WEBVTT - Mooning 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.440 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.159 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.920 Human beings have looked to the stars for as long 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.080 as well we've had stars to look at. The night 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.800 sky inspires wonder in all of us. In the ancient world, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:47.839 it was a chart that could hold the images of 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.760 God's and show a person's future, And today it shows 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.920 us how small our world is in the vast universe. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.800 And sometime between these two points in history, as far 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.640 back as ancient Greece, someone had that sneaking thought, what 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.080 if there's another being looking back at us from the stars. 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.560 In nineteen thirty nine, a well known politician wrote an 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.920 eleven page essay reflecting on this age old question. Inspired 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.319 by the recent radio adaptation of HG. Well's War of 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.120 the Worlds. He titled his essay are we alone in Space? 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.000 His country, and by extension, our planet, was in a 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.679 tenuous place in the late nineteen thirties. In September of 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.880 that year, the Second World War would officially begin in Europe, 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.360 plunging the world into a period of distrust and death 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:39.240 at an unprecedented scale. The following year, London itself would 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.360 face several years of devastating bombardment from German planes in 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.160 a period called the Blitz. Perhaps this politician wrote their 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.600 essay as a form of escapism, to let his mind 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.120 wander away from the impending stress and terror of the war, 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.680 reflecting instead on what sort of being might live beyond 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.400 the stars and what conditions might need to survive. He 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.640 posited that liquid water would be required for any sort 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.840 of life, as all living species here appear to require it, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.120 although he did acknowledge that they have discovered creatures so 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.200 small that they cannot be seen by the human eye. 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.000 He also astutely noted that for a planet to be 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.080 suitable for life, like on Earth, it would need to 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.720 be a specific distance away from its star, close enough 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.680 for heat to encourage growth, far enough away that it 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.799 has a stable atmosphere and smooth conditions. He considered each 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.240 planet in turn, including the relatively recently discovered Pluto, and 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.960 addressed what science knew about each environment. Some he accepted 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:44.160 as more plausible locations than others. His unshakable conclusion about 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.240 the Moon, for instance, was that it was one of 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.240 the places that can never support life, because it's just 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.280 an arid desert. In his words, the essay concluded by 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.760 leaving the overall possibility open, and it reads as thus, I, 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:00.680 for one, am not so immensely in pressed by the 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.840 success we are making of our civilization here that I 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.360 am prepared to think we are the only spot in 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.480 this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.560 we are the highest type of mental and physical development 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.000 which has ever appeared in the vast compass of space 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.240 and time. The writer sold his essay to the Sunday Dispatch, 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.240 which printed it in nineteen forty two under the title 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.120 are There Men on the Moon? Although the beginning of 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.840 the war somewhat obscured our record of this publication, the 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.720 essay itself, though published, would not appear in any collections 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.760 of the Dispatch's articles, and thus would be forgotten in 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.160 the noise of the nineteen forties. After the war, this 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.880 politician returned to the essay, revising it twice over the 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:49.080 following decades, he considered alternate titles such as are we 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.640 alone in the Universe? And does life exist elsewhere in 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:57.120 the Universe. It seems that he was contemplating reprinting the essay, 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.960 but it would never come to pass. After passed away 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.400 in the nineteen sixties, these additional drafts would sit in 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.360 the desks of literary agents for many years to come, 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:12.600 until in twenty seventeen someone unearthed the history of drafts 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.680 of this essay. Though the public was already aware of 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.240 the existence of the original one, the discovery of subsequent 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.839 drafts cast the politician's career in a new light as 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:27.800 someone who had an untapped scientific interest, regularly returning time 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:33.800 and time again to this same question that has puzzled philosophers, astrophysicists, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.039 and casual observers since the dawn of humanity. What is 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.000 perhaps most astonishing about the essay itself, though, is the 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.719 author It was written during the start of World War 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.680 II by one of the principal men involved in the 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:58.840 fighting of that war. It was written by Winston Churchill. 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.000 It was nighttime in Los Angeles and the city was 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.360 settling into a sort of uneasy quiet. News of the 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.719 Day continued to play on radios around the city, describing 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.960 the war somewhere across the Pacific. By February nineteen forty two, 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.279 tension had gripped the United States, especially along the West Coast, 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:27.080 where rumors had been circulating for months about possible Japanese 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:33.360 attacks on California, Oregon, and Washington. Suddenly, the night exploded 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.719 into light. People awoke to a shock of searchlights and 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.880 thunderous gunfire as arcs of fires streaked across the sky. 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.240 Anti aircraft fire thundered for nearly three hours as the 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.080 battle in the sky raged, but when the dawn broke, 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.640 there was no evidence of bomb damage or destroyed planes, 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.799 leaving the city to wonder if the night's dramatic events 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.560 had truly occurred. The strange event came to be known 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.800 as the Battle of Los Angeles. Three months earlier, on 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.400 the morning of December seventh, nineteen forty one, the Japanese 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:10.160 Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.880 destroyed much in the naval shipyard and killed over two thousand, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.840 four hundred service members and civilians working in the area. 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.080 Communities along the West Coast had been placed on heightened 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.800 alert for months, with blackout drills, air raid sirens, and 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:29.400 constant military patrols shaping daily life. It goes without saying 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.920 that Pearl Harbor had sent shockwaves throughout the entire country, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.839 and it left West Coast residents particularly anxious. In fact, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.200 just days before this harrowing night of anti aircraft fire, 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.840 a Japanese submarine had targeted a California oil field, heightening 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.680 fears of further assaults. In addition to this, the Navy 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.440 sent a warning out on February twenty fourth that a 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.599 Japanese strike on the continental US was likely. The city 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.520 began to prepare, testing air raid sirens and issuing instructions 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.839 to be haired for blackouts, and the military was ready 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.400 at the mere hint of an attack, they would hit 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:10.040 back hard. When radar showed an unidentified object approaching the coast, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:15.280 the military sprung into action. Anti aircraft guns relentlessly hammered 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.720 at the unseen enemy for over three hours. Hundreds of 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.840 rounds of artillery were shot into the skies over la 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.280 As searched the heavens frantically, and it's fair to say 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.280 that there was a lot of confusion. Commanders struggled to 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.560 coordinate the barrage, with conflicting reports from radar operators and 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.120 observers that were fuelling the chaos and contributing to the 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.600 night long spectacle. Residents could only shelter in place and 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.760 listen as the explosions shook the city. Families clung to 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.720 one another in their basements and living rooms, while street 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.440 lights flickered and dogs barked wildly, turning the city into 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.720 a horror scape of fear and confusion. Finally, though the 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.520 all clear sounded and the bomb blast was replaced by silence. 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.800 In the comings, officials scrambled for answers, and there were 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.760 many possible theories for what had transpired. Some suggested that 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.920 the radar might have picked up a weather balloon, although 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.440 no evidence ever confirmed this. The Navy also pointed to 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.200 lingering anxiety after the recent oil field Attech, which may 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:22.080 have fueled paranoid decisions. A misreading of radar signals likely 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:27.960 triggered the prolonged one sided barrage. Newspapers ran editorials criticizing 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:32.040 the military and describing the whole affair as a Hollywood spectacle, 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.960 and lawmakers out in Washington, d C. Pushed for formal 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.720 inquiries on the barrage, and more than that, photographs of 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.679 the sky over Los Angeles that were taken during this 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:47.839 time of the barrage have fueled conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts. 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.800 The phrase Battle of Los Angeles kind of became shorthand 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:57.360 for dramatic but ultimately hollow confrontation. The military thoroughly reviewed 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.480 the incidents and took action to make sure that it 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.679 would never happen again. More intensive protocols were created around 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.280 the authorization of anti aircraft fire, and the training for 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:12.160 radar operators became more thorough. It's been nearly eighty years 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.000 since the night sky lit up over Los Angeles, and 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:19.480 still it holds sway in the public imagination. Its inspired 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.360 books like James Elroy's This Storm, and even a Steven 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:27.520 Spielberg film loosely based on the event. In nineteen eighty three, 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.320 the Office of Air Force History review the incidents and 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.200 concluded that weather balloon's were the most likely explanation. The 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:40.000 resulting confusion, combined with fear and inexperience with emerging radar technology, 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:44.880 caused a massive overreaction. Today, historians view the Battle of 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.720 Los Angeles as a classic case of mass hysteria, a 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:53.280 perfect illustration of a moment when panic, uncertainty, and split 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.440 second decisions led to utter chaos. It serves as a 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.959 striking reminder of how quickly vigilance can tip into fear 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.240 and how easily a tense situation can spiral out of control. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.760 And more than that, it reminds us how perception can 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:17.200 shape historical events just as much as reality itself. I 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.760 hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.160 Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:28.760 the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.200 was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.920 Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.760 which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.400 you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:48.200 dot com. And until next time, stay curious.