Nuclear Apocalypse Near Misses 

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1. October 5, 1960
Early Warning System radar in Greenland mistakes a reflection off the moon for a massive Soviet missile barrage. Catastrophe is averted when radar operators catch the error.

2. October 25, 1962
A guard at an Air Force base in Duluth, Minnesota, shoots someone climbing a fence (not knowing it’s a bear), which triggers a miswired alarm at an Air National Guard base in Wisconsin. Nuclear-armed F-106 fighter jets scramble.

3. November 9, 1979
A training tape depicting a Soviet attack is inadvertently played on Norad computers. Senator Charles Percy (R-Illinois), visiting at the time, describes a scene of “panic.”

4. June 3, 1980
Phantom inbound missiles appear on computer screens at Strategic Air Command and, later, at the Pentagon. Before the problem is discovered, SAC readies its B-52 bombers for takeoff.

5. September 26, 1983
Soviet systems report US ICBM launches. The colonel on duty, fearing a false alarm, doesn’t recommend a counterstrike. The “missile plumes” turn out to be the glare of the sun, but Soviet high command reprimands him anyway.

6. November 1983
Able Archer 83 – a realistic NATO training exercise – includes rehearsing for nukes. The edgy Soviets, who notice an increase in communications between the US and the UK before the drill, think it’s the real thing.

7. January 25, 1995
Russian radar interprets a NASA research rocket as a US submarine-based missile. President Boris Yeltsin puts his country on alert.

8. June 6, 2002
At the height of India-Pakistan nuclear tensions, a 32-foot asteroid explodes over the Mediterranean. Had it fallen to Earth hours earlier, it would have caused a blast over south Asia indistinguishable from a first strike.

- Patrick Di Justo

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