40 years ago: The Yom Kippur War begins

Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.
Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. Leviticus 23:27-32

For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. Zechariah 2:8

On October 6, 1973, the nation of Israel was observing Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, when she was hit by a combined attack of Egyptian forces on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, which had been captured by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967. The invasion by Egypt and Syria, who were both backed by the U.S.S.R., achieved initial success, but, like all other attempts to destroy the nation of Israel since its inception in 1948, the war ended in defeat for Egypt and Syria, with most hostilities ending on October 22. The Soviet Union suddenly became interested in promoting peace when the side she was backing started getting the worst of the fighting. While Israel received help from the United States, some things occurred in that war that prompted even secularist Israelis to believe that they had been the beneficiary of divine intervention.

A good quick overview of the Yom Kippur War from a Christian perspective can be found in the September 2013 newsletter of Crown & Sickle Ministries. Zola Levitt's book Israel in Agony (1975) is long out of print, but is useful for providing a look at the Yom Kippur War and other contemporary events from a Jewish Christian perspective.