On 21 December 1954, a group of people gathered in a small house in Chicago. This group was not gathering to celebrate Christmas, despite the fact they were singing Christmas carols. They had gathered for a different purpose.
They were awaiting the arrival of an alien spaceship. The group belonged to a cult led by Dorothy Martin, which believed the Earth was going to be destroyed by a great flood.
Martin had received instructions the day before telling her the group was to wait for a flying saucer to land and whisk them away to safety. Midnight was the magical time they would be escorted to the spacecraft by an alien visitor.
The group waited and waited until midnight hit and there was no sign of any visitor. One member of the group noticed that a different clock in the room showed the time as 11:55. The group agreed it was not midnight yet.
The second clock struck midnight, yet there was still no sign of the visitor. The group sat in stunned silence, baffled by the no-show of their supposed rescuer. The prophesied flood was a matter of hours away, what was going to happen?
A few hours passed and the group was still in silence, a few members began to cry. It was at this point that Martin received another message. It stated that the God of Earth had decided to spare the planet…
