We like to tell ourselves that our nuclear command and control systems are stable.
They’re not.
Since the invention of the atomic bomb, humanity has stumbled to the brink of self-destruction more times than most people realize. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident, and often through sheer miscommunication.
Here are just a few of the moments when history almost stopped:
Too Big to Control
During the race to create megaton-class weapons, the U.S. tested its first dry-fuel hydrogen bomb in the Pacific. But the explosion was 2.5 times larger than scientists predicted. Castle Bravo vaporized part of the test site and scattered radioactive fallout across thousands of miles, contaminating inhabited islands and a Japanese fishing boat.
It marked the beginning of the "bigger is better" arms race, but also a grim realization: we didn’t fully understand the forces we’d unleashed.
The Bomb That Nearly Detonated in North Carolina
On January 24, 1961, a B-52 bomber broke apart in midair over Goldsboro, North Carolina. It was carrying two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs, each with a yield of about 4 megatons—about 250 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
One of the bombs almost detonated. It went through multiple stages of its arming sequence, and only a single low-voltage safety switch prevented a nuclear explosion that could have killed millions on the East Coast. Once a single nuclear bomb detonates on US soil, even if our own and by accident, there’s truly no telling of what could happened next.
This isn’t the only time a “Broken Arrow” event has occurred, either.
<aside> Other “Broken Arrow” Incidents
These weren’t Cold War standoffs or simulations. They were real accidents with real bombs. Yes, we’ve nearly end the world on purpose. Other times, by nearly apocalyptic mistake.
Brinkmanship at the Edge