5. The Time They Dropped An Atomic Bomb On North Carolina
Oh yeah, that's a thing that happened. Plane crashes we can understand, to a degree. They're a thing that happens - if not all that frequently, then frequently enough for us to be aware of them - and although we would like to think the pilots would be a little more careful when there are nuclear weapons aboard, we understand it is somewhat beyond their control in certain situations. But clumsiness in somebody who is in possession of something that could literally destroy the world is something we cannot abide. It's bad enough when you accidentally drop a slice of toast - which will inevitably land butter-side down - but fumbling an atomic bomb is considerably worse. Buttered or not. Hey, guess what? America has totally done that, too. They dropped a big ol' nuke on North Carolina, and managed to keep it pretty quiet until a journalist filed a freedom of information request with the Pentagon a last year. On the morning of 23 January, 1961, a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, accidentally dumping its significant payload - two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs. Which very nearly detonated, were it not for a dodgy fuse in one of them and the other malfunctioning completely. Which is fairly handy, since the explosion would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima. The fallout would have reached Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and maybe even New York, which sounds pretty apocalyptic to us.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
