THE DAY THE WORLD ALMOST ENDED
Oct 27th, 1962 Is the most imp date in human history that nobody really knows about. It was the day that human civilization came the closest that it's ever been to being annihilated. If events had gone a slightly diff that day or 1 man had made a..

Different decision, it's very likely that you wouldn't have existed in the first place and even if you did, the world you know today would more closely resemble fallout than our own because on Oct 27th, 1962 , the world came the closest it's ever been to FULL OUT NUCLEAR WAR.2/n

The circumstances that almost led to the disaster began 3 years previously in 1959 when the previous govt of Cuba was overthrown by a new Marxist Communist party, it became the first country in the western hemisphere to openly ally with the Soviet Union! A communist country...3/n

Just 90 miles away from Florida was unacceptable to the US govt at the time and multiple attempts by the US govt to assassinate Castro or overthrow his govt like the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 all failed. Castro was convinced that US could invade Cuba so he was getting...4/n

Closer and closer in his alliance with USSR! The Soviet union meanwhile was concerned not only with the possibility of American invasion of Cuba but with the recent deployment of American nuclear missiles in Italy and more alarmingly to them in Turkey. The missiles here were 5/n

Within striking distance of Ukraine and southern Russia USSR began moving nuclear missiles to Cuba in absolute secrecy starting in September 1962. It was the start of the most dangerous gamble that the humanity has ever played with the entire fate of the world at stake 6/n

President Kennedy was notified on October 16th and he called a meeting to discuss America's response options. They included doing nothing, using diplomacy to pressure the Soviets to withdraw, threatening Castro with an invasion blockade in Cuba to prevent new missiles from...7/n

arriving, using air strikes to destroy the known missile site locations or using the US military to launch a full scale invasion of Cuba to destroy the missile sites and overthrow Castro and his regime! The American Joint Chiefs of staff were unanimous in their approval of the..

Invasion option but only Kennedy disagreed. Unknown to them, Castro himself was convinced that America was planning on invading and urged the Soviets to fire a pre emptive nuclear strike on American cities in preparation for it. 9/n

The Soviet leader Khrushchev hesitated on his side while Kennedy hesitated on his own side! Imagine how different the course of events may have been with any other world leaders who might have more easily fallen into peer pressure but neither Kennedy not Khrushchev did .10/n

Although both prepared for war. Kennedy authorised a limited blockade of Cuba on Oct 22 that was stopping any ship travelling suspected of carrying weapons. Khrushchev announced that the Soviets will be ignoring this blockade and for the first time in US history, the nuclear11/n

Alert system was raised to DEFCON 2 just one step before all out nuclear war would be declared and for the only time in US history, nuclear bombers went on continuous 24 hour alert with several orbiting the USSR itself ready to drop the nukes on a 15 min notice. 12/n

On Oct 25th, the Soviets began challenging the US blockade and even getting a few ships slipped past. On Oct 26th, the US began making full preparations to invade Cuba while on the same day Castro continues to urge the Soviets in s telegram to launch the nuclear first strike13/n

Against America and then finally in this atmosphere of extreme tensions the day of Oct 27th came that decided the fate of the entire world right up until our current times! A Soviet submarine flotilla had managed to slip past the blockade of Cuba undetected some time.. 14/n

previously but on Oct 27th, one of these subs b-59 was discovered by the Americans. A squad of 11 American destroyers and ine aircraft carrier pursued the Soviet sub and it dived further under water. In order to signal that they wanted the submarine to resurface...15/n

and positively identify itself as a part of the blockade , one of the American destroyers began throwing dummy depth charges on b-59! These couldn't possibly hurt the submarine because they were just dummies but the Soviet crew on board didn't know that. 16/n

They assumed that the charges were real and since they had lost contact with Moscow several days previously most of them assumed that war may have already started back above the surface! Their submarine was armed with a t5 torpedo tipped with a 5 kiloton nuclear warhead. 17/n

There were 3 officers on board and all had to agree on deploying a nuclear weapon and while two of them did agree, the third named Vasili Arkhipov disagreed. Arkhipov was the commander of the Soviet submarine flotilla. 18/n

Usually, the deployment of a nuclear weapon on a Soviet submarine only required the authorisation of the 2 most senior ranking commanders on board, the captain and the political officer. Had Arkhipov not been present, these two who were in favour of the nuclear option would 19/n

have their way and it would have been fired. The presence of Arkhipov on board by mere chance meant that his approval was also required! So, remember to thank Vasili Arkhipov for unknowingly saving your life and our world 58 years ago