Deep History

The Korean War begins.  Following World War II, U.S. forces had occupied the southern half of the country which formed a right-wing government, and Soviet forces had occupied the northern half of the country which formed a Communist government. When forces from the north invade South Korea, the U.S. sends some 300,000 troops to intervene.

The U.S. begins supplying modern weaponry and military assistance to French-allied forces in the First Indochina War. This includes ships, aircraft, and covert CIA airdrops and transport.

Congress overrides the veto of President Truman to pass the Subversive Activities Control Act. The law requires members of certain political parties to submit to a national registry and allows for the detention of dangerous, disloyal, or subversive persons in times of war or "internal security emergency," among other provisions.

The Department of Defense and CIA begin Project Bluebird and MKSEARCH. Precursors to MKULTRA, their purpose is to study mind control, behavior modification, and interrogation techniques. A parallel program called MKDELTA is established to carry out similar activities overseas, as well as to conduct biological warfare research and experimentation.

The Department of Defense and CIA begin Project MKCHICKWIT to identify new drug developments in Europe and Asia and to obtain information and samples.  The program runs in parallel with MKOFTEN which tests the behavioral and toxicological effects of various drugs on animals and humans.

In order to conduct a simulation of a biological warfare attack, the U.S. Navy uses airplanes to spray large quantities of the bacteria Serratia marcescens over San Francisco, which causes numerous citizens to contract pneumonia-like illnesses, and kills at least one person.

 Dr. Joseph Stokes of the University of Pennsylvania deliberately infects 200 female prisoners with hepatitis.

Two Puerto Rican independence activists make a failed assassination attempt against President Truman. The surviving attacker cites the experiments of Cornelius Rhoads as additional motivation for his actions. Rhoads was an American medical doctor who admitted in a letter to performing unethical cancer experiments on Puerto Ricans. He avoided prosecution after a whitewashing campaign by the Rockefeller Foundation, but was later stripped of some accolades due to the racist contents of that letter and one other.

Having concluded a substandard career as a junior officer in the Navy, L. Ron Hubbard publishes a self-help book titled "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" which will become the canonical text of Scientology.

The first Committee on the Present Danger is convened. It acts both to influence foreign policy in a more militaristic direction and to manipulate public opinion in support of military interventions. Key figures include Dean Acheson, Paul Nitze, and Tracy Voorhees.

The Aspen Institute is formed to develop the leadership style of political and social luminaries. It is primarily funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Brother Fund, and the Ford Foundation. Board members over the years include a number of powerful political insiders including Madeline Albright, David Gergen, David Koch, and Condoleezza Rice.

The CIA finances the creation of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an anti-communist advocacy group. The CCF attacks communist artists like poet Pablo Neruda while promoting American modern art and an array of musical productions in an attempt to show that America is a cultural mecca while the Soviet Union is artistically sterile and repressive.

World Vision International is founded. Ostensibly an Evangelical Christian relief and development non-profit, it has been accused of providing cover for CIA black ops. While there isn't a single "smoking gun," a number of interesting links can be found between World Vision and events as diverse as the Phoenix Program, the training of the Contras, the Jonestown massacre, the assassination of John Lennon, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are put on trial for passing information on the atomic bomb to Russia. They will be executed in 1953.

The U.S. carries out Operation Greenhouse, a series of nuclear detonations which deliver key findings for the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I becomes the first nuclear power plant to produce electricity.

Dr. Albert Kligman, on behalf of Dow Chemical, injects at least 70 prisoners at the Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania with dioxin. Some are given up to 7,500 micrograms of the highly toxic and carcinogenic substance, causing them to develop painful pustules. At some point 9 out of 10 inmates at Holmesburg Prison are used as medical test subjects for one purpose or another.

Mass hallucinations and hysteria suddenly break out in the small French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit. Between 250 and 500 people are affected and several die. Some believe the incident was caused by ergot or some other poisonous agent in the town's bread. Some evidence also exists that the incident was the result of a covert LSD aerosol experiment named Project Span.

The National Security Agency is formed.

The CIA begins Project HTLINGUAL (also known as SRPOINTER and SGPOINTER), intercepting and reading mail being sent to Russia and China.

Aerospace defense contractor General Dynamics is formed.

The first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DMS-I) is published. Its creation is largely thanks to the army's systematic efforts to deal with traumatized World War II veterans. The manual is published by the American Psychiatric Association at a time when it is headed by MKULTRA doctor Donald Ewen Cameron. The various editions of the manual have been subject to numerous criticisms over the years, particularly the financial relationships between many of its authors and manufacturers of psychiatric medications.

Sloan-Kettering Institute researcher Chester M. Southam injects live cancer cells into prisoners at the Ohio State Prison. Also at Sloan-Kettering, 300 healthy women are injected with live cancer cells without being told. The doctors know at the time that this might give them cancer.

The U.S. Army carries out Operation Dew, releasing an aerosol spray of zinc cadmium sulfide and plant spores off the southeast coast of the United States to advance understanding of potential bioweapons. Operation LAC carries out similar experiments over Minnesota and other parts of the country.

Jack Parsons is killed in an explosion at his home laboratory in California. Parsons was a genius rocket scientist who co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was also a devoted disciple of Aleister Crowley, and headed a lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis. He was a friend and business partner of L. Ron Hubbard until Hubbard ran off with Parsons's mistress aboard a boat that he and Parsons owned.

Crowley disciples Kenneth Grant and Autin Osman Spare found the Zos Kia Cultus.

Andrija Puharich's Round Table Foundation welcomes a channeler named Dr. D. G. Vinod. Vinod relays a series of messages he claims are from "The Council of Nine," a group of aliens once worshiped as the Great Ennead of Ancient Egypt. Puharich and his group take the claims so seriously that they start a new institute called Lab 9 devoted to the teachings of the Council. Among those with whom they discuss these ideas is Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, along with other writers who work on the show. Numerous episodes of the show will focus on interactions with discarnate, god-like alien entities, most notably in the later spin-off series Deep Space Nine.

The U.S. Air Force begins a process of systematically debunking all UFO sightings called Project Bluebook.

H. Marshall Chadwell, the CIA's director of scientific intelligence, sends a memo to CIA Director Walter Smith stating, "At this time, the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention.... Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and travelling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.”

Multiple UFO sightings and anomalous radar readings over Washington, D.C. prompt the Air Force to issue a shoot-down order. Jets are scrambled but none are able to catch up with the objects.

The Korean War ends.

The Church of Scientology is incorporated.

The U.S. government in conjunction with Canadian company Avro undertake Project Silverbug to create an experimental saucer-shaped aircraft. It is a dismal failure.

The U.S. and British governments carry out Operation Ajax to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he nationalizes their oil industry. An absolute monarchy is placed in power.

CIA biowarfare expert Frank Olson dies after falling from a window in a New York hotel room. He had not only orchestrated CIA human experimentation projects (possibly including Project Span), but had been a subject himself, having been dosed with LSD only nine days prior.

The CIA begins Project MKULTRA to develop methods of mind control and behavior modification.

The CIA begins Operation Midnight Climax, using prostitutes to lure clients to safehouses in New York, San Francisco, and Marin. There the clients are surreptitiously dosed with LSD and other drugs and monitored from behind one-way glass.

President Eisenhower launches a propaganda campaign on nuclear power with a speech entitled "Atoms for Peace". The campaign serves to promote the nuclear industry, enhance the ideological battle against Russia, and cover for the American nuclear arms build-up. American Machine and Foundry will sell both Pakistan and Iran their first nuclear reactors under this program.

A group of some of the most powerful and influential people in the world gather for a meeting at the Hotel Bilderberg in the Netherlands. From this point on a Bilderberg Group, comprised of 100-150 prominent political and industry figures, will meet once a year under a shroud of intense secrecy to discuss their vision for the world.

The White Citizens' Council is formed.

Crowley disciple Gerald Gardner founds the modern religion of Wicca.

Sun Myung Moon founds the Unification Church. The church publishes The Washington Times newspaper and becomes involved in conservative and anti-communist politics around the world.

Mercenary/private security corporation Wackenhut is founded.

The Army begins Operation Whitecoat, testing various diseases, vaccines, and antibiotics on conscientious objectors. Unlike many other human experimentation projects of the time, the subjects in this case are informed volunteers.

The phrase "under God" is added to the pledge of allegiance by a joint resolution of Congress.

Israel fails at an attempted false flag attack which becomes known as the Lavon Affair.  Egyptian Jews recruited by Israeli army intelligence bomb Egyptian, American, and British targets and attempt to blame the explosions on Muslims and Communists. The true perpetrators, however, are caught and tried. Israel denies the incident for 51 years before Israeli President Moshe Katzav honors the surviving agents in 2005 with certificates of appreciation.

In Operation WASHTUB, the CIA plants a phony Soviet arms cache in Nicaragua in an attempt to implicate Guatemalan ties with Moscow.

The CIA carries out Operation PBSUCCESS, a military coup which overthrows Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. The coup is carried out at the urging of the United Fruit Company after Guzmán expropriates some of their idle land to distribute to peasant farmers. The coup triggers the Guatemalan Civil War which kills 140,000 to 250,000 Guatemalans.

The CIA carries out Operation PBHISTORY to gather intelligence on Latin American Communists and share said information with Anti-Communist regimes.

Maxwell Air Force Base sends an emergency memo to the CIA, NSA, and Joint Chiefs of Staff stating that a saucer-like flying object rapidly entered their airspace, hovered for some time, and then just as rapidly vanished.

The Vietnam War begins.

Radio Free Europe broadcasts a secret speech in which Nikita Khrushchev criticizes Joseph Stalin. The broadcast, along with hints of forthcoming American aid are strong factors in prompting a short-lived revolution in Hungary which is ultimately put down by Soviet forces.

Russia and seven communist European nations sign a mutual defense treaty known as the Warsaw Pact.

The Foreign Policy Research Institute is founded. It advocates a militant anti-communist position. Notable early participants include Hans Kohn, Henry Kissinger, and James Schlesinger. Following the end of the Cold War, the War on Terror becomes its primary focus.

Disneyland opens.

The CIA conducts a biological warfare experiment in which they release whooping cough bacteria from boats outside of Tampa Bay, Florida, causing a whooping cough epidemic in the city, and killing at least 12 people.

British occultist Kenneth Grant founds the Typhonian Order, one of several organizations which will claim successorship of Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis.

The potent psychedelic Dimethyltryptamine is isolated and formally identified by western scientists.

The FBI begins COINTELPRO, an illegal program aimed at surveying, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.

Israel, France, and Britain attack Egypt following Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's decision to nationalize the Suez Canal. The three aggressors withdraw following pressure from the United States, Russia, and the United Nations.

"In God we trust" is adopted as the official motto of the United States.

Researchers at the Walter E. Fernald State School give mentally disabled children radioactive calcium orally and intravenously. They also inject radioactive chemicals into malnourished babies and insert needles into their brains and spines to collect cerebrospinal fluid for analysis.

Air Force technicians photograph a saucer-shaped UFO landing and then taking off near Edwards Airforce Base in California. The photos are examined by test pilot and future astronaut Gordon Cooper before they are sent to the Pentagon and never seen in public again.

Russia launches Sputnik, the first satellite, initiating the Space Race between Russia and the United States.

The failure of a cooling unit at a plutonium production facility near Kyshtym in Russia leads to an explosion. Large amounts of radioactive material are released into the surrounding area. At the time, it is the worst nuclear disaster in history, to be surpassed only by Chernobyl and Fukushima. Despite the scale of the incident, it is covered up by the Russian government for decades.

Cold War tensions escalate when Russia successfully tests the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, using the same type of launch vehicle that put Sputnik in space.

The Eisenhower Doctrine is announced, which states that the United States will aid countries requesting military assistance against Communist encroachment. Following Russia's attempt to use the Suez Crisis as a pretext to enter Egypt, the oil-rich states of the Middle East and Central Asia are of particular concern to the United States in this context.

The U.S. government carries out Operation Plumbbob, the largest and longest series of nuclear tests ever carried out in the continental United States. The massive amount of radiation introduced into the atmosphere is believed to have led to 11,000 - 212,000 cases of thyroid cancer and 1,000 - 20,000 deaths.

A B-36 bomber accidentally drops a nuclear bomb near Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The high explosives in the bomb detonate after a fall from 1,700 ft. but the nuclear warhead itself luckily does not explode.

With help from the CIA, the Shah of Iran establishes SAVAK, a brutal secret police which terrorizes the people of Iran for the next 22 years.

Ayn Rand publishes Atlas Shrugged, laying out the foundations of Objectivism.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is created.

The U.S. launches its first satellite, Explorer 1.

A B-47 bomber accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on the property of the Gregg family in Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The high explosives in the bomb detonate, obliterating the Gregg household and damaging several nearby buildings, but the nuclear warhead luckily does not explode.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is formed to develop military technology.

The Mitre Corporation is formed to manage Federally Funded Research and Development Centers for the Department of Defense and other agencies.

In the first application of the Eisenhower Doctrine, the U.S. sends 14,000 troops to intervene in the Lebanon Crisis. Following some months of negotiations, Lebanese President Camille Chamoun steps down and the moderate Christian President Fuad Chehab is elected in his place.

The American Security Council Foundation is founded. The think tank promotes a strategy of "peace through strength," and will be highly influential in Cold War foreign policy, particularly during the Reagan administration.

The Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple is bombed. Five men who are members of the National States' Rights Party and the Knights of the White Camelia, two white supremacist groups, are indicted but never convicted of the attack.

Synanon is founded. Initially a drug rehab facility, it develops into a cult-like commune which eventually becomes the Church of Synanon. It will eventually disband in 1989 following allegations of tax evasion, kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder.

Krishna Venta and several of his followers in the Fountain of the World cult are killed when two disgruntled former cult members set off a bomb in their headquarters in Chatsworth, California.

The Rajneesh movement is founded. The cult will gain notoriety for a 1984 bioterror attack in Oregon.

The Sodium Reactor Experiment nuclear facility suffers a partial meltdown releasing radioactive gas into the atmosphere.

Russian satellite Luna 3 takes the first-ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.

In Operation ST Circus, the CIA secretly finances, trains, and arms Tibetan guerrillas participating in the Tibetan Uprising against China. 259 are trained at Camp Hale in Colorado.

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrow Fulgencio Batista in the culmination of the Cuban Revolution.

George Rockwell founds the American Nazi Party.

The Barbie Doll is launched.