Cuban Missile Crisis: Eleven American naval vessels, responsible for the naval blockade of Cuba, detect the Soviet Foxtrot-class diesel submarine B59. It is armed with nuclear torpedoes, but the Americans are unaware of this. The Americans release depth charges to force the submarine to surface. The Russian vessel is too deep to receive or send communications to Moscow. The vessel’s captain, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, and political officer, Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, believe a military confrontation has begun and propose responding with nuclear torpedoes. Only the third officer, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, is against it, and all three votes are needed to launch. We can say that Arkhipov saved the world… On August 19, 1998, he died in Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast, a retired officer at the age of 72.
