Modern Era · Middle East · War

1973

Yom Kippur War

October 6, 1973

Egyptian and Syrian forces launched coordinated surprise attacks on Israeli positions in the Sinai and Golan Heights on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Israel reeled, counterattacked, and won, but the illusion of invincibility was gone. An Arab oil embargo that followed quadrupled crude prices and recast the world economy.