The crisis, day by day
Thirteen days
in October.
A photograph. A secret meeting. A broadcast. A letter. Follow how decisions and misunderstandings accumulated, and how a way out was found.
An illustrated guide
From discovery to agreement
Selected milestones, not a scale of danger. The crisis began before the public announcement and continued after 28 October.
Sources for this passage: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]- 16OCT 1962↗
- 17OCT 1962↗
- 18OCT 1962↗
Washington · Moscow
Gromyko meets Kennedy
The Soviet foreign minister maintains that aid to Cuba is defensive.
- 19OCT 1962↗
- 20OCT 1962↗
Washington · Atlantic
The quarantine is chosen
Kennedy returns to Washington and decides on naval pressure.
- 21OCT 1962↗
Washington
No guarantee of a clean strike
Military advice underlines the uncertainty of an air attack.
- 22OCT 1962↗
Washington · London · Cuba · Moscow
The world is told
Kennedy reveals the missiles and announces the quarantine.
- 23OCT 1962↗
Washington · New York · Atlantic
Diplomacy and naval preparations
The OAS backs the quarantine as ships take their positions.
- 24OCT 1962↗
Atlantic · Moscow · Washington
The confrontation at sea
The quarantine takes effect while Khrushchev rejects American pressure.
- 25OCT 1962↗
New York · Atlantic · Cuba
Evidence at the United Nations
Stevenson confronts the Soviet account with reconnaissance imagery.
- 26OCT 1962↗
Washington · Moscow · London · Atlantic
An opening for agreement
Khrushchev proposes a route towards missile removal and a non-invasion assurance.
- 27OCT 1962↗
Cuba · Washington · Moscow · Atlantic
Black Saturday
Military incidents and bargaining converge on the crisis's most dangerous day.
- 28OCT 1962↗
The photographs were taken on 14 October. The familiar thirteen days begin with Kennedy’s briefing on 16 October. The aftermath continued beyond the agreement of 28 October. Read what happened next.
Sources for this page5 references
Numbers refer to the passages above. Open a title to read the source, or use a return link to go back to its citation.
- JFK Library: 16 October 1962, chronology and documents↩ Back to text
- JFK Library: 22 October 1962, chronology and documents↩ Back to text
- JFK Library: 24 October 1962, chronology and documents↩ Back to text
- JFK Library: 27 October 1962, chronology and documents↩ Back to text
- JFK Library: 28 October 1962, chronology and documents↩ Back to text