For many the date 26th September could mean someone’s birthday or anniversary, but for mankind it’s the day Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov saved us eminent doom. Going back to that fateful date way back in 1983 (when the Cold War was on), the Lt. Col was a duty officer at Serpukhov-15, the secret bunker outside Moscow that monitored the Soviet Union’s early-warning satellite system. A little bit after midnight, the alarm bells of the warning system went off, indicating that the United States had launched five ballistic missiles at Russia, with one of the missiles aimed at Moscow. Luckily for us Stanislav Petrov kept a level head and did not rush into counter action. “I had a funny feeling in my gut” that this was a false alarm. The report indicated that only five missiles had been fired. Had the United States been launching an actual nuclear attack, he reasoned, ICBMs would be raining down on them. “I didn’t want to make a mistake. I made a decision, and that was it.” Initially he was praised for his actions, but later on he was severely criticized

Stanislav Petrov lives today on his army pension in a village outside of Moscow. He gets only $200 as pension, So much so for saving the world!
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