Egypt Strikes Israel: Yom Kippur War Begins
Egypt and Syria attacked Israel simultaneously on October 6, 1973, choosing Yom Kippur deliberately because most Israeli soldiers were fasting and at synagogue. Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and overwhelmed the Bar-Lev Line in hours. Syrian tanks poured through the Golan Heights. Israel nearly lost both fronts in the first 48 hours. Desperate counterattacks and an American airlift of weapons turned the tide within two weeks. Israel pushed to within 65 miles of Cairo and surrounded Egypt's Third Army. The war killed over 2,500 Israelis, 8,000 Egyptians, and 3,500 Syrians. Arab oil producers imposed an embargo on Western nations that quadrupled petroleum prices worldwide. The war shattered Israeli invincibility myths and led directly to the Camp David peace accords five years later.
October 6, 1973
53 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 6
The Cimbri annihilated two Roman armies at Arausio, killing 80,000 soldiers and 40,000 camp followers. It was Rome's worst defeat since Cannae. The disaster hap…
Two Roman armies suffered a catastrophic annihilation at the hands of the Cimbri and Teutones near the Rhône River, losing an estimated 80,000 soldiers. This di…
Roman legions under Lucullus shattered the Armenian army at the Battle of Tigranocerta, dismantling the regional hegemony of King Tigranes the Great. This victo…
Tigranes the Great watched his army collapse from a hilltop. He'd brought 250,000 men to fight Lucullus and his 18,000 Romans outside Tigranocerta. The Romans c…
October 6 was an unlucky day in Roman superstition—the anniversary of the Battle of Arausio. Lucullus attacked Tigranes anyway and routed an Armenian army five …
Wang Mang's head was kept in the imperial treasury for 273 years. Rebels captured him when Chang'an fell, killed him, cut off his head, and preserved it as a tr…
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