Today in History - September 26, 2022

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Incitatus Ch.

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Published on September 26, 2022 3:00:36 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVV2tu83ucs

Duration: 1:00

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On this day, the calm actions of one man averted an apocalypse. On September 26th, 1983, the Soviet Union’s early warning radar indicated the launch of five nuclear missiles from bases in the United States. The officer on duty at the radar’s command center, Stanislav Petrov, faced an agonizing choice. Petrov had reason to believe that the warning was a false alarm since any real nuclear strike would involve far more than five missiles, and he also knew that passing the alert along to his superiors could quite possibly prompt a retaliatory nuclear strike on the US and NATO. At the same time, he had strict orders to report any detected missile launches, and failing to do so might have had disastrous consequences. In the end, Petrov chose not to report the apparent missile launch, which turned out to be the result of a bug in the radar system, leading many to hail him as “the man who saved the world.”