Mysterious photos of UFOs and aliens from the 1960s
Over the decades, many photos have been presented as evidence of the presence of UFOs and extraterrestrials. These photos and films are countless and go back a long way, even before the photo manipulation methods we have today. Here we are going to examine a selection of curious photos dating back to the 1960s, which, real or not, managed to make people talk about them.
In 1960, there was a case from the country of Argentina, which would soon become one of the most well-known incidents involving UFOs in a country already considered a hotspot for the phenomenon. On July 3, 1960, Hugo F. Niotti, then a captain in the Argentine Air Force (AAF), assigned to the Air Force NCO School located in the city of Cordoba, was driving from Yacanto towards Cordoba when, near Villa General Belgrano, he noticed a bizarre object hovering on the side of the road to his right. Niotti stopped his car and had the presence of mind to take a single photo of the object before it disappeared with astonishing speed. He said afterwards;
The object was conical in shape, 7-8 meters high and 3-4 meters base diameter, with its axis nearly parallel to the ground and its base facing the witness. The color of the object was a uniform dark gray. The surface was perfectly smooth, without joints or rivets, and had a certain metallic appearance. It was at a distance of 80 to 100 meters from its location and was moving very slowly towards the south, perhaps 10 km/h, always parallel to the ground. It was spinning, also very slowly. It then accelerated very rapidly, reaching a speed of 200 km/h in 3 or 4 seconds, and disappeared into a bank of low clouds. This sudden acceleration without any noise was inexplicable.
Yacanto’s photography
Niotti, confused and amazed, made his way to Córdoba, constantly turning over what he had seen in his head, and as soon as he arrived, he had his film developed. What he saw in the photo stunned him, but he was not ready to broadcast it so as not to tarnish his reputation and his military career, but he was finally persuaded to communicate it to the Servicio de Informaciones de Aeronautica (SIA), who deemed it genuine and then passed it on to the Air Force. The photos gradually leaked to the public and were widely dissected and discussed. Dr. Willy Smith, UFO specialist, will conclude that the photograph is very convincing, and will give his opinion on the subject as follows:
A single witness case is usually not even considered, but in this case we have two circumstances that allow for an exception to the rule. First, we have a competent witness, trained by his profession to observe detail, who has not lost his presence of mind in the face of the unknown. On the contrary, he reacted promptly by grabbing his camera and jumping out of his car to get a unique graphic document. Second, the photograph itself lends enough credibility to the case to warrant serious consideration. Not only has the authenticity of the photo been repeatedly demonstrated, but it is inconceivable that the Air Force officer would jeopardize his career with a fabrication that would only bring him trouble and discredit.
What does this photo show? Is this a hoax and, if so, why would a high-ranking and respected military man do this? Or was he himself the victim of a hoax? We may never know for sure. In 1965, there is further photographic evidence from a traditionally reliable source. On August 2, 1965, in Sherman, Texas, a television cameraman named Robert Campbell was interviewing police officer Peter McCollum following a series of sightings in the area of a massive, bright UFO that had caused a deluge of calls from panicked residents. Campbell had been alerted by scanning shortwave radio conversations between two police patrols on the highway. Very quickly, during this interview, the two men saw for themselves the glowing cylindrical object hovering in a stationary position nearby. Campbell was able to take a series of four photos of the object before it flew away. Unfortunately, the photos are overexposed, but no explanation was provided. Interestingly, the object was seen by numerous solid witnesses, including freeway patrolman Bill Quires and Public Safety Department dispatcher Jim Faglia. What does the photo show? It’s hard to say. including highway patrolman Bill Quires and Public Safety Department dispatcher Jim Faglia. What does the photo show? It’s hard to say. including highway patrolman Bill Quires and Public Safety Department dispatcher Jim Faglia. What does the photo show? It’s hard to say.
The photo of Sherman, Texas
Curiously, the following day another unrelated case occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where at 1:30 a.m. MAL Smith, his 14-year-old son Alan, and three other witnesses saw a shiny multicolored object in the sky. The mysterious object moved slowly towards the witnesses, before hovering nearby as if watching them, and it was then that Mr Smith took a photo of the object before it moved away in the night. The photo went around the world at the time, appearing in Life magazine and generating a lot of excitement due to its clarity, and many scans performed on it were unable to conclude what it really is.
Oklahoma photography
The 1960s can also lay claim to one of the most famous supposed extraterrestrial images ever taken. On May 24, 1964, Jim Templeton, a firefighter from Carlisle, in the north of England, was with his wife and young daughter at a place called Solway Firth. They reported that the day had been a little strange, as they were constantly aware of some sort of electrical charge in the air, almost as if a storm was brewing despite the clear, calm weather at the time. They spent the day taking various photos, but despite this strange electrical charge, they saw nothing unusual. It wasn’t until they got home and had the films developed that things got weird.
In the photo, a figure in some sort of silver-white “space suit” could be seen looming in the background above the girl, who was sitting there holding a bouquet of flowers, smiling and completely oblivious to her presence. This is quite odd, as the Templetons insist there was no one else there at the time and there is no rational explanation for it. When the police were notified and the photo was examined, it turned out that it was not a double exposure, which made the matter very mysterious. What’s even stranger is that Templeton claimed to be visited by shadowy men who walked past his house, dressed in black suits and driving a black car, and eventually arrived on his doorstep. These two men were acting weird, referring to each other with numbers and allegedly questioning Templeton about the photograph and the conditions it was taken in, before telling him he had simply taken a picture of a guy who was passing by doing a photobomb, which Templeton denied. The two mysterious men then got agitated and left in their unmarked car.
Solway Firth Spaceman
The photo has since been widely dissected and widely thought to be a hoax or a snap of someone just passing through the background, but what has come to be called ‘Solway Firth Spaceman’ has nonetheless become one of the most instantly recognizable and iconic supposed photos of aliens. It joins the ranks of mystery photographs which, whether real or not, have paved the way for alleged photographic evidence from that point on, and whatever one wants to believe, we can expect that photos like this will continue to reach us in the near future.
