Complicated and tension-filled negotiations between the United
States and the Soviet Union finally result in a plan to end the two-
week-old Cuban Missile Crisis. A frightening period in which
nuclear holocaust seemed imminent began to come to an end.

Since President John F. Kennedy’s October 22 address warning
the Soviets to cease their reckless program to put nuclear weapons
in Cuba and announcing a naval “quarantine” against additional weapons shipments into Cuba, the world held its breath waiting to
see whether the two superpowers would come to blows. With no apparent end to the crisis in sight, U.S. forces were placed at
DEFCON 2—meaning war involving the Strategic Air Command
was imminent. On October 24, millions waited to see whether
Soviet ships bound for Cuba carrying additional missiles would
try to break the U.S. naval blockade around the island. At the last
minute, the vessels turned around and returned to the Soviet Union.

TIM MAGUIRE

I Love Lucy is a television sitcom that originally aired 
on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with
a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. 

The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz
(above), along with Vivian Vance and  William Frawley.
 

The Soviet Union inaugurated the “Space Age” with its launch
of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957.

The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “fellow traveler,” was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the
Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic.

Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds and
circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000
miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from
Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles.

A Soviet technician works on Sputnik in 1957.

The wreckage of Korean Air Lines Flight 007.     
    
    
    
   

On September 1, 1983,Soviet jet fighters intercepted a Korean
Airlines passenger flight in Russian airspace and shot the plane
down, killing  269 passengers and crew-members. The incident dramatically increased tensions between the Soviet Union and
the United States.              

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Robert Plant is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the
English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968
until 1980, when the band broke up following the death of John
Bonham, the band’s drummer. He was inducted with the band
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

In 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him number 15 on their
list of the 100 best singers of all time. In 2011, Rolling Stone
readers ranked Plant the greatest of all lead singers. In 2006,
Hit Parader magazine named Plant the "Greatest Metal Vocalist
of All Time".           

In 2009, Plant was voted "the greatest voice in rock" in a poll
conducted by Planet Rock. Plant is 74 years old today.