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U.F.O. Sightings
can be traced back to at least 173 B.C. Glowing or shiny
objects have appeared in drawings and paintings during
the middle ages and into the mid-19th century. With
the coming of the camera and camcorder, sightings are
now able to be documented easily and this explains the
fad of sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects.
In
the early part of the 20th century, authors such as
Jules Verne and H.G. Wells wrote about space travel
and visitors from other planets. Orson Welles brought
one H.G. Wells novel to the masses in his radio production
"War of the Worlds." Millions of listeners
throughout the United States fell into a full-scale
panic, believing that aliens had landed on Earth and
were now attacking the planet.
Just
when it seemed that America had put away its obsession
with extraterrestrial beings, the Roswell Incident occurred.
As the story goes, a UFO crashed into the desert in
New Mexico in 1947. Although a ranch manager named "Mac"
Brazel found the wreckage, he did not report it until
days later when he went into town. Before the United
States Air Force could respond and go to the scene,
other local residents investigated the crash scene.
They claimed that the craft was made of a thin, aluminum
foil-like substance that was pliable and could be wrinkled,
but could not be dented by even the hardest of blows.
They also reported that part of the structure of the
craft included beams of wood that included strange markings
resembling hieroglyphics. After taking the remnants
of the crash to Wright Air Force base, the Air Force
declared that the wreckage was simply a weather balloon
with a tin foil attachment used for radar. Over the
years, conspiracy-theorists have claimed that alien
bodies were discovered in the wreckage and that Air
Force doctors have conducted autopsies on the bodies.
In
the 1970s, UFO sightings began occurring again, but
this time they were not accompanied by the fear and
hysteria that accompanied sightings and stories years
before. Much of this is related to Hollywood depictions
of alien activity in movies such as "Close Encounters
of the Third Kind" and "E.T. - the Extraterrestrial"
and television shows such as "The X-Files"
and "Alien Nation." It seems today that people
are not terribly concerned about aliens landing on Earth
- as long as they land on someone else's lawn.
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