After World War Two, The Doomsday Clock was established by scientists to mark how close humanity is to nuclear annihilation, with midnight being the end of the world.
In the Cold War’s 44-year history (accepting the general view that it started in 1947 and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1991), certain years have acquired special resonance, appearing to shape the uneasy East/West conflict more distinctly than the...