July 2nd

David the Contributor here. Today is World UFO day. The term “UFO” itself, Unidentified Flying Object, came about in 1953. Before that, weird stuff in the sky would be called “foo fighters” by WWII pilots and “Russian hail” by the Swedish military (“foo” being a nonsense word, presumably where “fooey” derives from). But I digress. I’m sure when you hear “UFO” you think of the classic flying saucer-style spaceship. Alien symbology hasn’t really changed much in 80 years. The big news story that set this whole saucer thing off happened on June 24, 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted nine disc-looking UFOs flying around Mount Rainier. Since then, sci-fi movies and TV shows have kept the flying saucer style fresh in the public’s mind, with movies from Independence Day to The Vast of Night and TV shows like the classic X-Files throwing these ships at their human heroes left and right. All I’ll say is, I want to believe! ADDENDUM: If you’re wondering why World UFO day is celebrated on July 2 and not June 24, allow me to explain – both days are celebrated, with June 24 the Kenneth Arnold incident and July 2 the (assumed) Roswell crash-day. [WEBMASTER NOTE: Good job on your first article my dude]