A93 entries

• AAROU.S. Department of Defense office established in 2022 to investigate unidentified anomalous phenomena and coordinate federal reporting on them.
• AATIPName used for both a funded Defense Intelligence Agency aerospace study and a later informal Pentagon effort to investigate military reports of unidentified phenomena.
• Able DangerAble Danger began in 1999 as a U.S. military planning effort focused initially on al-Qaeda.
• ABRAMOFF, JackJack Abramoff built a Washington lobbying business with clients that included Native American tribes with casino interests. He pleaded guilty to federal corruption-related charges in 2006.
• AbscamAbscam began as an FBI investigation into stolen art in 1978 and ended with corruption convictions for seven members of Congress.
• Adam-God DoctrineIn 1852, Brigham Young preached that Adam was God the Father, a teaching later rejected by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Adam-ondi-AhmanJoseph Smith identified a site in Missouri as Adam's home after Eden and the place where he would return before the Second Coming.
• ADAMS, MikeMike Adams founded Natural News, where he promotes alternative health products and publishes unsupported health claims.
• ADAMSKI, GeorgeGeorge Adamski helped launch the flying-saucer contactee movement in the 1950s by claiming he had met a visitor from Venus.
• ADIDAMFranklin Jones, later known as Adi Da, built a religious movement around his teachings on spiritual realization.
• Adrenochrome Harvesting TheoryThe adrenochrome story spread through QAnon circles, where believers claimed powerful people obtained the substance by abusing children.
• Aerial Phenomena Research OrganizationJim and Coral Lorenzen founded the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in 1952 to collect and investigate UFO reports.
• AgarthaAgartha is a legendary underground kingdom that European occult writers described as a repository of hidden knowledge.
• AGEE, PhilipPhilip Agee named CIA personnel and described the agency's operations in Latin America in his 1975 book Inside the Company: CIA Diary.
• AGENDA 2030The United Nations adopted Agenda 2030 in 2015 as a framework for sustainable development.
• AGNEW, SpiroSpiro Agnew resigned as U.S. vice president in October 1973 and pleaded no contest to a federal tax charge the same day.
• AhnenerbeThe SS established the Ahnenerbe in 1935 to give Nazi claims about ancestry and culture the appearance of scholarly authority.
• AI Replacement ConspiracyAI replacement theories frame the automation of jobs as a deliberate plan to make workers dependent on governments or corporations.
• AIDS DenialismUnder President Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's government disputed the link between HIV and AIDS. Researchers later estimated that delays in treatment cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
• Akashic RecordsTheosophists described the Akashic Records as a record of every event and thought, which some practitioners believed they could access through meditation.
• ALAMO CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONTony and Susan Alamo built an evangelist organization that later drew federal investigations into labor practices and child abuse.
• ALAMO, TonyTony Alamo began as a street preacher and built an evangelist organization with his wife Susan. A federal court later sentenced him to 175 years in prison for transporting minors for sexual activity.
• Aldo Moro Kidnapping and MurderThe Red Brigades kidnapped former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978 and killed him after holding him captive.
• Alger Hiss CaseFormer State Department official Alger Hiss went to prison for perjury after denying that he had passed government documents to Whittaker Chambers.
• Algorithm Manipulation TheorySocial media platforms decide which posts to show first. That power has prompted claims that companies deliberately steer political opinion and elections.
• Alien Abduction PhenomenonBetty and Barney Hill's account of a 1961 encounter helped establish alien abduction as a distinct kind of UFO report.
• Alien Autopsy FilmTelevision audiences in 1995 saw fabricated footage presented as a government autopsy of an extraterrestrial body.
• ALIEN AUTOPSY HOAXIn 1995, a television broadcast passed off fabricated footage as the autopsy of a body recovered near Roswell, New Mexico.
• Allagash AbductionsFour men reported seeing an unusual light while camping in northern Maine in 1976. Years later, hypnosis sessions produced accounts of alien abduction.
• Alpha-gal Syndrome Bioweapon TheoryAlpha-gal syndrome is an allergy associated with tick bites. Claims that it was deliberately created as a biological weapon lack evidence.
• ALTERNATIVE 3 HOAXIn June 1977, British television viewers saw what appeared to be a documentary about a secret plan to colonize Mars.
• AMES, AldrichAldrich Ames worked in CIA counterintelligence while passing secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia. He was convicted of espionage in 1994.
• Amityville HorrorAfter six members of the DeFeo family were murdered in an Amityville house in 1974, its next owners said they had experienced a haunting there.
• Ancient AliensHistory channel television series that presents claims of extraterrestrial influence on ancient civilizations.
• Ancient Astronaut TheoryErich von Däniken popularized the idea that extraterrestrials influenced ancient civilizations in his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?
• ANDERSON, JackJack Anderson used leaked government records in his syndicated newspaper column to report on covert operations and American foreign policy.
• Andreasson AffairBetty Andreasson described an alien encounter at her Massachusetts home in accounts that emerged under hypnosis and later reached readers through Raymond Fowler’s books.
• AnonymousAnonymous grew out of 4chan, where users posted under a shared default name. The name later became associated with coordinated online protests and cyberattacks.
• Anthrax Letters (2001)In 2001, letters sent to news organizations and members of Congress exposed recipients and mail workers to anthrax. Five people died.
• Anthrax Letters Foreknowledge ClaimsThe 2001 anthrax mailings prompted claims that government officials had advance warning. Federal investigators found no such link to foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks.
• AnunnakiThe Anunnaki appear as deities in ancient Mesopotamian texts. In the twentieth century, Zecharia Sitchin interpreted them as visitors from another planet.
• Anunnaki Royal Bloodline ClaimZecharia Sitchin used his readings of Mesopotamian texts to argue that royal families descended from unions between humans and the Anunnaki.
• Apollo Moon Landing HoaxNASA landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. Claims that the missions were filmed on Earth later became a staple of conspiracy literature.
• APPLEWHITE, MarshallMarshall Applewhite founded Heaven’s Gate with Bonnie Nettles and led the group when 39 members died in March 1997.
• Archaeoraptor HoaxNational Geographic presented Archaeoraptor as a fossil linking birds and dinosaurs in 1999. The slab contained bones from different animals.
• Archegos Capital CollapseIn March 2021, banks began selling stock positions tied to Bill Hwang’s family office, Archegos. The collapse left lenders with billions of dollars in losses.
• Area 51Area 51 began as a Nevada test site for the U-2 spy plane. Its secrecy later made it a focus of claims about extraterrestrial technology.
• Argentine Dirty WarFrom 1976 to 1983, Argentina’s military dictatorship abducted, tortured, and killed people it suspected of opposing the regime.
• Ariel School UFO EncounterIn 1994, children at Ariel School in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, reported seeing an unusual craft and figures near their school.
• ARMSTRONG, Lance (doping scandal)Lance Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours de France before an anti-doping investigation led to the loss of all seven titles.
• ARNOLD, KennethKenneth Arnold reported seeing nine unusual objects near Mount Rainier in 1947, helping popularize the term flying saucer.
• Artificial Intelligence Control Conspiracy TheoriesAs companies and governments began using AI to make decisions, theories emerged that those systems were part of a coordinated plan for social control.
• ASAHARA, ShokoShoko Asahara founded Aum Shinrikyo, the religious group responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. Japan later executed him for his role in the attack and other crimes.
• ASSANGE, JulianAustralian founder of WikiLeaks who pleaded guilty in 2024 to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense information.
• Assassination of Abraham LincolnJohn Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865.
• Assassination of Alexander II of RussiaMembers of the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya killed Russian emperor Alexander II in St. Petersburg in 1881.
• Assassination of Anna PolitkovskayaAnna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who reported on the Chechen war, was murdered in Moscow in October 2006.
• Assassination of Anwar SadatEgyptian president Anwar Sadat was killed by Islamist militants at a military parade in Cairo on October 6, 1981.
• Assassination of Archduke Franz FerdinandThe killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 set off the diplomatic crisis that led to World War I.
• Assassination of Benazir BhuttoFormer Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed while leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi in December 2007.
• Assassination of Boris NemtsovRussian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was killed near the Kremlin in February 2015. Five men were convicted, and the question of who ordered the murder remained open.
• Assassination of Fred HamptonChicago police killed Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in a 1969 raid aided by information from an FBI informant.
• Assassination of Georgi MarkovGeorgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident broadcaster, died in London in 1978 after a poisoning that British and Bulgarian authorities investigated as murder.
• Assassination of Huey LongLouisiana senator Huey Long was fatally wounded at the state capitol in 1935. Accounts differ on who fired the shot that killed him.
• Assassination of Indira GandhiTwo of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards killed her in 1984, and anti-Sikh violence followed across India.
• Assassination of James GarfieldCharles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield at a Washington railway station in July 1881. Garfield died that September.
• Assassination of Jorge Eliecer GaitanThe killing of Colombian Liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948 set off the Bogotá riots known as the Bogotazo.
• Assassination of Julius CaesarA group of Roman senators including Brutus and Cassius killed Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BCE.
• Assassination of Kim Jong-namKim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017.
• Assassination of Ngo Dinh DiemSouth Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem was killed in a military coup in November 1963 after U.S. officials signaled support for a change of government.
• Assassination of Olof PalmeSwedish prime minister Olof Palme was shot dead while walking home from a Stockholm cinema in 1986. The case remains unsolved.
• Assassination of Orlando LetelierA bombing in Washington, D.C., killed exiled Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in 1976. The case led investigators to Chile’s secret police.
• Assassination of Patrice LumumbaPatrice Lumumba, Congo’s first prime minister, was killed in January 1961 after being transferred to the breakaway province of Katanga.
• Assassination of Rafic HaririA bombing in Beirut killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri and 21 other people in 2005, setting off mass protests and an international investigation.
• Assassination of William McKinleyLeon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in September 1901.
• Assassination of Yitzhak RabinYigal Amir killed Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin after a Tel Aviv rally in support of the Oslo Accords on November 4, 1995.
• Astroturfing CampaignsAstroturfing makes an organized campaign look like a grassroots movement. Its name comes from a brand of artificial grass.
• AtlantisAtlantis first appears in two dialogues by Plato, who described an island power that went to war with ancient Athens.
• ATTA, MohamedMohamed Atta led the September 11 hijackers and piloted the airliner that struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
• Attempted Assassination of Andrew JacksonRichard Lawrence tried to kill President Andrew Jackson at the U.S. Capitol in 1835, in the first known assassination attempt against a sitting U.S. president.
• Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump (2024)A shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024 injured Donald Trump and killed an attendee.
• Attempted Assassination of Gerald Ford (Lynette Fromme)Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, tried to kill President Gerald Ford in Sacramento in September 1975.
• Attempted Assassination of Gerald Ford (Sara Jane Moore)Sara Jane Moore tried to kill President Gerald Ford in San Francisco in September 1975, less than three weeks after a separate attempt in Sacramento.
• Attempted Assassination of Pope John Paul IIMehmet Ali Ağca shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in May 1981. The question of whether anyone sent him became the focus of a separate investigation.
• Attempted Assassination of Ronald ReaganJohn Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel in March 1981.
• Attempted Assassination of Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee in October 1912 while campaigning to return to the White House.
• Aum ShinrikyoAum Shinrikyo began as a Japanese religious movement led by Shoko Asahara. In 1995 its members attacked the Tokyo subway with sarin.
• Aurora Aircraft ProgramA Pentagon budget entry labeled Aurora helped fuel speculation that the United States was developing a secret successor to the SR-71 Blackbird.
• Australia Doesn't Exist TheoryAn internet hoax claimed Australia had been invented to conceal the fate of British convicts sent there.
• AVARD, SampsonSampson Avard organized a Mormon vigilante group called the Danites and later testified against Joseph Smith and other church leaders.
• Avril Lavigne Replacement TheoryAn internet rumor claims Canadian singer Avril Lavigne died early in her career and a lookalike took her place.
• Ayotzinapa Mass DisappearanceForty-three students from Mexico's Ayotzinapa teachers' college disappeared in Iguala in September 2014. Independent investigators challenged the government's account of what happened to them.
• Aztec, New Mexico, UFO Crash ClaimFrank Scully's 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers popularized a story about a spacecraft crash near Aztec, New Mexico.