Korean Air Lines Flight 007

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (also known as KAL007 and KE007) was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul via Anchorage. On September 1, 1983, the airliner serving the flight was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor near Moneron Island, west of Sakhalin Island, in the Sea of Japan. 
The interceptor's pilot was Major Gennadi Osipovich. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed, including Lawrence McDonald, representative from Georgia in the United States House of Representatives. The aircraft was en route from Anchorage to Seoul when it flew through prohibited Soviet airspace around the time of a U.S. reconnaissance mission.
Former president Richard Nixon was to have been seated next to Larry McDonald on KAL 007 but decided not to go, according to the New York Post and TASS.
The shooting of Korean Air Lines was one of the most tense moments of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Ronald Reagan made a presidential announcement saying that what the Soviet did was bad. Reagan was angry of what happened and changed his mind of making peace with the Soviets. 
President Reagan announced on September 16, 1983, that the Global Positioning System (GPS) would be made available for civilian use.