2022 Roswell UFO Festival July 1 - 3

Less than three months from now, the annual Roswell UFO Festival (or Alien Fest) will be taking place in Roswell, New Mexico on July 1 - 3.

The organizers promise a special festival as this years marks the 75th anniversary of the Roswell Incident involving a crashed UFO during a July 1945 thunderstorm.

According to the official website:

Experience the

Roswell UFO Festival!

July 1 - 3, 2022 

This is a special year for the Roswell UFO Festival! In 2022, we mark the 75th anniversary of the Roswell Incident. As we prepare to make this year's festival one of the best ever, be sure to follow us on Facebook and check back here for information and updates.

I attended the Roswell UFO Festival in 2018 and had a great time. 

Along with the festival itself, the city has a permanent Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center. The exhibits displayed at the museum are worth the trip to Roswell alone.

Above, the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

For additional information, go here.

Alien Fest and UFOlogist Invasion In Roswell

Above, you know you're in Roswell when you see this sign. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Looking for someplace to go to and see this summer?

Here's an idea:

I hadn't realized that this year marks 75 years since the crash of the flying saucer (UFO) in the Roswell, New Mexico area until I saw the above graphic from the International UFO Museum and Research Center.

Above, yours truly at the 2018 UFO Festival with the famous front page of the Roswell Daily Record.

Whether or not the craft recovered was a flying saucer or some balloon is still being debated today. But it is good that the city of Roswell, New Mexico is celebrating the event each year with a UFO Festival (now called Alien Fest) and the above even coincides with this year's festival which also takes place July 1-3. I attended the 2018 festival and had a good time (a lot of walking is required). 

Above, the International UFO Museum and Research Center. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The International UFO Museum and Research Center is worth a trip to Roswell alone. 

Above, where else can you meet and party with aliens?

Roswell, New Mexico is 201 miles south of Albuquerque. 

Since this year is the 75th anniversary, this year's Alien Fest should be a special one!

75th Commemoration of the End of World War II

Above, the battleship USS Missouri docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The official end of World War II took place on September 2, 1945 when Japan signed the documents of surrender on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of that event and the USS Missouri will be commemorating that anniversary.

According to the USS Missouri website:

September 2, 2020 marks the 75th Commemoration of the End of World War II; a war that took the lives of over 405,000 U.S. military personnel. The “Mighty Mo,” which now rests on the hallowed waters of Pearl Harbor, is a reminder of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in restoring peace to the world. 

To pay tribute and honor those who served and their families, the USS Missouri Memorial Association and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum will recognize this historic milestone with several commemorative events from August 29 thru September 3, 2020. 

You are invited to take part in the commemoration of this historic event. In concert with federal legislation, a unique collaboration of patriotic citizens, veteran groups, government agencies, non-profits, businesses, service organizations, and our global neighbors, will remember and honor all those who served during WWII.

Visit the official 75th WWII Commemoration website for more information. 

Above, the battleship USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it may be extremely difficult to go to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to attend the ceremonies there.

To read more, go here.

Nagasaki Marks 75th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing

Above, the monument that marks ground zero of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Tomorrow marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan and the city is memorializing the event that led to the end of World War II.

Japan Today reported:

TOKYO - The city of Nagasaki in southern Japan marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Sunday. 

It was the second nuclear bomb dropped by the U.S. three days after the attack on Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and nearly a half-century aggression against its Asian neighbors. 

Dwindling survivors, whose average age exceeds 83, increasingly worry about passing their lessons on to younger generations. 

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ATTACK? 

Nagasaki's sky was also hazy, but visibility briefly cleared. At 11:02 a.m., the Bockscar dropped a 4.5-ton plutonium bomb dubbed “Fat Man” from 31,500 feet (9,600 meters). About 30 seconds later, the bomb exploded at 1,640 feet (500 meters) above a tennis court, hitting the mostly civilian district. Under the mushroom cloud that rose as high as 52,500 feet (16,000 meters), the blast destroyed about 70% of the city. Seconds later, the temperature at ground zero rose to 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 degrees Fahrenheit). All wooden houses within one kilometer of ground zero were destroyed by the blast and firestorm. About 20 minutes later, “black rain” of highly radioactive particles started falling onto the city, causing additional radiation exposure.

Above, a replica of "Fat Man" atomic bomb at the National Museum of Nuclear
 Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here. 

Visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum By Virtual Tour

Above, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Thanks to COVID-19, travel to Japan is out of the question for the time being.

However, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is commemorating the 75th anniversary (which is today) of the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing of the city with a virtual tour of the museum.

Time Out Tokyo reported:

The 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima takes place this August 6, but Japan’s travel restrictions due to the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic have made it impossible for many people to visit the city and mark the occasion as planned. As a way to commemorate the anniversary while sustaining social distancing protocols, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has partnered with international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as Japanese and American artists to curate materials for a virtual tour of the museum so that people can still visit the site from home.  

The online tour consists of 3D renderings of the museum and its artefacts, including everyday objects which survived the bombing. The new online exhibition, complete with multimedia components, is available from August 6, which marks the anniversary of the bombing.

To read more and to take the virtual online tour, go here. 

Normandy and a 75-Year-Old Willys

Above, Jeeps unloading at Omaha Beach in 1944.

In time for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a vintage Jeep returns to Normandy in an article posted by Hagerty News.

They wrote:

English speakers call it D-day. The French, le jour J. It happened 75 years ago on a blustery Tuesday in 1944 along a 50-mile stretch of rain-swept seashore on France’s northwest shoulder. Aaron Robinson revisits history on the beach in a 75-year old Willys.

To read the article and see some nice photos, go here. 

V-E Day 75th Anniversary

Today's the 75th Anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe over Germany.

From Wikipedia:

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day or V-E Day, is a day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe.

From Fox News:

Europe was marking the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to Allied forces following six years of war in a low-key fashion Friday due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions across the continent. 

The big celebrations planned have been either cancelled or scaled back dramatically and people across Europe have been asked to mark the moment in private. 

There will be no mass gatherings, no hugging or kissing, but that day of liberation is being remembered from Belfast to Berlin. For the few surviving World War II veterans, many living in nursing homes under virus lockdowns, it's a particularly difficult time.

To read more, go here. 

75 Years of Smokey Bear

Above, a vintage Smokey Bear tin sign.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Smokey Bear (some incorrectly call him "Smokey the Bear") mascot.

USA Today has an interesting article along with some historic photos of Smokey Bear fire prevention campaign over the years.

They begin their article with:

Smokey Bear, the recognizable mascot of wildfire prevention in the United States, turns 75 Thursday. 

The U.S. Forest Service started the campaign in 1944 and used it to educate the American public on the dangers of forest fires. A live mascot, appropriately named Smokey, was added to the campaign in 1950. 

Smokey's face appeared on posters with his famous slogan: "only you can prevent forest fires." In 2001, the slogan was updated to: "only you can prevent wildfires." Smokey has also appeared on postage stamps, billboards and even a hot-air balloon. 

Off Interstate 5 near Gorman, California, there is a Smokey Bear Road.

To see more, go here.

D-DAY + 75

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolf Hitler’s crack troops.

To see more, go here.

General Eisenhower's message to the Allied troops: