📅 On This Day in Military History

October 22

1 event across history

⚔️📍 Washington D.C., USA1962

Cuban Missile Crisis — Kennedy's Address to the Nation

President Kennedy addressed the American people to announce the discovery of Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba and demand their removal, imposing a naval blockade. For thirteen days, the world stood on the brink of nuclear war.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world has come to nuclear war; its resolution through back-channel diplomacy established the protocols for superpower crisis management.

Outcome

Soviet missiles removed; nuclear war averted