Great Siege of Malta

The Great Siege of Malta took place in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire invaded the island of Malta, then held by the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights, with about 400 Maltese men, women and children and approximately 2,000 footsoldiers, won the siege which became one of the most celebrated events in sixteenth-century Europe. Voltaire said, "Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta," and it undoubtedly contributed to the eventual erosion of the European perception of Ottoman invincibility and marked a new phase in Spanish domination of the Mediterranean.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great Siege of Malta