John Vassall (1925 - 1996) was a British military who, having been blackmailed, spied for the Soviet Union. 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Blackmail is threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand is met. ...

In World War II, Vassall worked as a photographer for the Royal Air Force. After the war, he became a clerk at the Admiralty. In 1954, he was posted as Naval Attaché at the British embassy in Moscow. The year after he arrived, Vassall (who was homosexual) was encouraged by the KGB to become extremely drunk at a party, and was photographed in a compromising position with several men. The KGB used these photographs to blackmail Vassall into working for them as a spy. During his career, Vassall provided the Soviets with several thousand classified documents, including information on British radar, torpedoes, and anti-submarine equipment. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945 after the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the UK Armed Forces. ... Old Admiralty House, Whitehall, London, Thomas Ripley, architect, 1723-26, was not admired by his contemporaries and earned him some scathing couplets from Alexander Pope The Admiralty was historically the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A military attaché is a military expert who is part of a diplomatic mission. ... Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow (Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, IPA:   listen?) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ... The Committee for State Security, or KGB, (Russian: Комите́т Госуда́рственной Безопа́сности; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti  listen?), was the name of the main Soviet Security Agency and intelligence agency, as well as the main secret police agency from March 13, 1954 to November 6, 1991. ...

Vassall was identified as a potential spy when Anatoliy Golitsyn, a senior member of the KGB, defected to the United States. The KGB, worried that Vassall would be exposed, ordered him to cease operations until further notice. Another defector, Yuri Nosenko, added to the case against Vassall, but doubts about the evidence provided by both Golitsyn and Nosenko persisted. Vassall soon resumed his work. Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn (b. ... A defector is generally a person who gives up allegiance to a certain country in exchange for allegiance to another. ...

On 12 September 1962, however, Vassall was arrested and charged with spying. He gave a full confession, but the documents which he admitted to stealing did not account for everything believed to have been taken. This led to speculation that there was another spy still operating in the Admiralty. Some have suggested that Vassall was deliberately sacrificed by the KGB in an attempt to protect the other (possibly more senior) spy. September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years). ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In October, Vassall was sentenced to 18 years in jail. He was released in 1972, having served only ten years. He published an autobiography in 1975. 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...