1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,159 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: Human beings have looked to the stars for as long 7 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: as well we've had stars to look at. The night 8 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: sky inspires wonder in all of us. In the ancient world, 9 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: it was a chart that could hold the images of 10 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: God's and show a person's future, And today it shows 11 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: us how small our world is in the vast universe. 12 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: And sometime between these two points in history, as far 13 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: back as ancient Greece, someone had that sneaking thought, what 14 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: if there's another being looking back at us from the stars. 15 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:09,560 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty nine, a well known politician wrote an 16 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: eleven page essay reflecting on this age old question. Inspired 17 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: by the recent radio adaptation of HG. Well's War of 18 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,120 Speaker 1: the Worlds. He titled his essay are we alone in Space? 19 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: His country, and by extension, our planet, was in a 20 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:28,679 Speaker 1: tenuous place in the late nineteen thirties. In September of 21 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: that year, the Second World War would officially begin in Europe, 22 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 1: plunging the world into a period of distrust and death 23 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: at an unprecedented scale. The following year, London itself would 24 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: face several years of devastating bombardment from German planes in 25 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: a period called the Blitz. Perhaps this politician wrote their 26 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: essay as a form of escapism, to let his mind 27 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: wander away from the impending stress and terror of the war, 28 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 1: reflecting instead on what sort of being might live beyond 29 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: the stars and what conditions might need to survive. He 30 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:04,640 Speaker 1: posited that liquid water would be required for any sort 31 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: of life, as all living species here appear to require it, 32 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,120 Speaker 1: although he did acknowledge that they have discovered creatures so 33 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: small that they cannot be seen by the human eye. 34 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 1: He also astutely noted that for a planet to be 35 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:20,080 Speaker 1: suitable for life, like on Earth, it would need to 36 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: be a specific distance away from its star, close enough 37 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: for heat to encourage growth, far enough away that it 38 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:30,799 Speaker 1: has a stable atmosphere and smooth conditions. He considered each 39 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: planet in turn, including the relatively recently discovered Pluto, and 40 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: addressed what science knew about each environment. Some he accepted 41 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: as more plausible locations than others. His unshakable conclusion about 42 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 1: the Moon, for instance, was that it was one of 43 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: the places that can never support life, because it's just 44 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: an arid desert. In his words, the essay concluded by 45 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: leaving the overall possibility open, and it reads as thus, I, 46 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 1: for one, am not so immensely in pressed by the 47 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,840 Speaker 1: success we are making of our civilization here that I 48 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:06,360 Speaker 1: am prepared to think we are the only spot in 49 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:10,480 Speaker 1: this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that 50 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: we are the highest type of mental and physical development 51 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space 52 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,240 Speaker 1: and time. The writer sold his essay to the Sunday Dispatch, 53 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:24,240 Speaker 1: which printed it in nineteen forty two under the title 54 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: are There Men on the Moon? Although the beginning of 55 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: the war somewhat obscured our record of this publication, the 56 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: essay itself, though published, would not appear in any collections 57 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: of the Dispatch's articles, and thus would be forgotten in 58 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: the noise of the nineteen forties. After the war, this 59 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: politician returned to the essay, revising it twice over the 60 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: following decades, he considered alternate titles such as are we 61 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: alone in the Universe? And does life exist elsewhere in 62 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 1: the Universe. It seems that he was contemplating reprinting the essay, 63 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: but it would never come to pass. After passed away 64 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, these additional drafts would sit in 65 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: the desks of literary agents for many years to come, 66 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: until in twenty seventeen someone unearthed the history of drafts 67 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: of this essay. Though the public was already aware of 68 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: the existence of the original one, the discovery of subsequent 69 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: drafts cast the politician's career in a new light as 70 00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:27,800 Speaker 1: someone who had an untapped scientific interest, regularly returning time 71 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: and time again to this same question that has puzzled philosophers, astrophysicists, 72 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:38,039 Speaker 1: and casual observers since the dawn of humanity. What is 73 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: perhaps most astonishing about the essay itself, though, is the 74 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:44,719 Speaker 1: author It was written during the start of World War 75 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,680 Speaker 1: II by one of the principal men involved in the 76 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:58,840 Speaker 1: fighting of that war. It was written by Winston Churchill. 77 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:08,000 Speaker 1: It was nighttime in Los Angeles and the city was 78 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:11,360 Speaker 1: settling into a sort of uneasy quiet. News of the 79 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,719 Speaker 1: Day continued to play on radios around the city, describing 80 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: the war somewhere across the Pacific. By February nineteen forty two, 81 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:23,279 Speaker 1: tension had gripped the United States, especially along the West Coast, 82 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,080 Speaker 1: where rumors had been circulating for months about possible Japanese 83 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 1: attacks on California, Oregon, and Washington. Suddenly, the night exploded 84 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: into light. People awoke to a shock of searchlights and 85 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: thunderous gunfire as arcs of fires streaked across the sky. 86 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: Anti aircraft fire thundered for nearly three hours as the 87 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:48,080 Speaker 1: battle in the sky raged, but when the dawn broke, 88 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: there was no evidence of bomb damage or destroyed planes, 89 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,799 Speaker 1: leaving the city to wonder if the night's dramatic events 90 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: had truly occurred. The strange event came to be known 91 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,800 Speaker 1: as the Battle of Los Angeles. Three months earlier, on 92 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: the morning of December seventh, nineteen forty one, the Japanese 93 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 1: Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack 94 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: destroyed much in the naval shipyard and killed over two thousand, 95 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:17,840 Speaker 1: four hundred service members and civilians working in the area. 96 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: Communities along the West Coast had been placed on heightened 97 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: alert for months, with blackout drills, air raid sirens, and 98 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: constant military patrols shaping daily life. It goes without saying 99 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:32,920 Speaker 1: that Pearl Harbor had sent shockwaves throughout the entire country, 100 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:36,839 Speaker 1: and it left West Coast residents particularly anxious. In fact, 101 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:40,200 Speaker 1: just days before this harrowing night of anti aircraft fire, 102 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:44,840 Speaker 1: a Japanese submarine had targeted a California oil field, heightening 103 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: fears of further assaults. In addition to this, the Navy 104 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: sent a warning out on February twenty fourth that a 105 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:55,599 Speaker 1: Japanese strike on the continental US was likely. The city 106 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 1: began to prepare, testing air raid sirens and issuing instructions 107 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: to be haired for blackouts, and the military was ready 108 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 1: at the mere hint of an attack, they would hit 109 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:10,040 Speaker 1: back hard. When radar showed an unidentified object approaching the coast, 110 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:15,280 Speaker 1: the military sprung into action. Anti aircraft guns relentlessly hammered 111 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: at the unseen enemy for over three hours. Hundreds of 112 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: rounds of artillery were shot into the skies over la 113 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: As searched the heavens frantically, and it's fair to say 114 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: that there was a lot of confusion. Commanders struggled to 115 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:32,560 Speaker 1: coordinate the barrage, with conflicting reports from radar operators and 116 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:36,120 Speaker 1: observers that were fuelling the chaos and contributing to the 117 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:39,600 Speaker 1: night long spectacle. Residents could only shelter in place and 118 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: listen as the explosions shook the city. Families clung to 119 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: one another in their basements and living rooms, while street 120 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: lights flickered and dogs barked wildly, turning the city into 121 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 1: a horror scape of fear and confusion. Finally, though the 122 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 1: all clear sounded and the bomb blast was replaced by silence. 123 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,800 Speaker 1: In the comings, officials scrambled for answers, and there were 124 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: many possible theories for what had transpired. Some suggested that 125 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 1: the radar might have picked up a weather balloon, although 126 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:13,440 Speaker 1: no evidence ever confirmed this. The Navy also pointed to 127 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,200 Speaker 1: lingering anxiety after the recent oil field Attech, which may 128 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: have fueled paranoid decisions. A misreading of radar signals likely 129 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:27,960 Speaker 1: triggered the prolonged one sided barrage. Newspapers ran editorials criticizing 130 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: the military and describing the whole affair as a Hollywood spectacle, 131 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: and lawmakers out in Washington, d C. Pushed for formal 132 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,720 Speaker 1: inquiries on the barrage, and more than that, photographs of 133 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,679 Speaker 1: the sky over Los Angeles that were taken during this 134 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:47,839 Speaker 1: time of the barrage have fueled conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts. 135 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:51,800 Speaker 1: The phrase Battle of Los Angeles kind of became shorthand 136 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:57,360 Speaker 1: for dramatic but ultimately hollow confrontation. The military thoroughly reviewed 137 00:08:57,360 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: the incidents and took action to make sure that it 138 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,679 Speaker 1: would never happen again. More intensive protocols were created around 139 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: the authorization of anti aircraft fire, and the training for 140 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: radar operators became more thorough. It's been nearly eighty years 141 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: since the night sky lit up over Los Angeles, and 142 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: still it holds sway in the public imagination. Its inspired 143 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:23,360 Speaker 1: books like James Elroy's This Storm, and even a Steven 144 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 1: Spielberg film loosely based on the event. In nineteen eighty three, 145 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,320 Speaker 1: the Office of Air Force History review the incidents and 146 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:34,200 Speaker 1: concluded that weather balloon's were the most likely explanation. The 147 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: resulting confusion, combined with fear and inexperience with emerging radar technology, 148 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:44,880 Speaker 1: caused a massive overreaction. Today, historians view the Battle of 149 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: Los Angeles as a classic case of mass hysteria, a 150 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:53,280 Speaker 1: perfect illustration of a moment when panic, uncertainty, and split 151 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:57,440 Speaker 1: second decisions led to utter chaos. It serves as a 152 00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:00,959 Speaker 1: striking reminder of how quickly vigilance can tip into fear 153 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:05,240 Speaker 1: and how easily a tense situation can spiral out of control. 154 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,760 Speaker 1: And more than that, it reminds us how perception can 155 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:17,200 Speaker 1: shape historical events just as much as reality itself. I 156 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 157 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:24,160 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 158 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 159 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,200 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 160 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 161 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 162 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:42,400 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 163 00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.