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Google News 09/22: Area 51 gets raided
To our extreme disappointment, the memes come to life
Area 51, the mysterious government facility whose existence was only officially acknowledged in 2013, is a natural favorite of conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts, housing some of the military’s most secretive and cutting-edge technologies. Its association with alien folklore began after a 1947 incident in which an aircraft of undisclosed identity crashed in a New Mexico town. Decades later, the base — located hundreds of miles in the Nevadan desert — was considered by some to be the perfect hiding spot for the remains: an extraterrestrial vehicle and its pilot.
Last July, a college student created a satirical Facebook event encouraging people to storm the facility on Friday, September 20th to “see them aliens”. It quickly became viral, amassing two million attendees in a matter of days, and suddenly storm area 51 memes were all the craze online:
But in what was widely perceived as a disappointment, only about 200 people showed up near the facility, with even fewer having approached the actual gates. To their credit, they were an enthusiastic and fascinating bunch…
