July 1964 – UFO Over Lorain!

Remember when Lorain was visited by a UFO?

The article above appeared in the Lorain Journal on July 20, 1964 and documents that event with a nifty illustration of the rocket ship-shaped UFO by Lorain resident J. Richard Lukovics.

The follow-up article on July 21, 1964 (below) notes that many people saw the same thing. But the FAA wasn't volunteering any information. Sounds like a cover-up to me!

I remember as a kid worrying about UFOs landing (that is, when I wasn't worrying about Lorain being wiped off the map by another tornado). It probably had something to do with my hearing the recording of the original Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast when I was very young. The radio drama is still scary if you happen to catch a replay of it around Halloween.

To add to my irrational fears, I remember my parents jokingly saying that our July 4th firework displays probably caught the attention of beings from other planets. Naturally, the aliens would want to see what the ruckus was all about, and would swoop into our atmosphere for a closer look.

I don't know if there are more UFOs reported around July 4 or not, but I still associate visitors from another planet with our country's birthday celebration.

Coincidentally, I watched some of the SyFy Channel's traditional holiday Twilight Zone marathon on July 4, and it seemed most of the episodes I saw had a storyline about invaders from Mars!