The Battle of Yavin

The first major victory for the Rebel Alliance was the struggle that was later known as the Battle of Yavin.

The Empire had recently commissioned their first Death Star, a huge space station with the ability to annihilate a planet. Grand Moff Tarkin, the Death Star's creator, intended to hunt down the small Rebel force's base of operations and completely destroy it with the Death Star. Darth Vader, under Tarkin's command, tracked Han Solo's Millennium Falcon to the fourth moon of Yavin, the site of the Rebellion's Massassi Base.

The Rebellion had obtained the construction plans to the Death Star through Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan's involvement in the Imperial Senate. A weakness was found in the design of the space station, and although the Rebellion suffered extremely heavy casualties, the Death Star was destroyed.