1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm Incident
On September 26, 1983, the nuclear early warning system of the Soviet Union twice reported the launch of American Minuteman ICBMs from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were correctly identified as a false alarm by Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. This decision may have prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its Western allies. Investigation of the satellite warning system later confirmed that the system had malfunctioned.
Read more about 1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm Incident: Background, Incident, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the words soviet, nuclear, false, alarm and/or incident:
“The tremendous outflow of intellectuals that formed such a prominent part of the general exodus from Soviet Russia in the first years of the Bolshevist Revolution seems today like the wanderings of some mythical tribe whose bird-signs and moon-signs I now retrieve from the desert dust.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?”
—Jane Alpert (b. 1947)
“If the feminist program goes to pieces on the arrival of the first baby, it’s false and useless.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“Dignity takes alarm at the unexpected sound of laughter.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?”
—Henry James (1843–1916)