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Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

On September 26, 1983, Luton the past rediscovered.

On September 26, 1983,

Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Union's air defense forces was sitting in the commander's chair on overnight duty

in the secret bunker southwest of Moscow.

His job was to monitor his country's early warning satellites

over the United States.

Just after midnight, the sirens began blaring.

They were alerting him that the US had just launched

a nuclear missile attack against the Soviet Union.

A second missile was launched.

Then another.

Then two more.

A red button on the panel in front of him flashed the word,

Start.

On his computer screen was the word launch in red, bold letters.

He had only minutes, if not seconds, to act. His decision that day undoubtedly

changed the world. Stanislav Petrov died in 2017 in relative obscurity. He had been living on a small pension

in a town outside Moscow.

His funeral was attended by only a handful of family members.

...