Cuban Missile Crisis: Intruder in Duluth

October 25, 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Intruder in Duluth

At around midnight on October 25, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence. He shot at

it, and activated the “sabotage alarm.” This automatically set off sabotage alarms at all bases in the area. At Volk Field, Wisconsin,

the alarm was wrongly wired, and the Klaxon sounded which ordered nuclear armed F-106A interceptors to take off. The pilots knew there

would be no practice alert drills while DEFCON 3 was in force, and they believed World War III had started.

Immediate communication with Duluth showed there was an error. By this time aircraft were starting down the runway. A car raced

from command center and successfully signaled the aircraft to stop.  The original intruder was a bear.

— Alan F. Philips, 20 Mishaps That Might Have Started Accidental Nuclear War.

Also see the Wikipedia for a man who should have statues in every major world city: Stanislav Petrov, the man who prevented World War III.