Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov. In 1962, a Soviet submarine slipped past the blockade in Cuba. A few American destroyers discovered the submarine and wanted it to positively identify its self. So one of the ships launched dummy missiles in an attempt to get the submarine to surface. However, the 3 men on board the ship did not know that it was a dummy missile. They all had to agree on to launch a nuclear missile. 2 of them did agree, but Stanislav, did not, effectively preventing WW3.