It is no secret that many things happen behind the curtains that the general public isn’t aware of. The world’s governments are involved in plenty of confidential schemes and operations that must remain hidden from everyone’s eyes.
But sometimes, the truth comes out. Here are some pictures that used to be classified by the US government. Now, they have become public. Be warned that some of them are pretty impressive, so check them at your own discretion.
After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII, the US government conducted several nuclear weapons tests. The eighth of these tests was named Operation Ivy.
Two bombs were dropped on the island of Elugelab, in the Marshall Islands. Here you can see the first of these explosions, which was also the first test of a hydrogen bomb detonation.
This picture shows two Soviet scientists wearing protective suits in a safehouse for chemical weapons during the 1960s, in the middle of the Cold War.
You may wonder why the US government didn’t show this photograph to the public. Well, during the Cold War, the general public was already quite afraid of the risk of nuclear warfare between America and the USSR. It’s not hard to tell that this creepy picture wouldn’t have contributed to making people feel more at ease.
This is the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, also known as FAST, or also nicknamed Tianyan, which means “Heaven’s Eye” in Mandarin.
It’s a radio telescope built in southwest China and used to detect radio signals from across the Milky Way galaxy. It can recognize signals from as far as a thousand light-years away. Its construction began in 2011, and the telescope was declared fully active in 2020.
This is “The Fat Man”, the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, during the last weeks of WWII. It was the second of the two atomic weapons ever used in history.
The first one, dropped in Hiroshima, was codenamed “The Little Boy”. These two bombs represented not only the definite end of WWII but also a hallmark in the history of warfare.
During the 1960s, the UFO craze took over the American media. This is an official FBI document recounting the sighting of a UFO over the Nevada desert in 1963.
As you can see, some of the details were intentionally erased. One cannot help but wonder what could be the reason for this and what exactly was the involvement of the US government in the UFO frenzy.
Doesn’t this look strikingly similar to the flying saucers people usually associate with UFO sightings? Well, it might have something to do with the phenomenon.
The disc-shaped thing in the photo is an experimental aircraft created by the United States Air Force. Many people today believe that these were the things seen by UFO sighters in the desert of Nevada, coming in and out of Area 51.
In order to test nuclear weapons before actually using them in real conflicts, the US military used test dummies like the ones in the photograph.
They would be set up around the area where the bomb was to be detonated in order to get a picture of how the explosion would affect a real dummy. They make a pretty eerie image.
You probably know everything about the Titanic and how it sank in 1912, but you probably haven’t seen this picture. It was the last photograph anyone took of the ship before the fatal accident.
The depths of the Atlantic Ocean are so cold that most of the Titanic is still perfectly preserved, almost intact. To this day, researchers continue to explore it.
This is supposed to be a picture of an underground military base. Some of these were constructed during the Cold War, but according to the government, they are no longer used today.
However, one theory suggests some of these bases are jointly operated by humans and aliens. One of them would be underneath Archuleta Mesa near the town of Dulce, New Mexico.
It’s pretty obvious why the government would have wanted to keep this photograph secret until recently. We don’t know who’s the man in the picture, but it’s evident what’s the thing next to him: one of the flying saucers people used to report having seen during the 50s and 60s.
As said before, these were probably prototypes of some experimental aircraft devices. However, this one might not be American; it seems like it has been shot down, so it might have been a foreign reconnaissance aircraft.
Many of the files and photographs that the US government keeps secret are about experimental warfare devices or machines. This one looks strikingly similar to a jetpack.
Well, it’s more like a propelled chair. One can’t help but wonder how exactly a device like that could be used. This doesn’t seem like an easy question to answer, which might be why we haven’t seen any of these released to the public or used by the military.
This right here is an upside-down A-12 plane getting set up for radar testing at Area 51. When you take a look at it, you understand why so many people mistook these devices for extraterrestrial objects.
This plane was known for being almost invisible to radars; it almost looks like it could blend in with the clouds.
Yucca Mountain has been suggested as the site for Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, which would be used to store dangerous radioactive waste used by the United States military for the next 10,000 years.
In order to get there, you would have to ride a shuttle train into a five-mile-long tunnel that’s been dug straight into the mountain.
Apparently, it wasn’t only conspiracy theorists who thought of UFOs as extraterrestrial ships. This drawing was made by a CIA agent who reported having seen a flying saucer.
One can’t help wondering what his bosses’ reactions were when he told them about it. Do you think they were as shocked as him, or did they warn him to be quiet?
