1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began on this day in 1962, bringing the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba — capable of carrying nuclear warheads — were stationed 90 miles off the American coastline. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba had increased since the failed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. During the next year, the number of Soviet advisers in Cuba rose to more than 20,000. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev may have decided to so dramatically up the stakes in the Cold War for several reasons, including pressure at home and resentment over US nuclear missiles stationed near the Soviet Union in Turkey. Two days after the pictures were analyzed by intelligence officers, they were presented to President John F. Kennedy. During the next two weeks, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. came as close to nuclear war as they ever had.
Copyright © 2025 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
