The old belief is that folks act differently when there is a full moon. I believe that. I worked in the hospitality industry in college at a local watering hole and saw that firsthand. However, there is also something else that tends to bring a more active side of human behavior: warmer weather.

The summer months are always when decisive battles happened in the pre-mechanized era because you couldn’t move people around in the winter. So, even though that time has long passed, the summer months still prove to be an active time for any type of conflict or even for non-conflicts.

On this day, June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union implemented their blockage of West Berlin, escalating the Cold War conflict to a frightening level of tension. Not that it was a show of force per se, but it set a trap for the U.S. that would have been very easy to fall into. 

What is interesting about this escalation is the Soviets had no nuclear capability at this time. Truman had held it over their heads before in different aspects, but this escalation was the Soviet way of saying, “I bet you won’t.” They were right.

In an even stranger roll on the historical wheel is the fact that also on June 24, three years earlier in 1945 the Soviets paraded in Red Square to celebrate their shared victory over Germany with the United States. It’s those kinds of little things that make me love history, things can change quickly in the scheme of things and the world is always on the edge of its seat.

In science-fiction history, June 24, 1997, is an important day. It is on that day that the U.S. Air Force releases documents addressing the conspiracies at Area 51. They declared “The Roswell Report, Cased Closed”