Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"Flying Saucers!" "UFOs!" Roswell, Shropshire

Wired magazine takes a look back, HERE, at June 24, 1947, and the first reported sighting of a UFO, or "flying saucer."

Pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying at 9,000 feet near heavily-wooded Mt. Rainer, in Washington state, in search of a downed C-46 transport plane when he saw nine "peculiar-looking aircraft" flying in formation at an estimated 1,700 mph.

Two weeks later the Roswell story broke, and UFO hysteria was on. A very amusing story about the power of suggestion, and this early cold war phenomenon.

Wait, update, GULP, yesterday soldiers at an army base in Shropshire, England, recounted spotting thirteen UFOs in the night sky.

Cpl Proctor, 38, of the 1st Battalion Irish Regiment, recalled how he saw the "fleet" just after 11pm on Saturday, June 7. “I was on duty in the guard room when the other boys outside began shouting. I went out to see what the commotion was about and could see thirteen craft in the skies. They were zig-zagging, but I filmed two before they disappeared. They were like rotating cubes with multiple colours. I made a full report to my commanding officers and gave them my footage.”

A full account, with footage HERE.

I'm sure it's nothing. Nonetheless, just in case, perhaps we'd all better behave.

Hat-tip instapundit for the Wired look back.

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