November 5, 1956: The Swans That Nearly Started World War III

A Soviet MiG-15

Note: I added this entry in 2024, having heard the story for the first time on an episode of NCIS.

November 5, 1956: With the Suez Crisis and the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution underway, and America electing a President the next day, there is a close call that nearly starts World War III.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) received a number of simultaneous reports, including unidentified aircraft over Turkey, Soviet MiG-15 fighters over Syria, a downed British Canberra medium bomber, and unexpected maneuvers by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet through the Dardanelles (also in Turkey) that appeared to signal a Soviet offensive.

Considering previous Soviet threats to use conventional missiles against Britain and France if they intervened in the Suez Crisis, U.S. forces believed these events could trigger a NATO nuclear strike against the Soviet Union, and went on high alert.

As it turned out, all reports of Soviet action turned out to be erroneous, misinterpreted, or exaggerated. The perceived threat was due to a coincidental combination of harmless events:

* The "unidentified aircraft over Turkey" was a flock of swans.

* The MiGs were a fighter escort for President Shukri al-Quawatli of Syria, returning from a meeting with Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow. A check with the Turkish government proved the flight to have been previously cleared with them.

* The British reported that their bomber had been brought down by mechanical issues.

* And a check of records showed that the Black Sea Fleet's exercises had been previously scheduled.

Had any one of these things, alone, happened, it probably wouldn't have concerned too many people. The fact that they all seemed to be happening at once was nerve-rattling. Over the next few days, things calmed down. The Egyptians won in the Suez, the Soviets won in Hungary, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected, no new wars -- conventional or otherwise -- got started, and the status quo was restored.

It was the closest call since the Chinese invasion during the Korean War, 6 years earlier. The next close call would be in another 6 years, over missiles in Cuba.

*

November 5, 1956 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek: There would be no Monday Night Football for another 14 years. And while both leagues' new seasons had gotten underway, there were no games were scheduled in either the NBA or the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.