What is Area 51?
                     What is 
Area 51?
Introduction
Area 51 has long been a topic of fascination for 
conspiracy theorists and paranormal 
enthusiasts who believe it to be the location 
where the US government stores and hides 
alien bodies and UFOs.
Source: edition.cnn.com
2
April 12, 1955
CIA officer Richard Bissell, who is overseeing 
the development of the U-2 plane, first sees the 
site that would become known as Area 51 while 
on an “aerial scouting mission.” Bissell, along 
with three others, including Col.
Source: edition.cnn.com
3
October 13, 1961
 In a letter to Bissell, now the CIA’s Deputy 
Director of Plans, CIA Inspector General Lyman 
Kirkpatrick writes that Area 51 appears to be 
“extremely vulnerable in its present security 
provisions against unauthorized observation.”
Source: edition.cnn.com
4
August 26, 1976
In a memo from the Deputy Director of Central 
Intelligence E.H. Knoche to General David C. 
Jones, the Air Force chief of staff, the National 
Security Council’s Committee on Foreign 
Intelligence approves the recommendation 
“that management of Area 51 be transferred 
from CIA to Air Force by fiscal year 1978.”
Source: edition.cnn.com
5
September 8, 
The US Air Force issues a report stating that the 
wreckage recove1red9 in R9osw4ell, New Mexico, in 
July 1947, often referred to as the “Roswell 
Incident,” consisted of a smashed part of the 
balloons, sensors and radar reflectors from a 
classified government project called Project 
Mogul.
Source: edition.cnn.com
6
September 2003
US President George W. Bush signs a 
memorandum to the Environmental Protection 
Agency. The memorandum to the Administrator 
states, “I find that it is in the paramount 
interest of the United States to exempt the 
United States Air Force’s operating location 
near Groom Lake, Nevada, the subject of 
litigation, from any applicable requirement for 
the disclosure to unauthorized persons of 
classified information concerning that operating 
location.” Source: edition.cnn.com
7
2005 
A Freedom of Information Act request is filed by 
Dr. Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the 
George Washington University National Security 
Archive. The FOIA request is for information on 
the CIA’s “Lockheed U-2 plane reconnaissance 
program.”
Source: edition.cnn.com
8
May 17, 2011
Journalist Annie Jacobsen’s book, “Area 51: An 
Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret 
Military Base,” is published.
Source: edition.cnn.com
9
December 8, 
At the 36th Annu2al Kennedy Center Honors, US President Barack O0bam1a 3becomes the first 
president to use the phrase “Area 51” in public, 
while honoring the actress Shirley MacLaine, 
who has long been vocal about her interest and 
belief in UFOs and the extraterrestrial.
Source: edition.cnn.com
10
September 20, 2019
Approximately 200 people show up outside the 
gates of Area 51 for the “raid” on the facility. 
Two people are arrested, according to the 
Lincoln County Sheriff. 
There is one alcohol-related arrest and a 
Canadian citizen is arrested for indecent 
exposure. One woman comes close to crossing 
and is briefly detained and released at the 
scene.
Source: edition.cnn.com
11
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