Video: 'The 1973 Oil Crisis' (Oct. 17, 1973, at 2:34)

(Wednesday, October 17, 1973 evening local time; during the 1973 oil crisis and the Yom Kippur War,  part of the Arab–Israeli conflict, the Cold War, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict) — Eleven Arab nations in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo against countries they deem to have helped Israel in the Yom Kippur War, announcing tonight that they would cut their oil production by five percent every month until Israel agrees to withdraw completely from its occupied territories.

The initial nations targeted were Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, though the embargo also later extended to Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa.

Video: 'Our World Fall 1973 Part 1' (Oct. 17, 1973, at 5:57)

By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen nearly 300 percent, from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12 per barrel globally; U.S. prices were significantly higher.

The embargo caused an oil crisis, or “shock”, with many short- and long-term effects on global politics and the global economy.