Trivia

DID YOU KNOW...

A UFO sighting occurs somewhere on the planet every three minutes. Hundreds of thousands of unexplained sightings have been reported all around the world, many of which were documented or photographed.

A Roper poll in 1991 said that 4 million Americans believe they have been abducted. A Gallop poll in 1996 said that 71% of Americans believe the government knows more than it is telling us about UFOs. Millions of people have seen UFOs, from biblical prophets to astronauts to housewives to astronomers.

The first documented UFO sighting is in the Bible. The prophet Ezekiel described "a great cloud with fire infolding itself, a wheel in the middle of a wheel that descended and fired lightning bolts into the Earth."

An incident was reported in Basel, Switzerland August 7, 1566.

The first photograph of a UFO was taken in 1883 by astronomer Jose' Bonilla at an observatory in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Alexander Hamilton reported a cow being kidnapped by an airship at Le Roy, Kansas, in April 1897.

Winston Churchill reported a strange airship in Kent, England, October 14, 1912. It was the first case of a UFO being "officially" reported.

On February 25, 1942, a large dark object over the Los Angeles coastline was mistaken for a Japanese attack and drew a barrage of anti-aircraft fire. Memos to President Roosevelt confirmed the existence of the unidentified aerial objects.

In October, 1957 the Soviet Union, and mankind, entered the space age with the launch of the first Sputnik.

UFOs were often seen and photographed during NASA's space missions in the 1960s.

John Lennon, former member of the Beatles, had a close encounter August 23, 1974, witnessing a flattened dome flying past the United Nations Building in New York. He sang about it on his Walls and Bridges album, in the song "Strange Days Indeed." He said, "There's UFOs over New York and I ain't too surprised."

UFO sightings have been claimed by former President Jimmy Carter, Clyde Tombaough (the astronomer who discovered Pluto), and William Shatner, who claims he was rescued by aliens who pointed him in the right direction when he was lost in the Mojave Desert.

But the most important incident, and the most hotly debated, occurred in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico. Rancher William "Mac" Brazel reported the find to Air Force Intelligence officer Jessie Marcel at the Roswell airbase. The wreckage was reportedly flown to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and some say it still exists there in Hanger 18. Others say it's now at Area 51 in Nevada. Whether it exists or not, the U.S. government isn't talking. But lots and lots of people are...