The Cuban Missile Crisis

A U-2 Pilot Finds Misiles in Cuba

Oct 16, 1962

A U-2 pilot finds a Soviet missile base being built in Cuba. Cuba is 90 miles away from the Florida coast.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

Period: Oct 16, 1962 to Oct 28, 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis, starts on October 16, 1962 and ends on October 28, 1962.

More missiles found

Oct 17, 1962

Another U-2 plane finds more bases and 16 to 32 more missiles.

President Kennedy is Visited by Andrei Gromyko

Oct 18, 1962

Soviet Froeign Minister Andrei Gromyko visits President Kennedy saying that Soviet aid to Cuba is purely defensive and doesn't represent a threat to the United States.

The debate continues

Oct 19, 1962

While President Kennedy leaves for Ohio, his advisors continue the debate of what they should do.

The Decision is made

Oct 20, 1962

President Kennedy and his advisors make the decision to create a blockade around Cuba.

The President meets with General Sweeney

Oct 21, 1962

President Kennedy meets with General Walter Sweeney of the Tactical Air Command. He tells Kennedy that an air strike couldn't guarantee the destruction of all the missiles.

Telling the nation

Oct 22, 1962

Kennedy announces what is happening on live television. He shows the evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba and says that a naval quarantine will be put around the island until the Soviet Union agrees to take apart the missiles.

Surrounding Cuba

Oct 23, 1962

Soviet submarines threaten the quarantine by going into the Caribbean. Freighters filled with military supplies stopped. The only ship that kept moving was the oil tanker Bucharest.

Khrushchev replies to President Kennedy

Oct 24, 1962

Chairman Khrushchev relies to President Kennedy's letter from October 23.

The president writes another letter

Oct 25, 1962

President Kennedy knows that some of the missiles are ready to be launched so he personally writes a letter to Premier Khrushchev to ask him stop.

Khrushchev sends a letter

Oct 26, 1962

Khrushchev makes an offer: the removal of the missiles in exchange for lifting the quarantine and a promise that the U.S. will not invade Cuba.

And second letter is received

Oct 27, 1962

A second letter from Moscow was sent to Washington with harder terms. An American U-2 plane was shot down by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile. The pilot, Major Rudolph Anderson, is killed.

The 13 days end

Oct 28, 1962

The Soviet Union has accepted the solution and Khrushchev sends a letter affirming that the missiles will be removed in exchange for a non-invasion pledge from the United States.