Sack of Eregion

Once Sauron had the One Ring completed, he declared himself the Lord of the Rings. Sauron had tricked the elves into making the rings of power for the Dark Lord and he sought to command everything in Arda. Sensing Sauron's power, the elf kings took their rings off. Celebrimbor had given Gil-Galad Vilya and Narya for safe keeping--but Gil-Galad gave Narya to Cirdan. Galadriel bore Nenya the ring of water.

The Dwarf rings did not corrupt the Dwarfs like the Nine rings of power did to men. Instead, they only made the Dwarfs greedy. For the most part, the Dwarfs decided to stay out of the affairs in the west. Only Durin's house fought (which consisted of the fallen houses Belegost and Nogrod at this time). Durin himself was still a fast friend to Celebrimbor and some legends claim that Celebrimbor himself gave Durin III his ring in SA 1500.

Since Sauron did not gain the rings and since his plans didn't go all the way through--he decided to take Middle Earth for himself. Having already established himself in the east and south, Sauron made war on those that opposed him. The Sack of Eregion was the first battle fought in which Celebrimbor was tortured and killed after refusing to tell where the three rings were located.