On This Date: A Nuclear Weapons Bunker Blew Up in Texas

Texas once experienced an explosion so large that a city believed World War III was underway. The explosion shook an entire community, could be heard 100 miles away, and produced a mushroom cloud large enough to be seen across the city of San Antonio. Everything seemed like a nuclear bomb had gone off...which wasn't too far from the truth.

It happened on November 13th, 1963 outside of San Antonio, Texas. The explosion took place at Lackland Air Force Base’s Medina Annex, where the US military was storing and dismantling nuclear warheads. That morning, one of these bombs detonated, producing a catastrophic explosion.

Thankfully, the nuclear components of the bomb had been removed, which kept this explosion from being an even worse disaster. These bombs were substantially larger than what the US had dropped on Japan in World War II. In fact, they were about four times more powerful. That would have been powerful enough to produce a thermal radiation explosion through downtown San Antonio. Meaning instant 3rd degree burns to the population of the city, and a leveling of most structures.

However, even though the nuclear core was removed, that doesn't mean that there wasn't still radioactive materials in the bomb. There was depleted uranium and natural uranium still present in the bomb. But after the explosion, the US government said all of their testing only showed general baseline radiation in the area.

In all, over 123,000 pounds of explosives detonated, creating a crater where the storage units once stood. With the magnitude of this explosion, and the distance the impacts could be felt, you might expect this to be a mass casualty event. But it wasn't.

With as destructive as the explosion was, it was shocking to many to learn that there were no deaths, and only three injuries due to the explosions.

So how did people forget about one of the closest calls with nuclear weapons in United States history? Timing.

Just a few days later, on November 21st, 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited San Antonio. He met with airmen from Lackland Air Force Base, and seemingly turned the page from the explosion to their efforts in space exploration. From San Antonio, JFK travelled to Dallas...where on November 22nd, as his motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza, JFK was assassinated. Just 9 days after the Medina explosion in San Antonio.