On this day in 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel, which suffered heavy casualties, but Israeli forces successfully fought back, and the war eventually ended inconclusively.

More Events on this day:

1993:Michael Jordan retired from professional basketball, saying “I don't have anything else to prove,” only to return in March 1995.

1981:Anwar el-Sdt was assassinated by members of the radical fringe of the Muslim opposition.

1927:The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, premiered in New York City, introducing the sound era of motion pictures.

1892: The great English poet of the Victorian Age, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, died.

1849: Thirteen Hungarian generals, “the martyrs of Arad,” were executed for their role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49.

891:Formosus was elected pope.

105 : The Roman army was defeated by Germanic tribes in the Battle of Arausio.

Thor Heyerdahl

"I feel that I am a typical Norwegian. I feel that I have the same love for nature, the mountains, the forests, the fjords, as all my fellow Norwegians, the same sense for adventure and the same feeling for brotherhood among different people. I cannot see that I am very different from most of my countrymen."

Thor Heyerdahl

Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, born this day in 1914, organized and led transoceanic expeditions in the hope of proving the possibility of ancient contacts between distant civilizations.