This is Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov. You probably don’t know who he is. Chances are though, you are alive right now because of him.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo and therefore a possible nuclear war.
Long story short, the Americans were doing practice runs with their nuclear subs. Vasili was inside a Russian nuclear sub. The other people in his sub assumed that the Americans were trying to attack them. They didn’t know the Americans were just doing a practice procedure.
The Russians were about to fire a torpedo at the American sub, until Vasili convinced his commanding officers not to fire as he wasn’t certain that the Americans were attacking them.
This stopped the Russians from attacking the Americans, which then stopped a nuclear war.
No one has really heard of this man, but i think he deserves a lot more recognition for his actions.
Thank you Vasili.