“This was not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War. It was the most dangerous moment in human history.”
~Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
Advisor to President John F. Kennedy
Discussing Vasily Arkhipov’s Decision
Cuban Missile Crisis

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Never Ever Forget This Man
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1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order, which ordered all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.
The order was issued in the aftermath of the Battle of Crooked River, a clash between Mormons and a unit of the Missouri State Militia during the 1838 Mormon War.
Claiming that the Mormons had committed open and avowed defiance of the law, Boggs directed that “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace — their outrages are beyond all description.”
Nearly all of the approximately 10,000 Mormons left Missouri by the spring of 1839, and would not begin to return to Missouri until approximately 25 years later.


1954 – President Eisenhower offered aid to South Vietnam Prime Minister Ngo Dình Diem.
Eisenhower made it clear to Diem that U.S. aid to his government during Vietnam’s “hour of trial” was contingent upon land reform and a reduction of government corruption.
Diem agreed to the “needed reforms” stipulated as a precondition for receiving aid, but he never actually followed through on his promises.
Ultimately his refusal to make any substantial changes to meet the needs of the people led to extreme civil unrest and eventually a coup by dissident South Vietnamese generals in which Diem and his brother were murdered.


1955 – Rebel Without A Cause premiered in U.S. theaters.
The movie opened to mixed reviews when it was released less than a month after James Dean died in a car accident, leading one critic to callously state “the only reason this depressing film is receiving any attention is because the star is dead.”
Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo were nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards


1960 – It was a god day for Ben E. King.
The former lead singer for the Drifters recorded two songs that would both become classic hits; Spanish Harlem and Stand By Me.
Stand By Me Factoid: The title of Stand By Me was derived from, and was inspired by, a spiritual called Stand by Me Father, recorded by the Soul Stirrers.
It also borrowed from Psalm 46:1-3
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”
Turned Into…
“If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won’t cry, I won’t cry
No I won’t shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me”


1962 – By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a U.S. warship, Vasily Arkhipov averted nuclear war.
A group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph located the diesel-powered, nuclear-armed Soviet submarine B-59 near Cuba.
Despite being in international waters, the Americans started dropping signaling depth charges, explosives (the size of hand grenades) intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification.
There had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days and, although the submarine’s crew had earlier been picking up U.S. civilian radio broadcasts, once B-59 began attempting to hide from its U.S. Navy pursuers, it was too deep to monitor any radio traffic.
Those on board did not know whether war had broken out or not. The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, decided that a war might already have started and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo.
Running out of air, the Soviet submarine was surrounded by American warships and desperately needed to surface. An argument broke out among three officers aboard B-59, including Savitsky, political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and Deputy brigade commander (U.S. Navy Commander rank equivalent) Vasily Arkhipov.
Arkhipov (shown above) eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow. This effectively averted the general nuclear war which probably would have ensued if the nuclear weapon had been fired.
In 2002, Thomas Blanton, who was then director of the U.S. National Security Archive, said that Arkhipov “saved the world.”
The missile crisis story continues tomorrow.


1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force became the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane was shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.
His downing at the height of the Crisis was later determined to have been on the orders of local commanders, and not the Soviet Union government.


1988 – President Ronald Reagan suspended construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
The building’s columns, which had been built by Soviet workers, were found to be riddled with listening devices.
Some bugs were located at spots where metal I-beams were welded together. Lengths of steel rebar had been altered to serve as transmitters. Buried within one wall U.S. inspectors found a sophisticated power source shaped like a bow tie, which they dubbed “batwing.”
Americans had to continue to use the old embassy for security reasons, and the Soviets were not allowed to occupy their new Washington embassy in retaliation.
Eventually, much of the new American embassy was taken down in 1994 and entirely new structures were made under U.S. supervision to prevent a repeat of the bugging of the new building.
The new embassy was not fully open and occupied until the year 2000, a building that had started construction in 1979.


1992 – United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. was murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey.
His murder, for the “crime” of being gay, precipitated debate about gays in the military and resulted in the United States’ “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy.
A Warning: I do not believe in ignoring events, no matter how horrible, when compiling these columns. But I am warning you the details of the savage attack by Helvey are, quite frankly, some of the most disturbing I have ever written.
Schindler had eight broken ribs, fractures in the back of his skull and in the bones around his eyes. His nose was broken; his upper jaw was broken; the whole middle portion of his face was detached and floating loosely.
There were bruises and cuts on the surface of his neck, head, and chest; there were bruises on his brain, on his lungs, his heart. The pericardial sac around his heart was filled with 250 milliliters of blood, enough to top off a juice glass.
His liver had been turned to pulp. The impact of blows to the chest had torn his aorta; his bladder had been ripped open; his penis had been bruised and lacerated. There were sneaker-tread marks stamped on his forehead and chest.
Helvey is serving a life sentence at FCI Greenville in Illinois.


2004 – Eighty-six years of frustration and heartbreak finally ended for the Boston Red Sox.
With a 3-0 win in Game 4 of the World Series, Boston completed a 4-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and claimed their first title since 1918.
For long suffering Boston fans, the title ended the “Curse of the Bambino”, which supposedly had afflicted the team ever since the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919.


2013 – Musician Lou Reed died from liver disease at the age of 71.
He was lead guitarist, singer and principal songwriter for the rock band Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades.
The members of Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and Reed was also inducted as a solo artist in 2015.


2018 – A gunman opened fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 and injuring 6, including 4 police officers.
It was the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in the history of the United States.
Robert Bowers, 46, surrendered to authorities after the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. He made anti-Semitic statements during the incident and targeted Jews on social media, according to a federal law enforcement official.
Bowers entered the synagogue armed with multiple weapons, including an AR-15 assault-style rifle, and gunned down defenseless worshippers. He then engaged in a shootout with police and was severely wounded.
No trial date has been set.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2019 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.