Cuban missile crisis ends

On this day in 1962, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev announced that Soviet missiles would be removed from Cuba, putting an end to the Cuban missile crisis. The tense 13-day affair between the US and Soviet Union nearly led to nuclear war. On 15 October 1962 US President John F. Kennedy (pictured) received air recon photos of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles under construction in Cuba. Kennedy and his advisors debated how to respond, with many officials arguing for an invasion of Cuba. Kennedy decided to institute a naval quarantine to prevent the delivery of more missiles, and he sent a letter to Khrushchev demanding that the missiles already in Cuba be dismantled and removed. After a series of communications (as well as miscommunications) between Soviet and US leaders, US attorney general Robert Kennedy met secretly with Soviet ambassador to the US Anatoly Dobrynin on 27 October. Robert Kennedy said that the US had already been planning to remove missiles of its own from Turkey, something the Soviet Union wanted, but would not publicly make that part of a resolution to the crisis. Finally, on 28 October, Khrushchev publicly agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba. The US lifted its quarantine on 20 November and removed its missiles from Turkey in April 1963.

Date in History: 28 October 1962