The Daily History Chronicle

On January 24, 1961, a B-52 bomber broke apart over North Carolina, dropping two hydrogen bombs on rural farmland. One came within a single safety switch of detonation. Today we examine the Cold War program that put nuclear weapons in the air around the clock, the crew members who survived the impossible, and the twenty-five-year-old officer who climbed into a muddy pit to retrieve a nuclear core a story classified for decades.