March 7 1799 – 30 Adar I 5559
Jaffa
Napoleon’s army conquered Jaffa. The odds weren’t exactly even – Napoleon had 13000 trained soldiers against the Ottoman sultan’s 6000 mostly mixed bag of volunteers. Legend has it that as French forces surged forward to storm the town, a bullet passed through Napoleon’s hat and killed the officer standing next to him. The next stage was ugly; over 3000 prisoners were executed in retaliation for their fierce resistance – a precedent Napoleon hoped would weaken enemy resolve elsewhere. In fact the French advance up the coast to Acre encountered even more stubborn opposition, bringing Napoleon’s Holy Land adventure to an end.