The Battle of Los Angeles
The account
A giant object hovered over Los Angeles and withstood hours of anti-aircraft fire without falling.
What investigators found
The Navy called the episode a false alarm, caused by wartime jitters and weather balloons.
The story
Less than three months after Pearl Harbor, in the early hours of February 25, 1942, air raid sirens went off across Los Angeles. The city went dark, and anti-aircraft batteries fired for about an hour at targets no one could identify with certainty. A photograph published in the Los Angeles Times, with searchlights converging on a pale shape, became the enduring symbol of the case.
No enemy aircraft was shot down and no bombs fell. The deaths that night came from accidents and heart attacks. The Secretary of the Navy dismissed the whole thing as a false alarm. Historians point to weather balloons, smoke from the guns themselves and fear of a Japanese attack. The famous photo was retouched for publication, which still fuels exaggerated interpretations today.