The Cuban Missile Crisis was the world's closest encounter with nuclear war, and it all began with a photograph.
In an aerial reconnaissance shot taken on October 15th, 1962, Dino Brugioni, a senior analyst at the newly founded National Photographic Interpretation Center, spotted missile trailers measuring roughly 65 feet. The Soviet SS-4, a medium-range ballistic missile with a range that would cover a large portion of the United States, including Washington, DC, was no match for those trailers.
Watch It Here How It All Happened.