fact
Digital cameras were developed so spy satellites could send images back to earth more quickly. Before digital cameras in 1976, spy satellites used film. After the film was shot, the satellites loaded the footage into capsules and dropped them from orbit into the atmosphere for collection. 50
During the Cold War, playground equipment in the US and the USSR was made with the intent of getting children to be interested in the Space Race. 00
A Russian MIG Pilot defected during the cold war along with his aircraft. When he arrived in the USA he was convinced the CIA had specially stocked the grocery stores he went to because he couldn’t believe the vast array of products for sale. 10
“In God We Trust” was placed on all U.S. bills during the Cold War as a way to express the United States’ anti-communist beliefs. 10
During the Cold War, so little information was available about the USSR’s government that Kremlinologists studied the order Soviet leaders appeared (or didn’t appear) during parades, and the timing and spacing between them, to see who was powerful and who had lost influence.
Often, the border between West and East Berlin used to pass directly to homes. So, in most cases, the entrance was on the eastern side, and the windows looked out to the West. When building of the Berlin Wall started, many residents used to jump from the windows to the street, where they were caught […]
A US submarine placed a wire tap on Russian undersea cables to monitor secret military communications during the Cold War, and only found the cable after a week of searching because of a sign on the shore saying “Cable Here. Do Not Anchor.”
In 1963, an East German soldier named Wolfgang Engels stole a tank and drove it through the Berlin Wall at top speed to try and escape.
In the 1960’s, US spy planes were taking photos of Cuba. Those who analyzed them noticed something peculiar. They were building soccer fields. Cubans don’t like soccer, they like baseball. Russians like soccer. This is how the Cuban Missile Crisis started.
In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, the US military launched a ring of 480million needles into orbit around the earth. It was hoped they would more reliably bounce radio signals back to earth in case the Soviets cut through undersea cables. Multiple clumps of these needles are still up there.