And speaking of national alerts, one day in 1971 NORAD mistakenly activated the Emergency Broadcast System (predecessor to the EAS tested today), with a warning that suggested the US was under nuclear attack, with "details to follow".

And spare a thought for the late Bob Sievers, the WOWO-AM DJ who nervously stayed at his microphone for a very long five minutes as he wondered if and how the world was about to end. It was captured in this legendary aircheck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu4r79l8P8I