On this day, 60 years ago, US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev came to an agreement to remove missiles from Cuba and Turkey and avoid nuclear war.

The Cuban missile crisis was a 13-day period of intense negotiation between the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During the period it was discovered that building sites for missiles capable of targeting much of the US land mass were being constructed in the countryside of Cuba by Soviets.

The US, in response, elected to quarantine Cuba from access by the Soviets in an effort to create space for negotiation which raised tensions and threatened nuclear holocaust. After successful negotiations, a nuclear response was averted.

This day marks the anniversary of the closest mankind has ever come to nuclear war.

READ: Key Moments in the Cuban Missile Crisis