[{"id":"camel-corps","title":"The Camel Corps","doc":"Report of the Secretary of War, Communicating … Information Respecting the Purchase of Camels for the Purposes of Military Transportation (Senate Executive Document, 34th Congress, 3d Session)","agency":"War Department","year":1857,"cat":"animals","blurb":"The Army’s camels in Texas","hook":"Jefferson Davis’s report to the Senate on the Army’s $30,000 purchase of 75 camels to haul supplies across Texas.","url":"https://archive.org/details/reportofsecretar00uniteds","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"dynamite-rainmakers","title":"The Dynamite Rainmakers","doc":"Report of the Agent of the Department of Agriculture for Making Experiments in the Production of Rainfall (Senate Executive Document, 52d Congress, 1st Session)","agency":"USDA (R. G. Dyrenforth)","year":1892,"cat":"earth","blurb":"Dynamite blasts to make rain","hook":"Congress paid a special agent to set off dynamite over Texas from balloons, kites, and mortars to force rain from the sky.","url":"https://archive.org/details/letterfromsecret00unit_24","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"alaska-reindeer","title":"Reindeer for Alaska","doc":"Report on Introduction of Domestic Reindeer into Alaska, 1895 (S. Doc. 111, 54th Cong., 1st Sess.)","agency":"Bureau of Education (S. Jackson)","year":1896,"cat":"animals","blurb":"Siberian reindeer and Sámi herders","hook":"A Bureau of Education report on its program to ship Siberian reindeer to Alaska and bring Sámi herders from Norway to train Native herders.","url":"https://archive.org/details/reportonintroduc1895jack","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"poison-squad","title":"The Poison Squad","doc":"Influence of Food Preservatives and Artificial Colors on Digestion and Health, I: Boric Acid and Borax (Bulletin 84, Part I)","agency":"USDA · Bureau of Chemistry","year":1904,"cat":"humans","blurb":"Clerks who ate borax for science","hook":"Twelve government clerks ate borax-laced meals for months while chemists weighed them and recorded the headaches.","url":"https://archive.org/details/influenceoffoodp84wile","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"hippo-bill","title":"The American Hippo Bill","doc":"Hearings before the Committee on Agriculture, 61st Congress, 2nd Session: Importation of Wild and Domestic Animals (H.R. 23261)","agency":"U.S. House","year":1910,"cat":"animals","blurb":"Hippos for Louisiana’s waterways","hook":"A 1910 House hearing on a bill to import hippopotamuses to eat the water hyacinth choking Louisiana’s waterways and supply meat.","url":"https://archive.org/details/hearingsbeforec09agrigoog","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"secret-writing","title":"Secret Writing","doc":"Secret Writing document collection","agency":"CIA","year":1917,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"World War I invisible ink","hook":"Six World War I papers on invisible ink and opening sealed letters, which stayed classified until 2011.","url":"https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/secret-writing","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"war-plan-red","title":"War Plan Red","doc":"Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan—Red (J.B. No. 325, Serial No. 435)","agency":"Joint Army and Navy Board","year":1930,"cat":"doomsday","blurb":"The U.S. plan to invade Canada","hook":"The Army and Navy’s 1930 plan for a war with the British Empire (RED), opened by a drive to seize Canada (CRIMSON).","url":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16749799","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"einstein-file","title":"The Einstein File","doc":"Albert Einstein (FBI file)","agency":"FBI","year":1932,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"The FBI’s file on Albert Einstein","hook":"The FBI’s file on Albert Einstein, opened in 1932 and grown to 1,427 pages by his death in 1955.","url":"https://vault.fbi.gov/Albert%20Einstein","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"tuskegee-study","title":"The Tuskegee Study","doc":"Final Report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel","agency":"HEW · U.S. Public Health Service","year":1932,"cat":"humans","blurb":"40 years of untreated syphilis","hook":"The federal panel’s report on the Public Health Service study that followed Black men with untreated syphilis for 40 years.","url":"https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/history/reports/tuskegee/complete%20report.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"akron-disaster","title":"The Akron Disaster","doc":"Dirigible Disasters: Report of the Joint Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters (S. Doc. 73-75)","agency":"U.S. Congress","year":1933,"cat":"machines","blurb":"Congress on a flying carrier’s crash","hook":"Congress’s report on the 1933 crash of the Navy airship Akron, a flying aircraft carrier. Three of the 77 men aboard survived.","url":"https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-09748_00_00-067-0075-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-09748_00_00-067-0075-0000.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"kudzu","title":"Kudzu, Not a Pest","doc":"Kudzu for Erosion Control in the Southeast (Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1840)","agency":"USDA · Soil Conservation Service","year":1939,"cat":"earth","blurb":"The USDA’s case for planting kudzu","hook":"A USDA bulletin urging Southern farmers to plant kudzu against erosion, with a section headed “Kudzu not a pest.”","url":"https://archive.org/details/CAT87204579","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"snow-cruiser","title":"The Antarctic Snow Cruiser","doc":"Snow Cruiser, 1939–1941, General Files of the U.S. Antarctic Service (Record Group 126)","agency":"U.S. Antarctic Service · Armour Research Foundation","year":1939,"cat":"machines","blurb":"A 55-foot polar bus with a plane on top","hook":"The U.S. Antarctic Service’s file on the Snow Cruiser, a 55-foot vehicle with an airplane on its roof that bogged down in the snow.","url":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6983131","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"bat-bomb","title":"The Bat Bomb","doc":"Memorandum from President Roosevelt to Colonel Donovan on Lytle S. 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Serber)","year":1943,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"How to build an atomic bomb","hook":"The lecture notes given to new Manhattan Project scientists on how to build an atomic bomb.","url":"https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4396412","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"tesla-file","title":"The Tesla File","doc":"Nikola Tesla (FBI File 100-2237)","agency":"FBI","year":1943,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"The FBI’s file on Nikola Tesla","hook":"The FBI’s file on Nikola Tesla, whose papers federal officials seized after his death amid talk of a “death ray.”","url":"https://vault.fbi.gov/nikola-tesla","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"simple-sabotage","title":"Simple Sabotage Field Manual","doc":"Simple Sabotage Field Manual","agency":"OSS","year":1944,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"How to sabotage with meetings","hook":"Advice for citizen saboteurs that reads like office satire: hold endless meetings and refer everything to committees.","url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"spruce-goose","title":"The Spruce Goose","doc":"Resistance Tests of a 1/16-Size Model of the Hughes-Kaiser Flying Boat, NACA Model 183 (NACA WR L-683)","agency":"Commerce Department · NACA Langley","year":1944,"cat":"machines","blurb":"The wooden flying boat that flew once","hook":"NACA towing-tank tests on a model hull of the Hughes-Kaiser flying boat, the 200-ton wooden cargo plane later called the Spruce Goose.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19930093029","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"starvation-unit","title":"The Starvation Unit","doc":"Experimental Starvation in Man","agency":"OSRD · University of Minnesota (A. Keys)","year":1944,"cat":"humans","blurb":"Objectors starved to plan famine relief","hook":"A wartime report on 34 conscientious objectors who were semi-starved for six months so doctors could learn how to feed liberated Europe.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA473351","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"edvac","title":"The EDVAC Report","doc":"First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (Contract No. W-670-ORD-4926)","agency":"U.S. Army Ordnance · Moore School (J. von Neumann)","year":1945,"cat":"computing","blurb":"Von Neumann’s computer blueprint","hook":"John von Neumann’s 1945 draft, written under an Army contract, describing a computer that keeps its program in memory with its data.","url":"https://archive.org/details/firstdraftofrepo00vonn","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"fbi-hitler-file","title":"The FBI Hitler File","doc":"Adolf Hitler (FBI file, Parts 1–4)","agency":"FBI","year":1945,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"Tips that Hitler had fled to Argentina","hook":"The FBI’s file on Hitler, mostly tips from 1945 to 1947 that he had survived the war, including a landing by submarine in Argentina.","url":"https://vault.fbi.gov/adolf-hitler","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"ghost-army","title":"The Ghost Army","doc":"Official History of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops","agency":"U.S. Army · 23rd Headquarters Special Troops","year":1945,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"An Army unit of inflatable tanks","hook":"The official history of the Army unit that impersonated whole divisions in Europe with rubber tanks, recorded sound, and radio traffic.","url":"https://ghostarmy.org/thearchive/Official-History-of-the-23rd/intro/","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"smyth-report","title":"The Smyth Report","doc":"Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: The Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940–1945","agency":"War Department (H. 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The answer was no.","url":"https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/doe/lanl/docs1/00329010.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"crossroads","title":"Operation Crossroads","doc":"Report on Atomic Bomb Tests Able and Baker (Operation Crossroads), Vol. 1","agency":"Joint Task Force One","year":1946,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"Atomic bombs against a target fleet","hook":"The task force’s report on two atomic bombs fired at Bikini in 1946 against 93 target ships, some carrying test animals.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0473986","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"project-diana","title":"Project Diana","doc":"To See the Unseen: A History of Planetary Radar Astronomy (NASA SP-4218), chapter 1","agency":"NASA (A. J. 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H. Cruzen)","year":1947,"cat":"machines","blurb":"The Navy’s 4,700-man Antarctic expedition","hook":"The Navy’s report on Operation Highjump, which sent 13 ships and more than 4,700 men to Antarctica in 1946–47 to map it from the air.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/html/tr/AD0088221/index.html","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"maury-island","title":"The Maury Island Incident","doc":"UFO, Part 3 (FBI file 62-83894): Seattle teletypes on flying discs at Tacoma, August 1947","agency":"FBI","year":1947,"cat":"paranormal","blurb":"Saucer debris, a fatal crash, an FBI probe","hook":"FBI teletypes on flying-disc fragments that proved to be slag, and the bomber crash that killed the two officers carrying them.","url":"https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%2003/view","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"pigeon-guided-missiles","title":"Pigeon-Guided Missiles","doc":"Development of the NRL ORCON Tactical Missile Simulator","agency":"Naval Research Laboratory","year":1948,"cat":"animals","blurb":"Missiles steered by pigeons","hook":"The Navy revived B. F. Skinner’s idea of training pigeons to steer missiles by pecking at a target on a screen.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/html/trecms/AD1216369/index.html","status":"partial","art":true},{"id":"project-sign","title":"Project Sign","doc":"Unidentified Aerial Objects: Project SIGN","agency":"USAF · Air Materiel Command","year":1949,"cat":"paranormal","blurb":"The Air Force’s first UFO study","hook":"The Air Force’s first official UFO study. 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Specific – Adolph Hitler (with attachments)","agency":"CIA","year":1955,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"A CIA tip that Hitler was alive","hook":"A CIA station dispatch passing on an informant’s claim that Hitler was alive in Colombia, with a photograph dated 1954.","url":"https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/node/2072328","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"nash-letters","title":"John Nash’s Letters to the NSA","doc":"Correspondence between John Nash and the National Security Agency","agency":"NSA","year":1955,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"John Nash’s cipher proposal","hook":"John Nash’s 1955 letters to the NSA, proposing a cipher machine and arguing that key-breaking effort could grow exponentially.","url":"https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/12/2002760581/-1/-1/0/NASH_LETTERS1.PDF","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"operation-cue","title":"Operation Cue","doc":"Cue for Survival: Operation Cue, A.E.C. 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Lehrer and R. E. Fagen)","agency":"NSA","year":1957,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"Tom Lehrer’s math paper for the NSA","hook":"A math paper for the NSA co-written by the satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer, with a joke citation slipped in.","url":"https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jul/14/2002762807/-1/-1/0/GAMBLERS-RUIN.PDF/GAMBLERS-RUIN.PDF","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"gaither-report","title":"The Gaither Report","doc":"Deterrence & Survival in the Nuclear Age (NSC 5724)","agency":"ODM · Security Resources Panel","year":1957,"cat":"doomsday","blurb":"Fallout shelters for every American","hook":"A secret panel told Eisenhower that fallout shelters for every American would save perhaps fifty million lives.","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1955-57v19/d158","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"pascal-b","title":"The Pascal-B Manhole Cover","doc":"Learning to Contain Underground Nuclear Explosions (essay, June 2002)","agency":"Los Alamos (R. R. Brownlee)","year":1957,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"A steel cap blown off a nuclear shaft","hook":"A Los Alamos physicist’s account of a 1957 test that blew a steel cap off its shaft at a calculated six times escape velocity.","url":"https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Brownlee.html","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"avrocar","title":"Avrocar","doc":"Avrocar Flight Evaluation","agency":"USAF / U.S. Army · Avro Canada","year":1958,"cat":"machines","blurb":"A real flying saucer that barely flew","hook":"An actual flying saucer, tested in NASA wind tunnels. It hovered but couldn’t get much more than a few feet off the ground.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0270921","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"man-in-space-soonest","title":"Man in Space Soonest","doc":"Chronology of Early Air Force Man-in-Space Activity, 1955–1960 (AFSC Historical Publications Series 65-21-1)","agency":"USAF · Space Systems Division","year":1958,"cat":"space","blurb":"The Air Force’s first astronaut plan","hook":"An Air Force chronology of Man in Space Soonest, the 1958 plan to orbit a man by 1960 as the first step toward a manned Moon landing.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA950166.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"doctor-zhivago","title":"The CIA’s Doctor Zhivago","doc":"Distribution of Russian Copies of Dr. Zhivago (memorandum, October 31, 1958)","agency":"CIA","year":1958,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"The CIA’s Russian edition of a banned novel","hook":"A CIA memo tallying the first 1,000 copies of its Russian Doctor Zhivago, including 365 handed to Soviet visitors at the Brussels Fair.","url":"https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/0005795687.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"inflatoplane","title":"The Inflatable Airplane","doc":"Wind-Tunnel Investigation of the Goodyear Inflatoplane (NACA RM L58E09)","agency":"NACA Langley","year":1958,"cat":"machines","blurb":"Goodyear’s inflatable airplane","hook":"Goodyear’s inflatable airplane, tested in a wind tunnel at speeds high enough to buckle its wings.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19930090147","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"x-13-vertijet","title":"The X-13 Vertijet","doc":"Hovering and Transition Flight Tests of a 1/5-Scale Model of the Ryan X-13 VTOL Airplane (NACA RM SL58H29)","agency":"USAF · NACA Langley","year":1958,"cat":"machines","blurb":"A jet that parked hanging by its nose","hook":"NACA tests of a model of the Ryan X-13, a jet that took off and landed upright, hanging by a nose hook from a wire on a trailer.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19710082837","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"lunar-research-flights","title":"A Study of Lunar Research Flights","doc":"A Study of Lunar Research Flights, Vol. I","agency":"USAF · Armour Research Foundation","year":1959,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"A plan to nuke the Moon","hook":"A study of setting off a nuclear device on the Moon, partly to show it could be done. A young Carl Sagan did calculations for it.","url":"https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/docs/EBB-Moon02.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"missile-mail","title":"Missile Mail","doc":"Missile Mail (United States Postal Service Historian, July 2008)","agency":"Post Office Department · U.S. Navy","year":1959,"cat":"machines","blurb":"A cruise missile full of letters","hook":"The Postal Service’s history of the 1959 test in which a Navy submarine fired a Regulus missile carrying 3,000 letters to Florida.","url":"https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/missile-mail.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"project-excelsior","title":"Project Excelsior","doc":"Discussion of Project Excelsior, in Proceedings of the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space (NASA SP-8)","agency":"USAF · Aerospace Medical Laboratory","year":1959,"cat":"humans","blurb":"A parachute jump from 102,800 feet","hook":"An Air Force pilot’s account of Project Excelsior, his three parachute jumps from balloons, the last from 102,800 feet.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19630001263","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"horizon","title":"Project Horizon","doc":"Project Horizon, Vols. I–II","agency":"U.S. Army","year":1959,"cat":"space","blurb":"An Army base on the Moon by 1966","hook":"The Army’s plan for a military base on the Moon by 1966, with a crew of 12 soldiers.","url":"https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"chariot","title":"Project Chariot","doc":"Bioenvironmental Features of the Ogotoruk Creek Area, Cape Thompson, Alaska (TID-12439)","agency":"AEC","year":1960,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"A harbor dug with nuclear blasts","hook":"A plan to blast a harbor into the coast of Alaska with nuclear explosives. This survey of the site came first.","url":"https://archive.org/details/bioenvironmental00comm","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"brookings-report","title":"The Brookings Report","doc":"Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs (NASA-CR-55643)","agency":"NASA · Brookings Institution","year":1960,"cat":"space","blurb":"Should NASA hide alien life?","hook":"A NASA-commissioned report warning that finding alien life could destabilize society, and asking whether to withhold the news.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19640053196","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"flying-jeeps","title":"The Flying Jeeps","doc":"VZ-7AP Aerial Platform Research, Final Report (SBD TR 60-37)","agency":"U.S. Army · Curtiss-Wright","year":1960,"cat":"machines","blurb":"The Army’s search for a flying jeep","hook":"Curtiss-Wright’s final report on the VZ-7AP, a four-rotor “aerial jeep” built for the Army to fly low over rough ground.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0248716","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"walking-truck","title":"The GE Walking Truck","doc":"Quadruped Studies Project Files, 1960–1968","agency":"ARPA / U.S. Army · General Electric","year":1960,"cat":"machines","blurb":"A four-legged truck driven by limbs","hook":"A four-legged truck whose driver moved its legs with his own arms and legs.","url":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/18252894","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"perceptron","title":"The Mark I Perceptron Manual","doc":"Mark I Perceptron Operators' Manual (VG-1196-G-5)","agency":"ONR · Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory","year":1960,"cat":"computing","blurb":"A Navy machine that learned shapes","hook":"The operators’ manual for the first hardware perceptron, a Navy-funded machine that learned to recognize shapes.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD0236965.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"military-lunar-base","title":"The Military Lunar Base","doc":"Military Lunar Base Program or S.R. 183 Lunar Observatory Study, Vol. I","agency":"USAF · Ballistic Missile Division","year":1960,"cat":"space","blurb":"An Air Force spy base on the Moon","hook":"An Air Force plan for a crewed spy base on the Moon by 1969. It mentions a “Lunar Based Earth Bombardment System.”","url":"https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/docs/EBB-Moon03.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"houbolt-letter","title":"A Voice in the Wilderness","doc":"Letter, John C. Houbolt to Robert C. Seamans, Jr., 15 November 1961, in Enchanted Rendezvous (NASA-TM-111236)","agency":"NASA Langley (J. Houbolt)","year":1961,"cat":"space","blurb":"The letter behind Apollo’s route","hook":"A Langley engineer’s letter, sent over his superiors’ heads, urging lunar-orbit rendezvous, the method NASA chose for Apollo in 1962.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19960014824","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"lunex","title":"LUNEX","doc":"Lunar Expedition Plan (LUNEX)","agency":"USAF · Systems Command","year":1961,"cat":"space","blurb":"A 21-person military Moon base","hook":"The Air Force’s rival to Apollo: a 21-person military base on the Moon by 1968.","url":"https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/docs/EBB-Moon04.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"mohole","title":"Project Mohole","doc":"Experimental Drilling in Deep Water at La Jolla and Guadalupe Sites","agency":"NSF · National Research Council","year":1961,"cat":"earth","blurb":"Drilling toward Earth’s mantle","hook":"The report on 1961 test drilling off Guadalupe Island, Mexico, the first phase of a plan to drill through the ocean floor to Earth’s mantle.","url":"https://www.nationalacademies.org/publications/28639","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"pluto","title":"Project Pluto","doc":"The Pluto Program (UCRL-6398)","agency":"USAF / AEC · Lawrence Radiation Laboratory","year":1961,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"A nuclear ramjet cruise missile","hook":"A nuclear ramjet cruise missile meant to fly low for weeks. 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Engelbart)","year":1962,"cat":"computing","blurb":"The agenda behind the mouse","hook":"The 1962 report that set the agenda for Engelbart’s lab, which went on to build the mouse and hypertext.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0289565","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"empire","title":"EMPIRE","doc":"EMPIRE: A Study of Early Manned Interplanetary Missions (NASA-CR-51709)","agency":"NASA Marshall · Ford Aeronutronic","year":1962,"cat":"space","blurb":"Crewed Mars flybys before Apollo","hook":"Before anyone had orbited the Moon, NASA was studying crewed flybys of Mars and Venus lasting 400 days or more.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19650082475","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"northwoods","title":"Operation Northwoods","doc":"Justification for US Military Intervention in Cuba","agency":"Joint Chiefs of Staff","year":1962,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"Staged attacks to justify war on Cuba","hook":"The Joint Chiefs proposed staged attacks to blame on Cuba as a pretext for war. The Kennedy administration rejected it.","url":"https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-10/Joint-Chiefs-pretexts-to-invade-Cuba-March-1962_0.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"skyfire","title":"Project Skyfire","doc":"Project Skyfire Progress Report, 1958–1960 (Research Paper 71)","agency":"U.S. Forest Service","year":1962,"cat":"earth","blurb":"Seeding thunderstorms to stop forest fires","hook":"A Forest Service report on seeding Montana thunderstorms with silver iodide to cut the lightning strikes that start forest fires.","url":"https://archive.org/details/CAT31005343","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"starfish-prime","title":"Starfish Prime","doc":"Operation Dominic, Fish Bowl Series, Project 8A.2","agency":"Defense Atomic Support Agency · EG&G","year":1962,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"Artificial auroras from a nuclear test","hook":"Photographs of high-altitude nuclear tests, which lit artificial auroras across the Pacific.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA995489.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"ar-15-test","title":"The AR-15 Field Test","doc":"Report of Task No. 13A: Test of Armalite Rifle, AR-15","agency":"ARPA","year":1962,"cat":"machines","blurb":"The field test behind the M16","hook":"ARPA’s field report on AR-15 rifles issued to South Vietnamese troops in combat, a test that helped lead to the M16.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0343778","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"effects-of-nuclear-weapons","title":"The Effects of Nuclear Weapons","doc":"The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (1962 edition)","agency":"DoD / AEC (S. 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Baran)","year":1964,"cat":"computing","blurb":"A network built to survive nuclear war","hook":"A design for a communications network that could survive a nuclear attack, and one origin of packet switching.","url":"https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/RM3420.html","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"project-gnome","title":"Project Gnome","doc":"Project Gnome: The Environment Created by a Nuclear Explosion in Salt (PNE-107F)","agency":"AEC · Lawrence Radiation Laboratory","year":1964,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"A walk-in cavern made by a nuke","hook":"A report on the first Plowshare test, a nuclear explosion in salt near Carlsbad that left a cavern scientists walked into.","url":"https://www.wipp.energy.gov/library/CRA/2009_CRA/references/Others/Rawson_et_al_1965_Project_Gnome_the_Environment_Created_by_a_Nuclear_Explosion_in_Salt_PNE107F.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"ithacus","title":"Project Ithacus","doc":"Ithacus: A New Concept of Inter-Continental Ballistic Transport (AIAA Paper 64-280)","agency":"Douglas Aircraft (P. Bono, G. C. Goldbaum)","year":1964,"cat":"space","blurb":"A rocket to fly 1,200 Marines anywhere","hook":"A Douglas Aircraft study of a reusable rocket that would land 1,200 troops anywhere on Earth within 45 minutes.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0605208","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"orion","title":"Project Orion","doc":"Nuclear Pulse Vehicle Study: Condensed Summary Report (GA-4891)","agency":"NASA Marshall · General Atomic","year":1964,"cat":"nuclear","blurb":"A spaceship pushed by nuclear bombs","hook":"A spaceship pushed by nuclear bombs set off behind it, one after another. Freeman Dyson worked on it.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19760065935","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"west-ford","title":"Project West Ford","doc":"Project West Ford Payload Telemetry System (TR-343)","agency":"USAF · MIT Lincoln Laboratory","year":1964,"cat":"space","blurb":"Copper needles in orbit for radio","hook":"An Air Force experiment that put hundreds of millions of copper needles in orbit to reflect radio signals.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0602928.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"louie-louie","title":"The “Louie Louie” File","doc":"Louie Louie (The Song), FBI file","agency":"FBI","year":1964,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"The FBI decodes “Louie Louie”","hook":"The FBI’s file on whether the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” was obscene. 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one meant to make enemy troops sexually attracted to each other.","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20050306021330/http://www.sunshine-project.org/incapacitants/jnlwdpdf/wpafbchem.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"clipper-chip","title":"The Clipper Chip","doc":"Escrowed Encryption Standard (FIPS PUB 185)","agency":"NIST / NSA","year":1994,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"A crypto chip with keys held for police","hook":"The federal standard behind the Clipper chip, which encrypted phone calls while government escrow agents kept a copy of each key.","url":"https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/fips/185/final","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"wingship","title":"Wingship Investigation","doc":"Wingship Investigation, Volume 1: Final Report","agency":"ARPA","year":1994,"cat":"machines","blurb":"Giant craft skimming the sea","hook":"A post-Cold War ARPA study of giant water-skimming craft like the Soviet “Caspian Sea Monster.”","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA294979.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"corona","title":"CORONA","doc":"CORONA: America’s First Satellite Program","agency":"CIA","year":1995,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"Spy satellite film caught in midair","hook":"A CIA collection on the first U.S. spy satellites, whose film capsules were caught in midair by planes trailing hooks.","url":"https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/corona.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"spider-web-toxicity","title":"Drugged Spider Webs","doc":"Using Spider-Web Patterns To Determine Toxicity (MFS-28921), NASA Tech Briefs, April 1995","agency":"NASA Marshall","year":1995,"cat":"animals","blurb":"Spider webs on drugs","hook":"A NASA tech brief that measured toxicity by how badly spiders exposed to marijuana, Benzedrine, caffeine, and chloral hydrate built webs.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20100033433","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"human-radiation-experiments","title":"Human Radiation Experiments","doc":"Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments","agency":"Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments","year":1995,"cat":"humans","blurb":"Thirty years of radiation experiments","hook":"The federal inquiry into thirty years of radiation experiments on hospital patients, prisoners, and institutionalized boys.","url":"https://archive.org/details/advisorycommitte00unit","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"simnet","title":"SIMNET","doc":"SIMNET: An Insider’s Perspective (IDA Document D-1661)","agency":"DARPA · IDA (L. N. Cosby)","year":1995,"cat":"computing","blurb":"DARPA’s networked battle simulators","hook":"An insider’s history of SIMNET, DARPA’s network of low-cost tank and helicopter simulators that put crews in a shared virtual battlefield.","url":"https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA294786.pdf","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"skyhook","title":"Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet","doc":"Robert Fulton's Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet (Studies in Intelligence)","agency":"CIA","year":1995,"cat":"espionage","blurb":"Snatching men off an ice station","hook":"A balloon and a line let a low-flying B-17 snatch two men off an abandoned Soviet ice station.","url":"https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/archives/vol-38-no-5/robert-fultons-skyhook-and-operation-coldfeet/","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"stargate","title":"Stargate","doc":"An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications","agency":"CIA · American Institutes for Research","year":1995,"cat":"paranormal","blurb":"Government-funded remote viewing","hook":"The review that ended more than two decades of government-funded research into remote viewing.","url":"https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/node/304505","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"alternate-futures","title":"Alternate Futures for 2025","doc":"Alternate Futures for 2025: Security Planning to Avoid Surprise","agency":"USAF · Air University","year":1996,"cat":"doomsday","blurb":"Six possible worlds for 2025","hook":"The Air Force imagined six possible worlds for 2025, including one ruled by corporations.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA319867","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"owning-the-weather","title":"Owning the Weather in 2025","doc":"Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025","agency":"USAF · Air University","year":1996,"cat":"earth","blurb":"Weather control as a weapon","hook":"An Air Force paper on using weather control as a weapon.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA333462","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"planetary-defense","title":"Planetary Defense","doc":"Planetary Defense: Catastrophic Health Insurance for Planet Earth","agency":"USAF · Air Command and Staff College","year":1996,"cat":"doomsday","blurb":"A military mission to stop asteroids","hook":"Air Command and Staff College officers argue for a military mission to stop asteroids before they hit Earth.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA392673","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"roswell-case-closed","title":"Roswell: Case Closed","doc":"The Roswell Report: Case Closed","agency":"USAF","year":1997,"cat":"paranormal","blurb":"The Roswell aliens were crash dummies","hook":"The Air Force’s explanation that the Roswell “alien bodies” were crash-test dummies dropped from balloons.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA326147","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"breakthrough-propulsion","title":"Breakthrough Propulsion Physics","doc":"NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program (NASA/TM-1998-208400)","agency":"NASA Lewis","year":1998,"cat":"fringe","blurb":"NASA’s warp drive program","hook":"NASA’s official program studying warp drives and propulsion without propellant.","url":"https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19980201240","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"haarp","title":"HAARP","doc":"HAARP: Research and Applications (DTIC ADA355641)","agency":"USAF / ONR","year":1998,"cat":"earth","blurb":"The military’s ionosphere heater in Alaska","hook":"An Air Force and Navy report on HAARP, the Alaska transmitter built to heat the ionosphere for submarine radio and remote sensing.","url":"https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA355641","status":"verified","art":true},{"id":"gravity-shielding","title":"The Gravity Shield Test","doc":"Superconductor-Mediated Modification of Gravity? 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