Curated playlist
War scare
- 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incidentIn 1983, Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov chose not to report a warning of five incoming U.S. missiles.
- Yuri AndropovYuri Andropov saw officers strung up from Budapest lampposts. Historian Christopher Andrew says it haunted him.
- Able Archer 83During NATO's Able Archer 83 exercise, Soviet forces loaded nuclear warheads onto combat planes.
- Korean Air Lines Flight 007A Soviet fighter pilot fired two missiles at Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983. All 269 people aboard died.
- Édouard DaladierCheering Parisians greeted Édouard Daladier in 1938, and he privately called them fools.
- Trent AffairA Union warship fired two shots at a British mail steamer in 1861. Sailors then seized two Confederate diplomats aboard.
- 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'étatTwelve ministers quit Czechoslovakia's government in 1948, sure they would win. Four days later the president gave in.
- Remilitarisation of the RhinelandIn March 1936, Germany sent troops into the Rhineland and France did nothing. France had 100 divisions.
- Xi'an IncidentTwo of Chiang Kai-shek's own generals arrested him in December 1936. They wanted him to fight Japan, not the Communists.
- World War IIIWorld War III was already a magazine headline on the 3rd of November 1941, weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Time magazine ran the story under the title "World War III?" It concerned Hermann Rauschning, a Nazi refugee who…
- Cuban Missile CrisisIn October 1962, a US spy plane pilot was shot down over Cuba by Soviet missiles.
- Stanislav PetrovStanislav Petrov did not report a Soviet warning of five incoming U.S. missiles in 1983. Ground radar showed nothing.
- Sino-Soviet border conflictOn the 2nd of March 1969, Chinese troops ambushed Soviet border guards on Zhenbao Island.
- 1939 German ultimatum to LithuaniaIn about 40 minutes in Berlin, Lithuania's foreign minister was told to give up its only port.
- Otto von BismarckIn 1889, Otto von Bismarck was recorded on an Edison phonograph, quoting the opening verse of La Marseillaise among other lines. That recording is the only known capture of his voice. One biographer argues that he chose the French song to…
- Berlin BlockadeIn June 1948, Stalin cut every road, rail line and canal into West Berlin.
- Richard SorgeRichard Sorge arrived in Japan as a Nazi journalist while spying for Moscow. German diplomats trusted him for years.