Stanislav Petrov made a decision that may have averted a nuclear war - and possibly the end of the world as we know it.

A massive fireball, possibly a bolide or comet nucleus, blew up above the Vitim River Basin in Siberia.

Pieces of the ship were found with chunks of pumice and lava embedded into the wreckage.

One of the richest sunken treasures of all time found its way to the bottom of the Atlantic on this day.

An American satellite picked up the tell-tale double flash of a nuclear explosion in a remote section of the Indian Ocean.

He was an instant her for saving the president’s life, but it came with a cost.

His name probably doesn't ring any bells, but his invention is one of the world's most useful items.

The novelty of this storm was her migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This was the first recorded instance of such a storm track.

A little after midnight, a mysterious object appeared over the Iranian capital.

It would become the largest maritime disaster of World War II.

Thomas Selfridge eagerly volunteered as a passenger aboard a plane flown by Orville Wright.

38 people were killed and 143 were seriously injured.

Shavarsh Karapetyan was just finishing a 12-mile run when he heard the crash of a trolley.

The Dodgers were leading the Cubs 2-0 at Ebbets Field. Kirby Higbe was on the mound for the Dodgers in the sixth inning when a swarm of gnats created a black cloud around him.

As the rocket streaked across the sky at over 12,000 miles an hour, a mysterious saucer-shaped object began circling the missile.

Isadora Duncan was a groundbreaking dancer and a fervently unconventional woman. She died in a dramatic freak accident.

A railroad worker suffered a gruesome injury that would become a landmark case in the understanding of the human brain.

In 1899, a real estate broker named Henry Bliss stepped off a New York streetcar and into the history books.

Seven people had a famous encounter with the Flatwoods Monster. It's one of the most celebrated UFO incidents of all time.

Bela, King of Hungary, died an unusual death. As he sat on his throne the large canopy above him collapsed, killing him instantly.