Mussorgsky, Krushchev and a View of Armageddon...

On this date, in 1962, an event of considerable irony took place:
Just 24 hours before, on the evening of October 22, the American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy informed America, let alone the world, that Soviet Russia was installing nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba, just some 80 miles away from American soil.
Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev was taken aback, as he felt confident that the United States was not aware of the presence of these missiles.  Nevertheless, this did not deter Krushchev from attending a performance of the great Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's masterpiece "Boris Godunov." on the night of October 23, at the Bolshoi theater in Moscow.
The irony is that the part of Boris was not sung that evening by a Russian  artist, but by an American singer
on an official performing visit to the Soviet Union at the time.
After the performance, the American singer drank champagne with Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev.
All this, while at the very same moment, the world was preparing for a possible Armageddon...