Great Siege of Malta Begins

May 18, 1565

An Ottoman armada of nearly two hundred ships landed thirty thousand troops on Malta. For four months the Knights Hospitaller under Jean Parisot de Valette defended a tiny peninsula of baking stone against almost daily assaults. Malta held. Europe, for once, stopped squabbling long enough to notice. The defense by fewer than six hundred Knights became one of Europe's most celebrated military actions, establishing Malta as Christendom's frontier fortress.