#5 world ufo day
a day late + preorder info!
Yesterday, July 2nd, was World UFO Day!
… Depending on who you ask.
World UFO Day actually has two possible celebration dates for very important things that happened the summer of 1947. The first is June 24th, when aviator Kenneth Arnold claimed to see a string of nine shiny unidentified flying objects while flying near Mount Rainier in Washington State. Arnold estimated the crafts were likely going about 1,200 miles per hour.
Arnold’s sighting is credited as the first modern UFO sighting. UFO sightings date back to ancient times, but there was something about the post-WWII era that made not only frequency but actual research increase on the subject. Arnold became an overnight celebrity, appearing across talk shows, interviews with journalists, and years later, ran for the governor of Idaho. He claims he’d had seven further sightings over the course of his life.
The other date is July 2nd. It’s theorized that 7/2 is the date of the “weather balloon” crash in Roswell, New Mexico, though that date is a little fuzzy too. What we do know is that somewhere between late June and early July 1947, rancher Mac Brazel found debris including rubber strips, tinfoil, and thick paper on his property. Brazel reported this to the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF), who promptly came to investigate.
The RAAF released a statement that said:
The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County.
HOWEVER, then the government realized “ok maybe we shouldn’t call this a flying saucer/disc” and changed their tune. A couple of times. They released a statement calling it a “weather balloon” and a photo of Major Jesse Marcel posing with the debris. Case closed! Nailed it!
But something about Roswell has made it one of the most well known conspiracy theories out there. Conspiracy theories range from there being alien bodies taken from the craft, said bodies being mutated children from the Soviet Union to freak the Americans out, to the government retaining the craft and running reverse engineering on it.
I find the Roswell crash fascinating not just because of the wild stories it spawns, but also because of the craze and study it prompted. There is something that I find so fascinating about the post-WWII UFO era because it’s a time of anxiety that spawned some of the wildest alien stories of all time. I will dig more into this when I am able to talk about book 2, though… *wink*
While the official story is that the crash was a weather balloon from Project Mogul and actually wasn’t that juicy, of course, Hayden and other believers are not so easily convinced.
Now, however, Roswell has become a haven for alien believers and even hosts a UFO Festival to commemorate the event! It looks like so much fun and it’s absolutely on my bucket list to go one year (and just go to Roswell period).
I would love to do a deeper dive on Roswell at some point in the future, but this week is extra hectic. I just wanted to get a little something out to commemorate the day!
In other news…
I launched my preorder campaign for Love and Other Conspiracies through The Ripped Bodice! I will be signing preorders and if you order through TRB, you will also receive an art print done by artsy.mica on Instagram and holographic sticker.
There will be an event at The Ripped Bodice as well on 8/23, so any LA friends, please do come! I would love to meet you. More info on that to come as well!
Mallory