The world came within days, perhaps hours, of ending 50 years ago this week when the United States and the former Soviet Union stood at the brink of nuclear war. The dispute was over the placement of Russian missiles in Cuba. For 13 days, President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stood eye-to-eye; from Oct. 16, 1962, when the missiles were discovered by an American surveillance aircraft, until Oct. 28, 1962, when Kruschchev publicly announced he would pull them out. The crisis grew to engulf not only the two countries, but much of the world standing on the sidelines. Here are some images of that time, beginning with this low-altitude view of the Russian missile installation at San Cristobal, Cuba.