis legend Martina Navratilova were born on this day in 1919 and 1956, respectively. Thomas Edison died on this day in 1931. Two years ago, Enterprise readers got a reminder that polls opened for the first round of voting for the parliamentary elections and we were also taking note of former CBE Governor Hisham Ramez exclaiming that “we are not facing a foreign exchange crisis, but rather a challenge.” This time last year we were noting Egypt’s failure to secure the USD 6 bn in third party-funding the IMF wanted in place before approving its funding package.