Cold War Facts

The CIA once spent $20 million on a cat equipped with gear to spy on the Soviets, but it was hit by a taxi.

The largest nuclear bomb ever built, the Tsar Bomba, caused damage up to approximately 1,000km away.

In 1961, the only surgeon in the Soviet Antarctic Expedition, Leonid Rogozov, removed his own inflamed appendix under local anesthesia.

During the Cold War, the US had planned to detonate a nuclear weapon on the moon.

In 1958, a nuclear bomb was lost somewhere along the swampy coast of Georgia. Its whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.

In 1963, the US Military created an artificial ring around Earth, similar to that of the planet Saturn. The ring was made of copper needles and was used for worldwide communications in the case that the Soviets disabled all other methods of communication.

Since 1982, a radio frequency emanating from Russia has been broadcasting a buzzer-like sound and, periodically, an unknown voice reads orders, names, and numbers. No one knows where exactly it is coming from or what it means.

In 1964, in Holland's embassy in Moscow, two Siamese cats kept meowing and clawing at the walls of the building. Their owners finally investigated, thinking they would find mice. Instead, they discovered microphones hidden by Russian spies.

North Korea uses a fax machine to send threats to South Korea.