Sep. 26th, 2008 04:16 pm
Not the start of World War Three Day:
Via autopope:

On this day in history, in 1983, after tensions arising from the shooting down of a Korean 747 by Soviet fighters on September 1, 1983 Strategic Rocket Forces lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, a Soviet air defence officer, decided that the United States was not sending single missiles against the Soviet Union, so he did not declare a red alert initiating the process by which the Soviet Union would launch a huge retaliatory attack.
More information on the man and his remarkable decision are here: http://www.richmann.com/StanislavPetrov.htm
autopope suggests raising a glass in his honour this day and I concur.

On this day in history, in 1983, after tensions arising from the shooting down of a Korean 747 by Soviet fighters on September 1, 1983 Strategic Rocket Forces lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, a Soviet air defence officer, decided that the United States was not sending single missiles against the Soviet Union, so he did not declare a red alert initiating the process by which the Soviet Union would launch a huge retaliatory attack.
More information on the man and his remarkable decision are here: http://www.richmann.com/StanislavPetrov.htm
autopope suggests raising a glass in his honour this day and I concur.