Vasily Arkhipov blocks a nuclear torpedo launch
1962 · Event
Hounded by US practice depth charges off the Cuba quarantine line, out of contact with Moscow and running out of air, the captain of Soviet submarine B-59 orders his nuclear torpedo readied. Launch needs three officers' consent; flotilla commander Vasily Arkhipov, on board by chance, refuses — perhaps the closest the Cold War came to going nuclear.
On these timelines: Cuban Missile Crisis, Master, Cold War, Russia & the USSR, USA
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Around 1962
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- Cuban Revolutionary War (1953)
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- The Troubles (1968)
- Decolonisation of Africa (1952)
- Prague Spring (1968)
- US Civil Rights Movement (1954)
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