Nuclear near-misses
It was revealed that last June an unarmed Trident missile test-fired off Florida from a British submarine headed in the wrong direction, towards the US. Some other accidents involving nuclear weapons:
24 Jan 1961 A B52 bomber exploded in mid-air after taking off from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Three of the four activation devices on one of the two hydrogen bombs it was carrying were turned on.
8 Dec 1964 A B-58 caught fire on the ground at Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana. The nuclear bomb on board was burned but did not explode.
18 Sept 1980 A worker at Little Rock Air Force Base dropped a spanner on a Titan II missile, causing an explosion in which the warhead was blasted 100 feet — without being set off.
Crowd sourcing
Some events that drew bigger crowds than either Barack Obama or Donald Trump.
| Kumbh Mela, Hindu pilgrimage at Allahabad, India, 2013 | 30 million |
| Arba’een pilgrimage, Karbala, Iraq, November 2016 | 22m |
| Ayatollah Khomeini’s funeral, Tehran, June 1989 |
10m |
| Open air mass by Pope Francis, Manila, January 2015 | 5m |
| Democracy and Martyrs Rally, Istanbul, August 2016 | 5m |
| Parade to celebrate Chicago Cubs’ victory in World Series, November 2016 | 5m |
| Coronation of Elizabeth II, London, June 1953 |
5m |
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