The year was 1977. Above the tiny island nation of Grenada, big things were happening. Sir Eric Gairy, the prime minister, was convinced that he was seeing hostile alien aircraft and that "persons from outer space are studying us, or perhaps living among us as earthlings." The British government did not agree. One official called Gairy's campaign to persuade the United Nations to investigate UFOs as a "ridiculous proposal that will only bring the United Nations into disrepute." This historical tidbit was revealed by the British National Archives on Thursday, when it released more than 8,000 pages of government files related to UFOs. Sadly, nothing appears to prove without a doubt that we are not alone.
But one can always hope. The files contain a trove of observations from British citizens about unexplained phenomena. There are photos and government briefing papers, including a copy of 1951 report to Prime Minister Winston Churchill on flying saucers. In one letter from 1998, a West London man said he observed a craft hovering over his garden and awoke to find that he had undergone a period of unexplained time. Could he have been abducted by aliens? No, an official wrote back: That was the night the clocks had been turned back an hour.
NEW YORK TIMES
