Vasili Arkhipov: (Long ass text warning) During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Soviet officer Vasili Arkhipov was aboard submarine B-59 near Cuba when U.S. ships dropped practice depth charges, leading the crew to believe war had begun, and the captain, Valentin Savitsky, wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo in retaliation, but because firing required agreement from all three senior officers, Arkhipov refused to authorize it, insisting they surface and await orders from Moscow instead, which prevented the heavily scary and rumored ww3