soviet union or some announcement by the soviets that kicked off this crisis. the reason we can be so specific about when the cuban missile crisis started on october 16th is because that crisis began when the united states had a revelation. the united states realized and figured out with high confidence exactly what it was looking at in those photos that had been taken two days earlier. the way the united states was able to identify exactly what they were looking at in those photos, the way the kennedy administration was able to look at those photos and come to the conclusion that, in fact, this was a new secret deployment of nuclear weapons by the soviet union, they could get specific about what kinds of missiles and missile launchers and equipment they were looking at, the reason the cuban missile crisis started is because the u.s. was able to make that identification. the reason they were able to make that identification is because of this man. his name is oleg penkohski.