The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when an American reconnaissance aircraft takes photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles being installed in Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis, was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in the United Kingdom, Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

The crisis lasted from 16 to 28 October 1962. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war.

PGM-19A Jupiter missile-02
PGM-19A Jupiter missile-02 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Missile Parade Moscow 1964
Missile Parade Moscow 1964 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Adlai Stevenson shows missiles to UN Security Council with David Parker standing
Adlai Stevenson shows missiles to UN Security Council with David Parker standing (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Cubacrisis 17 Oct 1962
Cubacrisis 17 Oct 1962 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Watch: 1962 Missile Crisis: How A Nuclear WW3 Was Narrowly Averted | M.A.D World | Timeline

From the Timeline - World History Documentaries channel.

Sources and further reading: Wikipedia — Cuban Missile Crisis (CC BY-SA). Images: Wikimedia Commons.