Deep History

Crude oil production in the U.S. peaks. From this point forward the country is increasingly dependent on foreign sources of oil.

The unmanned Russian spacecraft Venera 7 becomes the first human vehicle to make a soft landing on another planet, Venus.

Congress passes the Controlled Substances Act, codifying the illegal status of many drugs.

The Ohio National Guard opens fire on a group of unarmed anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University. Four students are killed and nine others are wounded. None of the guardsmen are convicted of any criminal charges.

A peaceful Chicano anti-war demonstration in Los Angeles is broken up by police firing tear gas. A riot ensues and the police subsequently kill four people: Gustav Montag, Lyn Ward, José Diaz, and journalist Rubén Salazar. Although many believe that the Salazar killing in particular was a premeditated act (due to his civil rights and police brutality reporting), no officer is punished for any of the deaths.

The CIA begins Project FUBELT to prevent Salvador Allende's rise to power, and to instigate a military coup after he is democratically elected to the presidency in Chile.

FBI Agent and CIA Advisor Dan Mitrione is killed by the left-wing guerrilla organization Tupamaros in Uruguay. Mitrione had been teaching local police torture techniques in the soundproofed basement of his house, where a number of homeless men were shocked to death for practice.

The Black Liberation Army is formed.

President Nixon Declares the War on Drugs.

The FBI creates the Administrative Index (ADEX), to file information on U.S. citizens and others believed to be involved in subversive activities.

Daniel Ellsberg releases the Pentagon Papers, revealing to the public that the Johnson administration had systematically lied to the American public about the Vietnam War.

Soviet Probe Mars 3 becomes the first vehicle to make a soft landing on Mars.

The Zarephath-Horeb Community Church is founded. It will soon evolve into The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, a secretive right-wing, white supremacist, Christian Identity organization.

A Christian cult known as the Church of Bible Understanding is founded.

Five men are arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.  This blossoms into the Watergate Scandal, during which 69 government officials are charged with various crimes, and 48 convicted. Nixon will resign in two years as a result.

The Central Security Service is created for the seemingly innocuous purpose of coordinating cryptologic elements between the NSA and various branches of the armed forces. It will also serve as the operational hub for the Special Collection Service, a classified black-budget infiltration and espionage organization.

Arthur Bremer shoots and seriously injures Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace. Bremer's story inspires the movie Taxi Driver, which in turn inspires John Hinckley, Jr. in his later attempt on President Reagan's life.

Corporate intelligence company Kroll Inc. is founded. About two weeks before 9/11 they will hire former FBI agent and Osama bin Laden expert John O'Neill to head security at the World Trade Center. O'Neill will be killed there on 9/11.

The U.S. begins Operation Linebacker II, the largest bombing campaign of the Vietnam War, and the largest bombing campaign anywhere since the end of World War II.

Ariel Sharon has 3,000 Bedouins forcibly evicted from Negev and Sinai to make way for a large military training operation. The evictions occur in the dead of winter, and dozens of children and elderly die from exposure.

A coal slurry impoundment owned by the Pittston Coal Company bursts in West Virginia. 132 million gallons of black waste water, cresting over 30 feet high, floods into surrounding communities killing 125 people, injuring over 1,000, and destroying the homes of over 4,000.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is formed.

Jesus People USA is founded. It is the largest, and one of the few enduring communes of the Jesus Movement, a Christian element within hippie counterculture. Ex-members have spoken of its abusive and authoritarian practices.

A Christian cult known as Twelve Tribes is founded.

Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles meet and formulate the ideas which will become the basis for the Heaven's Gate cult. They will gain scores of followers in the coming years, and decades later will come to the nation's attention following a mass suicide motivated by a belief in salvation via extraterrestrials.

John Africa founds the MOVE organization.

David Rockefeller founds the Trilateral Commission to foster cooperation between North America, Western Europe, and Japan.

Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation is founded.

Construction of the World Trade Center is completed.

The CIA supports a coup in Chile against democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende.

A C-47 transport plane codenamed Argo 16 crashes after a bomb explodes onboard. The plane had been used for covert operations by the CIA and Italian Intelligence. Responsibility for the bombing remains unclear.

Members of a Mossad hit team are arrested and convicted in Lillehammer, Norway, after they assassinate an innocent man they believed to be an enemy target. Details of Mossad's European infrastructure as well as Israel's nuclear weapons program are exposed to Norwegian authorities, although they remain silent about the latter for another decade.

In Operation Nickel Grass, the United States supplies over 22,000 tons of tanks, artillery, and ammunition to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. In retaliation, OPEC states declare an oil embargo on the United States, leading to the 1973 oil crisis.

The United States launches its first space station, Skylab.

Marcus Foster is killed by the newly formed Symbionese Liberation Army, purportedly over his support for a student ID system for Oakland schools, a plan which he actually opposed.

The white supremacist Creativity Movement is founded.

Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur is arrested following a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike and a series of other alleged crimes. She will be convicted of murder and imprisoned, but will escape in 1979 and flee to Cuba.

L. Ron Hubbard directs the Church of Scientology's Guardian's Office (later known as the Office of Special Affairs) to begin Operation Snow White, a massive infiltration of various government agencies for the purpose of whitewashing their records on the cult. Up to 5,000 Scientologist agents participate in the plot.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is formed to enforce federal drug laws.

Two men claim to have been abducted by aliens while fishing near Pascagoula, Mississippi. They are interviewed by a local sheriff who afterwards leaves them alone but secretly records their conversation. He suspects that their private conversation will reveal a hoax, but the men continue to discuss the event between themselves as if they are terrified and shaken. 

The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst. Due to brainwashing, Stockholm Syndrome, personal volition, or some combination of the the three, she soon joins the group as an active member. Most of the other SLA members are killed in a shootout in Los Angeles later in the year.

The white supremacist National Alliance is formed.

The white supremacist National Socialist Movement is formed.

The UFO religion (sometimes labeled a cult) of Raelism is formed. It will eventually develop a somewhat substantial membership, with estimates ranging between 65,000 and 80,000 adherents.

The Church of Scientology's Sea Org sets up the Rehabilitation Project Force to punish members who fail to live up to the order's strict disciplinary codes. Reports have surfaced of members being isolated from friends and family and forced to do hard manual labor in gulag-like conditions while living in rat-infested basements.

At the government's behest, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia perform a study on the medical benefits of marijuana. The study, along with scores which will follow, show that components of marijuana drastically shrink cancer tumors. The results of these studies will be suppressed for decades.

The Cato Institute, a right-wing think tank, is formed.

The Fusion Energy Foundation is created to promote nuclear power and scientific research. It is accused of being a front for the LaRouche Movement and is eventually forced into bankruptcy by legal proceedings.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mother, Alberta King, is assassinated by a seemingly deranged man named Marcus Wayne Chenault. The slaying comes just months before the evidentiary hearing for James Earl Ray to determine if he will receive a new trial. The King family will later state that they believe Ray had nothing to do with MLK's murder.

With help from billionaire Howard Hughes, the CIA carries out Project Azorian, one of the most complex, expensive, and secretive Cold War operations ever to come to light. The project involves the design and construction of a unique ship to recover parts of a Soviet submarine which had sunk in the Pacific.

The Vietnam War ends with U.S. defeat and withdrawal.

The Lebanese Civil War begins. Initially Maronite Christians side with the West while Left Wing and pan-Arab groups side with Soviet aligned Arab countries, but by the end of the 15 1/2-year conflict numerous alliances had been betrayed or reshaped. The war claims over 120,000 lives.

United Technologies Corporation is founded.

Microsoft Corporation is founded.

The Church Committee exposes numerous criminal acts by the CIA, NSA, and FBI. Innumerable documents relating to these crimes and others are shredded before they can be brought to light.

Union leader Jimmy Hoffa goes missing. Although his disappearance is never solved, it is widely believed to be related to his involvement with organized crime.

The CIA carries out Operation IA Feature to intervene in the Angolan Civil War. They support UNITA and the National Liberation Front of Angola against Soviet proxies.

The CIA begins to collaborate with several South American countries in a widespread anti-Communist suppression and terrorism campaign known as Operation Condor.

The CIA and military intelligence begin the Stargate Project to conduct experiments in remote viewing and other psychic phenomenon, mainly through the Stanford Research Institute. Notable participants include Ingo Swann and Harold Puthoff, both top level Scientologists, as well as Andrija Puharich. Puharich is a primary figure in a UFO cult which believes it is in touch with The Nine, a group of aliens once worshiped as gods in Ancient Egypt. Perhaps not coincidentally, a film called Stargate will be released in 1994, a year before the Stargate Project officially ends. The plot of the film centers around aliens who were worshiped as gods in Ancient Egypt.

A group of Arizona loggers encounter a UFO in the woods. One of them, named Travis Walton, approaches and is struck by a beam of light, knocking him to the ground. Believing he had been killed, his friends flee. When they return later to search for him, he is missing. A major police search begins, and the loggers are polygraphed about the event. All who completed the test pass. Several days later Walton reappears in a nearby town, dazed and bedraggled, mumbling about beings with terrifying eyes.

Air Force security personnel spot an unidentified craft in the secured airspace over the nuclear weapons depot at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan. An incoming tanker plane is ordered to pursue the vehicle, but it vanishes.

Michael Aquino, a lieutenant colonel in military intelligence and ex-Church of Satan member, founds the Temple of Set (as in the Ancient Egyptian god).

Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua member and Aleister Crowley disciple Marcelo Motta founds the Society Ordo Templi Orientis in Brazil. He will become involved in, and lose, legal battles with Grady McMurtry's OTO in America. 

Charles Manson follower Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate President Ford. 17 days later Sara Moore makes an attempt on the president's life as well. Moore was said to be obsessed with Patty Hearst (of SLA fame), but also worked as an FBI informant.

A shootout at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota leaves two FBI agents and one American Indian Movement member dead. AIM activist Leonard Peltier will later be convicted of participating in the shootout. Many consider his trial to have been highly biased.

American Indian Movement activist Anna Aquash is murdered. Two other AIM activists are eventually convicted for the murder under the premise that they thought she was an FBI informant, or that she simply knew too much about the Pine Ridge shootout.

The United Freedom Front, a militant Marxist group, is founded. In the coming decade they will carry out at least 20 bombings and nine bank robberies in the northeastern United States, targeting corporate buildings, courthouses, and military facilities.

Multiple independent witnesses report a UFO over Tehran, Iran. Two F-4 Phantom II jets are scrambled to intercept the object after it is picked up on ground radar. Their instruments begin to malfunction as they approach. The object keeps pace ahead of them and they are unable to close. A smaller object detaches from the UFO and races towards one of the jets. Thinking he is under attack, the pilot attempts to fire a missile at it, but none of his weapons work. He attempts to eject but is unable. He finally takes evasive maneuvers and the smaller object follows him for some time before rejoining the UFO. The pilots regain use of their instrumentation as they turn away from the UFO, which then races off at extraordinary speed. It remains one of the best documented UFO encounters in history, and many of those involved, from pilots to generals, have stated that they believe the craft was of alien origin.

Four men claim to have been abducted and given medical examinations by aliens while camping in Allagash, Maine. All four pass lie detector tests when questioned about their experiences.

David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz begins a serial killing spree in New York. He will later claim that he was a member of a satanic cult and had carried out the killings for ritual purposes.

A Masonic lodge known as P2 or Propaganda Due has its charter withdrawn and goes underground. Sometimes referred to as Italy's shadow government, the lodge has deep operational ties with Operation Gladio.

The Church of Scientology begins Operation Freakout, an attempt to have author Paulette Cooper either imprisoned or confined to a mental institution. Cooper had recently published The Scandal of Scientology, a highly critical examination of the cult. Before the official start of Operation Freakout, Scientologists had already been covertly harassing Cooper for years, as well as filing bogus lawsuits.

The Animal Liberation Front is founded.

A previously unknown disease with a 90% mortality rate breaks out in Zaire. It is soon labeled as the Ebola virus.

Another previously unknown disease strikes an American Legion convention at a hotel in Pennsylvania. 221 are sickened and 34 die of what is later named Legionnaires Disease.

The Viking Lander probes touch down on Mars.

The Apple Computer company is founded.

Investigations reveal that residents of the Love Canal district of Niagra Falls, New York are being poisoned by the over 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals buried there decades ago by Hooker Chemical (now Occidental Petroleum). Industry-funded "scientists" from the American Council on Science and Health will claim that residents are being sickened not from toxic exposure but from hysteria and stress caused by media coverage of the situation.

Cuban Airlines Flight 455 is destroyed by a bomb, killing 78. The bombing is carried out by CIA-linked anti-Castro Cubans with the CIA's foreknowledge.

Arizona journalist Don Bolles is killed by a car bomb. Suspects in the killing include the Mafia and certain business interests which Bolles was investigating at the time.

Orlando Letelier, a socialist politician and diplomat of the Allende administration, is assassinated in Washington, D.C by Michael Townley, an employee of the Chilean Intelligence organization DINA as well as the CIA.

The hacked up body of mobster John Roselli is found in a barrel floating in a bay near Miami. Roselli had been involved in a CIA plot to assassinate Castro, and has also been named as a shooter in the JFK assassination.

Helen Schucman publishes A Course in Miracles, a supposedly channeled message which is influential in the New Age movement. Around the time she is hearing a voice in her head she is also working closely with William Thetford, who was heading MKULTRA Subproject 130.

The Libertarian think tank Foundation for Rational Economics and Education is formed.

The Rockford Institute, a conservative think tank, is founded.

The second Committee on the Present Danger is convened.

A strong narrowband radio signal of seemingly artificial origin is detected by a SETI observatory in Ohio. What will become known as the Wow! signal is believed to have originated in the vicinity of a star group called Chi Sagittarii.

The Commodore PET becomes the first personal computer successfully released on the mass market.

Conservative NGO Focus on the Family is founded.

A think tank called the Center for Public Justice is formed for the purpose of attempting to impose Christian values on American political policy.

A hoax documentary called Alternative 3 is aired on British television. The faux-documentary alleges that the Earth is becoming uninhabitable and, as a result, the American and Soviet governments have colluded to set up a colony on Mars with a way station on Earth's moon. Immediately after the conclusion of the show, the station airing it is flooded with calls from panicked citizens who believed it to be real.

12 former Nation of Islam members seize three buildings in Washington, D.C., and hold 149 people hostage. One hostage and a policeman are killed but the attackers eventually surrender after a standoff.

U.S. and Argentinian military forces begin Operation Charly, a covert war against leftist elements in a number of Central American countries.

Over a thousand people are killed by cyanide poisoning or other means at the Jonestown cult compound and nearby Port Kaituma airstrip in Guyana. Among the dead are cult leader Jim Jones and California Congressman Leo Ryan, who had traveled there to investigate allegations of abuse.

Ray Sherwin and Peter Carroll form an occult order called the Illuminates of Thanateros and an occult system which they call Chaos Magick. It draws from the teachings of Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare as well as tantric traditions and Taoism.

The Ossining, New York estate of Andrija Puharich where Lab 9 is based suffers an arson attack. Puharich flees to Mexico, fearing that the CIA has turned on him.

The Church of Scientology acquires a facility in California which will become known as The Hole, a prison for Scientologists who upset their leader.

MOVE members become involved in a shoot-out with Philadelphia police during an attempted eviction from their headquarters.

Dan White murders San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Board of Supervisors member and gay rights icon Harvey Milk.

Afghan President Mohammed Khan is assassinated during a coup by the Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

Army Colonel Jim Channon publishes a manual for creating psychic super soldiers based on New Age principles. He begins recruiting soldiers into a unit which he names the First Earth Battalion. A member of the Battalion named Bert Rodriguez will go on to teach hand-to-hand combat skills to alleged 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah.

CIA operative David Sanchez Morales dies. He has been named as a conspirator in the assassinations of both JFK and RFK.

Pope John Paul I dies suddenly after only 33 days in office. Discrepancies surrounding his death combined with his investigation of Vatican Bank dealings with fascists, Freemasons, and mobsters have led to speculation that he was poisoned.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is created for the avowed purpose of responding to disasters. It will also be used to illegally spy and collect data on millions of Americans.

The NSA begins a program called BLARNEY, which collects information from top-level telecommunications facilities through which most U.S. telecommunications traffic flows. An example of such a facility is AT&T's Room 641A.

Hollywood director Roman Polanski flees to France upon learning that he will be found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl.

The Amoco Cadiz runs aground near France, spilling 1.6 million barrels of oil into the ocean.

The controversial Camp David Accords are signed, reshaping relationships between Egypt, Israel, and other Middle Eastern countries.

An economic think tank called the Group of Thirty is created with financing and direction from the Rockefeller Foundation.

A Libertarian think tank called the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy is founded by Antony Fisher and soon-to-be CIA Director William Casey.

The Institute for Historical Review is founded by white-supremacists David McCalden and Willis Carto. It will grow into the world's leading Holocaust denial organization.

The CIA begins Operation Cyclone to train, arm, and finance Islamic radicals in Afghanistan.

The Iran Hostage Crisis begins, in which 52 Americans are held hostage for 444 days following a takeover of the American embassy in Iran by Islamist students and militants.

Adolph Dubs, American ambassador to Afghanistan, is killed during a gun battle following his kidnapping by Settam-e-Melli militants.

Afghan leader Nur Taraki is murdered on the orders of his successor, Hafizullah Amin, who is in turn assassinated by Soviet agents.

Battalion 316 is created in Honduras. With extensive training, financing, and equipping from the CIA, it will kidnap, torture, and murder hundreds of leftist activists and others.

The Sandanista National Liberation Front overthrows the Somoza family dictatorship in the Nicaraguan Revolution.

In the Iranian Revolution, the U.S.-backed Pahlavi Dynasty is overthrown by Ruhollah Khomeini with the support of Islamic, leftist, and student groups. A new Islamic Republic is formed.

The Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania suffers a partial nuclear meltdown.

A containment pond for nuclear waste breaches its dam in Church Rock, New Mexico. Over 1,000 tons of solid radioactive waste and 93 million gallons of radioactive water flow into the Puerco River in the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history.

A conservative think tank called The Claremont Institute is founded.

Pro-war film The Great Santini is released with support and funding from the Pentagon.

The Church of the SubGenius is founded.