3.1 KiB
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March 4: After an online auction on E-bay, Samuel M. Sherman, president of Independent-International Pictures Corp., announces that his company has won the bid for the oldest UFO photograph from 1870 for 385$. Sherman declares that the photograph will not be placed in a private collection but made available to scientists for analysis whose results will be made public [[UFO Updates]]{.source}.
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Friday, July 26: A local radio station in Washington receives several calls from witnesses of unusual activity in the sky of Maryland. Residents near the Andrews AFB are woken up in the morning by unusual activity. Many witnesses saw a spherical UFO shining blue or orange being chased by two fighter jets not far from the Washington Capitol. These two F-16 are part of the 113th squadron of the Andrews AFB armed with air-to-air missiles. According to witnesses, the UFO was silent, without smoke or flashing lights. The army states that the two F-16 saw nothing. This event occurs exactly 50 years after a wave of UFOs flew over the Washington Capitol, with radar recording and pursuit by fighter jets [[Washington Post, July 26, 2002] [AFP < Yahoo, July 27, 2002].]{.source}
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September 25
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Satellites from the DoD are tracking an object passing through the atmosphere between 62 and 30 km in altitude, above Eastern Siberia.
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1 h 50: In Vitimsky (30 km from the big town of Mama, Eastern Siberia), the villagers are woken up abruptly. Shards of glass, broken dishes, then a dull rumble. For a moment, many believe it to be a major earthquake. But the dazzling flash that lit up the sky erases all doubts. The event was not terrestrial but celestial. Something had fallen from the sky. Immediately, all possibilities are considered. Journalist Evguénii Pouchkarev, from the local newspaper No. 1, quotes an anonymous military man who believes it may be the fall of a missile that has deviated from its nominal trajectory. The thesis of space debris is quickly discarded: Indeed, surveillance satellites detect and track on several orbits all objects resulting from the disintegration of a space vehicle, explains Fernand Alby, from CNES. To validate the thesis of a meteorite, a fragment of meteorite must be found. The Americans, on the other hand, have determined with their satellites the point of impact and its energy, estimated at 0.2 kilotons of TNT. Ciel et Espace{.source}.
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October 21: 4 scientists commissioned by the Irkutsk Institute attempt to reach the site of the September 25 explosion, unsuccessfully (snow, river flooding).
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November 28: In accordance with its new FOIA policy, the MoD publishes on its website documents related to UFOs, including those related to the Rendelsham case.