Coincidentally, today I read an interesting article on the Gatwick drone scare that contained this anecdote: "In April 1954, a strange phenomenon swept across

Coincidentally, today I read an interesting article on the Gatwick drone scare that contained this anecdote: "In April 1954, a strange phenomenon swept across the town of Bellingham, Seattle, and other communities in Washington state. People began to observe “windshield pits” on their cars – minor damage that, when magnified, can look like a tiny crater in the surface of the glass, usually caused by sand or other small debris colliding with the windscreen at high speed. As the phenomenon was reported in the press, more people noticed marks and chips on their screens. A few weeks before the sightings began, the US had exploded a huge hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, and many blamed these nuclear tests. Others believed a nearby navy communication tower was warping the glass. Residents panicked. By 15 April, almost 3,000 windscreens had been affected, and the mayor asked for assistance from President Eisenhower. Today, the Seattle windshield pitting epidemic is often cited as an example of mass panic, in which people attributed a sinister cause to something that had been there, unnoticed, all along. Two days after the appeal to the president, Seattle police issued a statement saying that the pitting epidemic was “95% public hysteria”. Sightings suddenly stopped." https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/01/the-mystery-of-the-gatwick-drone https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/01/the-mystery-...