1. George Adamski was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien or "Space Brothers", and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets.
George Adamski called himself a "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher", although most UFO researchers and investigators regarded him as a charlatan and a con artist and concluded that his many claims were an elaborate hoax.
George Adamski authored three books describing his meetings with Nordic aliens and his travels with them aboard their spaceships: Flying Saucers Have Landed in 1953, Inside the Space Ships in 1955, and Flying Saucers Farewell in 1961.
George Adamski was born in Bromberg in the Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire.
George Adamski was one of five siblings born to ethnic Polish parents, Jozef Adamski and Franciszka Adamska.
When George Adamski was two years old his family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City.
George Adamski served as a "philosopher" and teacher at the temple.
At the campground and diner, George Adamski "often gave lectures on Eastern philosophy and religion, sometimes late into the night" to students, admirers, and tourists.
In 1949, George Adamski began giving his first UFO lectures to civic groups and other organizations in Southern California; he requested, and received, fees for the lectures.
On 29 May 1950, George Adamski took a photograph of what he alleged to be six unidentified objects in the sky, which appeared to be flying in formation.
George Adamski claimed the people with him saw the Venusian ship, and several of them later stated they could see George Adamski meeting someone in the desert, although from a considerable distance.
The imprints contained mysterious symbols, which George Adamski said was a message from Orthon.
George Adamski sent Leslie a written account of his supposed contact with Orthon, and photos.
George Adamski claimed that in another voyage he met the 1,000-year-old "elder philosopher of the space people", who was called "the Master".
George Adamski said he and the Master discussed philosophy, religion, and the "Earth's place in the universe".
George Adamski said he learned that he had been selected by Nordic aliens to bring their message of peace to Earth people, and that other humans throughout history had served as their messengers, including Jesus Christ.
George Adamski further claimed that aliens were peacefully living on Earth, and that he had met with them in bars and restaurants in Southern California.
However, George Adamski would remain the most prominent, and most influential, of the contactees.
The letter said the US Government knew that George Adamski had spoken to extraterrestrials in a California desert in 1952, and that a group of highly placed government officials planned on public corroboration of George Adamski's story.
George Adamski was proud of this endorsement and exhibited it to support his claims.
Moseley wrote that the FBI informed George Adamski that the Straith letter was a hoax and asked him to stop using it as evidence in support of his claims, but that George Adamski refused and continued to display the letter in his lectures and talks.
However, a few months later, George Adamski told an interviewer that he had been "cleared" by the FBI, and displayed the letter as proof.
In 1962, George Adamski announced that he would be attending an interplanetary conference held on the planet Saturn.
In 1963, George Adamski claimed that he had been granted a secret audience with Pope John XXIII and that he had received a "Golden Medal of Honor" from the pope.
However, skeptics noted that the medal was actually a common tourist souvenir made by a company in Milan, Italy, and that George Adamski displayed it to his friends in a cheap plastic box - which is how it was sold in tourist shops in Rome.
George Adamski said he met with the Pope at the request of the extraterrestrials he was allegedly in contact with, in order to request a "final agreement" from the Pope because of his decision not to communicate directly with any extraterrestrials, and to offer him a liquid substance in order to save him from the gastric enteritis that he suffered from, which would later become acute peritonitis.
On 23 April 1965, aged 74, George Adamski died of a heart attack at a friend's home in Silver Spring, Maryland, shortly after giving a UFO lecture in Washington, DC.
The aliens George Adamski claimed to have met in the 1950s were described by him as "human beings from another world", usually light-skinned, light-haired humanoids that would later be called Nordic aliens.
George Adamski claimed in his books that these "alien humans" came from Venus, Mars, and other planets in Earth's solar system.
In one of his books, George Adamski described a trip he took to the far side of the Moon in a flying saucer, where he claimed to have seen cities, trees, and snow-capped mountains; he claimed that the first photographs of the Moon's far side that were taken by the Soviet lunar probe Luna 3 in 1959, were altered to depict a barren, lifeless surface to hide what he saw.
George Adamski's frequently published photograph from 1952, depicts an object which has been variously identified as the top of a chicken brooder or a streetlight.
George Adamski interviewed several of the people that Adamski claimed had been with him in his initial 20 November 1952 meeting with Orthon, and found that these witnesses contradicted Adamski's claims.
George Adamski had slightly graying hair and the most honest pair of eyes I've ever seen.
George Adamski spoke softly and naively, almost pathetically, giving the impression that 'most people think I'm crazy, but honestly, I'm really not.
When George Adamski finished his story, Ruppelt noted that many of his listeners purchased copies of George Adamski's UFO photos that were on sale in the cafe.