Are aliens among us?
Man has been fascinated with travelling into outer space for eons. And one of the most frequently asked questions is whether or not we are alone in the universe, so here are a few tales of close encounters that have kept alight the notion that the truth is out there...
Watch the skies!
Humanity has always been enthralled by mysterious going on in the heavens. In our quest to understand the world around, belief in alien life has for many filled the gap left by the decay of religious beliefs in modern life. But what was the British earliest UFO sighting on record? The answer lies in the pages of The Scotsman newspaper, dated December 8th in the year 1733. The account held that a Dorset man was making his way home one afternoon when he reported seeing 'a polished silver disc in the sky'. Like the Loch Ness Monster or ghosts, whether there is any truth to the many hundreds of sightings will most likely never be resolved, but one thing is true: It is more difficult to prove that aliens don't exist than they do!
Roswell
Undoubtedly the most famous story associated with alien encounters is that of the supposed 'alien crash' at Roswell, New Mexico. In July 1947 this remote backwater played host to several reported alleged sightings of a flaming orb crashing from the heavens. Many of these witnesses claimed to have discovered extensive wreckage that consisted of materials that defied physics and were unlike anything they'd ever seen. News of the crash soon spread but many of the key witnesses claimed that not only were they threatened by the FBI if they went public about the incident but that there were also three bodies of a dead alien crew, hastily removed from the crash site along with all incriminating evidence. Roswell remains the most celebrated example of a considered 'government cover-up' preventing the general public from being aware of alien life.
Project Blue Book
Following the 'incident' at Roswell the United States Air Force allegedly began to study UFOs in a more official capacity. Several top secret projects were green lit but the most famous was initiated in 1952 by the U.S. Air Force; Project Blue Book was based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and was initially run by Edward Ruppelt of Air Force Intelligence who claimed to have coined the term 'Unidentified Flying Object' in order to deflect some of the controversy and ridicule associated with the term 'Flying Saucer'. The project was closed in 1969 but during 20 years of existence Project Blue Book logged 12,618 reports - 701 of which remained unsolved mysteries to this day.
MIB
Aside from the Will Smith movies, the idea behind Men In Black comes from many testimonies from UFO witnesses, suggesting that the Government is only too aware of what goes on beyond our atmosphere. One such account comes from May 1964, when fireman James Templeton and his wife took a photograph of their daughter at a remote marsh near Carlisle, Cumbria. When developed the photograph showed a man in a spacesuit 'floating' in mid-air behind their daughter. Soon afterwards the Templetons were visited by two men wearing black suits and driving a black Jaguar car. James described their visit: "They were very strange, asking peculiar questions about the weather and behaviour of animals. Although they claimed to be from the government, they never used names and referred to one another just by numbers. I drove out with them to the marshes but they seemed to get upset when I insisted that I had not seen anybody as I took the photograph. They drove away, stranding me alone to walk five miles home. I never heard from them again".
Area 51
One of the most famous locations in the world in the world of Ufology is known as Area 51, thought by many to be where the US government stores and researches any crashed alien vessels and corpses of various ET's. Whether this is true is highly contested, but it can be said that this mysterious site is probably a dry lake - Groom Lake in Nevada - that was selected by the CIA after WWII as a research base to test the latest in their military aircraft technology. For example in 1973, Area 51 as it has become known, was the developing ground for the sleek, hawk-like Stealth Bomber. Reputed to have "ground to air missile defenses", the sky above Area 51 is a restricted area for aircraft, and while there is no concrete evidence to support claims of research into alien visitors, the heightened security has fuelled the fire for conspiracy theorists for decades!
Humanity has always been enthralled by mysterious going on in the heavens. In our quest to understand the world around, belief in alien life has for many filled the gap left by the decay of religious beliefs in modern life. But what was the British earliest UFO sighting on record? The answer lies in the pages of The Scotsman newspaper, dated December 8th in the year 1733. The account held that a Dorset man was making his way home one afternoon when he reported seeing 'a polished silver disc in the sky'. Like the Loch Ness Monster or ghosts, whether there is any truth to the many hundreds of sightings will most likely never be resolved, but one thing is true: It is more difficult to prove that aliens don't exist than they do!
Roswell
Undoubtedly the most famous story associated with alien encounters is that of the supposed 'alien crash' at Roswell, New Mexico. In July 1947 this remote backwater played host to several reported alleged sightings of a flaming orb crashing from the heavens. Many of these witnesses claimed to have discovered extensive wreckage that consisted of materials that defied physics and were unlike anything they'd ever seen. News of the crash soon spread but many of the key witnesses claimed that not only were they threatened by the FBI if they went public about the incident but that there were also three bodies of a dead alien crew, hastily removed from the crash site along with all incriminating evidence. Roswell remains the most celebrated example of a considered 'government cover-up' preventing the general public from being aware of alien life.
Project Blue Book
Following the 'incident' at Roswell the United States Air Force allegedly began to study UFOs in a more official capacity. Several top secret projects were green lit but the most famous was initiated in 1952 by the U.S. Air Force; Project Blue Book was based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and was initially run by Edward Ruppelt of Air Force Intelligence who claimed to have coined the term 'Unidentified Flying Object' in order to deflect some of the controversy and ridicule associated with the term 'Flying Saucer'. The project was closed in 1969 but during 20 years of existence Project Blue Book logged 12,618 reports - 701 of which remained unsolved mysteries to this day.
MIB
Aside from the Will Smith movies, the idea behind Men In Black comes from many testimonies from UFO witnesses, suggesting that the Government is only too aware of what goes on beyond our atmosphere. One such account comes from May 1964, when fireman James Templeton and his wife took a photograph of their daughter at a remote marsh near Carlisle, Cumbria. When developed the photograph showed a man in a spacesuit 'floating' in mid-air behind their daughter. Soon afterwards the Templetons were visited by two men wearing black suits and driving a black Jaguar car. James described their visit: "They were very strange, asking peculiar questions about the weather and behaviour of animals. Although they claimed to be from the government, they never used names and referred to one another just by numbers. I drove out with them to the marshes but they seemed to get upset when I insisted that I had not seen anybody as I took the photograph. They drove away, stranding me alone to walk five miles home. I never heard from them again".
Area 51
One of the most famous locations in the world in the world of Ufology is known as Area 51, thought by many to be where the US government stores and researches any crashed alien vessels and corpses of various ET's. Whether this is true is highly contested, but it can be said that this mysterious site is probably a dry lake - Groom Lake in Nevada - that was selected by the CIA after WWII as a research base to test the latest in their military aircraft technology. For example in 1973, Area 51 as it has become known, was the developing ground for the sleek, hawk-like Stealth Bomber. Reputed to have "ground to air missile defenses", the sky above Area 51 is a restricted area for aircraft, and while there is no concrete evidence to support claims of research into alien visitors, the heightened security has fuelled the fire for conspiracy theorists for decades!
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