C93 entries

• 1973 Chilean CoupChile’s armed forces overthrew President Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. U.S. records document earlier covert efforts against Allende and advance knowledge of the coup.
• 4chan4chan began in 2003 as an imageboard where users could post without a persistent identity. Its communities helped popularize internet memes and provided an early home for QAnon.
• 8chan/8kun8chan offered users their own message boards with little central moderation. It later became a home for QAnon posts that had first appeared on 4chan.
• 9/11 CommissionCongress created the 9/11 Commission in 2002 to reconstruct the attacks and examine how federal agencies had responded to the threat from al-Qaeda.
• 9/11 Controlled Demolition TheoryThe collapse of the World Trade Center prompted claims that explosives had been planted in the buildings. Federal investigations attributed the failures to impact damage and fires in the towers and to fire in Building 7.
• Cable SplicerThe U.S. Army developed Cable Splicer in the late 1960s to prepare for civil unrest. Its domestic surveillance and planning later drew scrutiny over the military’s role at home.
• CALVI, Roberto, death ofItalian banker Roberto Calvi was found dead beneath London’s Blackfriars Bridge in 1982, as Banco Ambrosiano was collapsing.
• Cambridge AnalyticaA Facebook personality quiz gave Cambridge Analytica access to data from millions of people who had never taken it. Former employee Christopher Wylie brought the company’s practices to wider attention in 2018.
• Cambridge FiveSoviet intelligence recruited a group of Cambridge men in the 1930s. Their subsequent careers gave Moscow access to British diplomatic and intelligence secrets.
• CAMPBELL, ThomasIn My Big TOE, Thomas Campbell proposes that consciousness is the basis of physical reality. He uses the idea to interpret experiences such as remote viewing.
• CAMPING, HaroldRadio preacher Harold Camping told listeners the Rapture would take place on May 21, 2011. After the day passed, he revised his explanation and held to an October deadline.
• Cannibal Holocaust Documentary HoaxRuggero Deodato’s 1980 horror film Cannibal Holocaust presented fictional violence as footage left behind by a missing documentary crew. Its realism prompted authorities to question whether the actors had survived.
• CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT HBO HACKAn interruption during an HBO movie in 1986 replaced the picture with a protest against subscription fees. The message was signed Captain Midnight.
• Cardiff GiantWorkers digging a well in Cardiff, New York, in 1869 uncovered what looked like a ten-foot petrified man. George Hull had arranged for the figure to be carved and buried.
• CARLSON, RandallRandall Carlson argues that an impact near the end of the Ice Age caused catastrophic flooding. He and Graham Hancock have connected that idea to claims about a lost civilization.
• CARLSON, TuckerTucker Carlson hosted a nightly Fox News program until 2023 and then continued as an independent broadcaster. His programs have given wide audiences to disputed political and historical claims.
• CarnivoreThe FBI used Carnivore to collect internet communications in investigations. Its installation on providers’ networks raised questions about the privacy of other customers.
• CARSON, BillyBilly Carson uses his 4biddenknowledge platform to promote alternative readings of ancient history, including claims that archaeological evidence of extraterrestrial visitors has been suppressed.
• Cash-Landrum IncidentThree witnesses near Houston reported a close encounter with a bright object in December 1980. Two of them later sought damages from the federal government for injuries they attributed to it.
• CATFISH DOCUMENTARY DECEPTIONIn the 2010 documentary Catfish, Nev Schulman discovers that the people he knows online are largely inventions of one woman. Viewers later questioned how much of the discovery the filmmakers had anticipated.
• Cattle Mutilation PhenomenonRanchers in the American West have reported finding dead cattle with unusual-looking wounds. Some investigators linked the reports to UFOs, while others examined scavenging and decomposition.
• Cell Phone Mind Control TheoriesConcerns about radio-frequency exposure from mobile phones have also given rise to claims that the devices are designed to control behavior. Those claims lack credible evidence.
• Celsius Network CollapseCelsius froze customer withdrawals in June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy the following month. The company had marketed crypto deposits as a way to earn interest.
• Center for UFO StudiesAstronomer J. Allen Hynek founded the Center for UFO Studies in 1973 to investigate reports and keep records after the Air Force closed Project Blue Book.
• Central Bank Digital Currency Conspiracy ClaimsCentral banks exploring digital currencies have prompted questions about who can see transactions and set spending rules. Some critics claim the systems are intended to control what people buy.
• CES LetterJeremy Runnells assembled questions about Latter-day Saint history and scripture in 2013. The document circulated as the CES Letter and drew detailed replies from defenders of the church.
• ChampReports of an animal in Lake Champlain became the legend of Champ. A photograph taken by Sandra Mansi in 1977 became its most widely discussed piece of evidence.
• Chariots of the GodsIn Chariots of the Gods?, Erich von Däniken asked readers to see ancient monuments and texts as evidence of visits from extraterrestrials.
• Charlie Charlie ChallengeVideos of a balanced pencil turning during a game called Charlie Charlie spread online in 2015. Participants treated its movement as an answer from a spirit.
• Chatbot Psychosis TheorySome chatbot users have described coming to believe that a system was conscious, divine, or sending them hidden messages. Reports of distress have raised questions about the role of the conversations.
• ChemtrailsAircraft can leave long-lasting trails of ice crystals. The chemtrails theory treats those trails as evidence of a secret spraying program.
• Chernobyl Conspiracy TheoriesThe 1986 Chernobyl disaster gave rise to rumors about UFOs, secret experiments, and supernatural warnings. Those stories grew around a documented reactor accident.
• Chiles-Whitted UFO EncounterTwo Eastern Air Lines pilots reported that a brightly lit object passed close to their aircraft near Montgomery, Alabama, in July 1948.
• CHOMSKY, NoamNoam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman argued in Manufacturing Consent that the structure of the news business helps determine which stories get attention.
• CHOPRA, DeepakPhysician and author Deepak Chopra brought the phrase quantum healing to a wide audience. His use of quantum mechanics to explain health claims has drawn criticism from physicists.
• ChupacabraAccounts of a creature blamed for livestock deaths spread from Puerto Rico in 1995. Later reports elsewhere often described animals that looked quite different from the earliest sightings.
• Church CommitteeIn 1975, a Senate committee chaired by Frank Church began investigating abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies. Its hearings and reports made years of secret surveillance and disruption public.
• Church of SatanAnton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966. Its teachings use Satan as a symbol of individualism and rebellion.
• CHURCH OF THE LAMB OF GODErvil LeBaron founded a Mormon fundamentalist sect that invoked blood atonement to justify killing rivals and defectors.
• CHURCH OF THE LAST TESTAMENTSergey Torop, known to followers as Vissarion, claimed to be the returned Jesus and built a religious community in Siberia. Russian authorities arrested him in 2020.
• CHURCH UNIVERSAL AND TRIUMPHANTElizabeth Clare Prophet led the Church Universal and Triumphant as followers in Montana built shelters in anticipation of nuclear war.
• CIA Sleeper Cells TheoryThe CIA sleeper cells theory claims the agency maintains a hidden network of civilians awaiting orders during a crisis. Public evidence has not established such a network.
• Circleville LettersAnonymous letters began arriving in Circleville, Ohio, in 1976. They continued after a man convicted in a related case went to prison, leaving questions about who wrote them.
• Clearview AIClearview AI built a facial search service from images collected across the public web. Police use of the system prompted lawsuits and regulatory action.
• Clever HansA horse named Hans seemed able to do arithmetic by tapping his hoof. Psychologist Oskar Pfungst tested what happened when Hans could no longer see the person asking the question.
• CLIFFORD IRVING HOWARD HUGHES HOAXClifford Irving sold a publisher on an autobiography of Howard Hughes that he claimed to have written with the billionaire’s cooperation. Hughes publicly denied knowing him.
• CLIMATE CHANGE DENIALEvidence that human activity is warming the climate has been met with campaigns that dispute the measurements, the causes, or the need to respond.
• Climategate ControversyPrivate emails from climate researchers appeared online in 2009. Critics claimed they showed data manipulation, and subsequent inquiries examined that allegation.
• Club of RomeThe Club of Rome commissioned The Limits to Growth, a 1972 study that modeled how population and consumption might strain finite resources.
• COINTELPROFrom 1956 to 1971, the FBI ran a series of covert programs to infiltrate and disrupt political groups in the United States.
• COLAVITO, JasonJason Colavito traces ideas about ancient astronauts through earlier works of science fiction, horror, and popular occultism.
• Cold Fusion ClaimsIn 1989, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons announced that they had achieved nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment. Other laboratories struggled to reproduce their results.
• Collapse of 7 World Trade CenterSeven World Trade Center collapsed late on September 11, 2001. Federal investigators concluded that fires caused a structural failure that spread through the building.
• COLLINS, AndrewAndrew Collins writes about prehistoric sites such as Göbekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe, proposing dates and interpretations that differ from the findings of their excavation teams.
• COLONIA DIGNIDADPaul Schäfer established a German-speaking religious settlement in Chile that concealed abuse and became a detention site under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.
• COMETA ReportA private French group published the COMETA report in 1999 after reviewing UFO cases. Its authors argued that some reports warranted consideration of an extraterrestrial explanation.
• Committee of 300John Coleman’s 1992 book claimed that an organization he called the Committee of 300 directed world affairs. The book supplied no corroborating records for the existence of such a body.
• Computational PropagandaPolitical campaigns and influence operations can use automated accounts and recommendation systems to give messages wider circulation on social media.
• Condon ReportA University of Colorado team led by physicist Edward Condon reviewed UFO reports for the Air Force. Its conclusions helped bring Project Blue Book to an end.
• CONNALLY, JohnTexas governor John Connally was wounded in the car carrying President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. His injuries became central to the Warren Commission’s account of the shooting.
• CONSTANZO, AdolfoAdolfo Constanzo led a group linked to drug trafficking and a series of killings in Mexico. Investigators uncovered the crimes while searching for a missing American student.
• Contactee MovementIn the 1950s, George Adamski and other contactees told audiences that they had met visitors from other worlds. Their stories often presented the visitors as benevolent.
• ContrasCongress restricted U.S. aid to Nicaragua’s Contra rebels in the 1980s. Reagan administration officials continued to support them through channels later exposed in the Iran-Contra investigation.
• COOKE, Janet, "Jimmy's World" ScandalJanet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize for a Washington Post story about an eight-year-old heroin user. The newspaper returned the prize after she admitted inventing him.
• COOPER, Milton WilliamMilton William Cooper brought claims about UFOs and secret government programs together in his 1991 book Behold a Pale Horse, then reached listeners through shortwave radio.
• Coordinated Inauthentic BehaviorFacebook adopted the term coordinated inauthentic behavior for campaigns that use deceptive accounts to conceal who is behind them.
• CORBELL, JeremyFilmmaker Jeremy Corbell has brought UFO claims to wider audiences through interviews with figures including Bob Lazar and through releases of military footage.
• CORBETT, JamesJames Corbett publishes the Corbett Report, an independent media site covering government secrecy, corporate power, and contested accounts of major events.
• Corona ProgramThe CIA and U.S. Air Force used CORONA satellites to photograph territory that was difficult to survey from aircraft. The first successful film recovery came in August 1960.
• Corporatism as Satanism TheorySome writers describe corporate exploitation using the language of Satanism. The comparison makes a moral claim about business practices.
• CORSI, JeromeJerome Corsi has written books promoting disputed claims about politics and history, including the theory that Adolf Hitler escaped at the end of World War II.
• CORSO, Philip J.Retired Army officer Philip J. Corso claimed in The Day After Roswell that he had helped transfer technology from a crashed spacecraft to American industry.
• Cosmic EtherPhysicists once proposed that light traveled through a medium called the ether. Experiments failed to detect the expected motion through it, and special relativity explained light’s behavior without it.
• Cosmos 954In January 1978, a Soviet reconnaissance satellite fell over northern Canada and scattered radioactive debris. Canada and the United States mounted a joint recovery operation.
• Cottingley FairiesTwo English cousins photographed what appeared to be fairies between 1917 and 1920. Arthur Conan Doyle promoted the pictures, and the women later described how they had staged them.
• COTTINGLEY FAIRIES HOAXElsie Wright and Frances Griffiths posed with cutout figures for photographs that persuaded Arthur Conan Doyle he had evidence of fairies.
• COULTHART, RossAustralian investigative journalist Ross Coulthart took up military UFO reports and claims of government secrecy in his book In Plain Sight.
• Council of FiftyJoseph Smith formed the Council of Fifty in 1844 to discuss how a government based on his religious ideas might work.
• Council of NineBeginning in the 1950s, Andrija Puharich and several mediums reported messages from beings they called the Nine. Later writers gave the group a place in New Age and UFO lore.
• Council on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations began in 1921 as a forum for foreign policy. Its access to senior officials has fueled claims that it secretly directs U.S. policy.
• Coyne IncidentA U.S. Army helicopter crew reported seeing an unusual craft near Mansfield, Ohio, in 1973. Captain Lawrence Coyne said the helicopter climbed unexpectedly during the encounter.
• Credit Mobilier ScandalThe company hired to build the Union Pacific railroad sold shares to members of Congress on favorable terms. When the arrangement became public in 1872, Congress investigated.
• Credit Suisse CollapseSwiss authorities arranged a takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS in March 2023 after a run of withdrawals put the bank’s survival in doubt.
• CreepypastaCreepypastas are horror stories copied and shared online. Some, including Slender Man stories, grew as readers added their own versions.
• CREMO, MichaelIn Forbidden Archeology, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson argued that modern humans were far older than the accepted fossil record indicated.
• Crisis Actors TheoryAfter mass shootings and other disasters, false claims have accused survivors and witnesses of being paid actors. The accusations have led to harassment.
• Crop CirclesGeometric patterns in English fields became associated with UFOs in the 1980s. In 1991, two men came forward to explain how they had made many of them.
• CROWLEY, AleisterAleister Crowley developed the religious philosophy of Thelema and led the Ordo Templi Orientis.
• Cryptocurrency Surveillance Conspiracy TheoriesPublic blockchains preserve transaction histories that investigators can analyze. That transparency has prompted a broader claim that digital currencies were designed for surveillance.
• Cryptocurrency Surveillance TheoryCryptocurrency transactions can leave a public trail even when users transact under pseudonyms. That feature has fueled claims of a coordinated government surveillance agenda.
• Crystal HealingCrystal healing practitioners place stones on or near the body in the belief that they influence health through an energy field. Controlled evidence has yet to establish a therapeutic effect.
• CURTIS, AdamIn films such as The Century of the Self and HyperNormalisation, Adam Curtis uses archival footage to trace how ideas about psychology and power entered public life.
• Cutter IncidentIn 1955, a manufacturing failure at Cutter Laboratories caused cases of polio among recipients of the new vaccine and people they came into contact with. The incident changed how the vaccine was regulated.