TODAY IN HISTORY: The other-worldly figure accidentally photographed in a UK park
Firefighter Jim Templeton took a photo of his daughter Elizabeth in parkland in England on May 23, 1964.
But when he got the film developed, he saw a mysterious figure in the background.
As Templeton saw it, it was the figure of an extra-terrestrial peering at the camera.
The photo made international news, with experts and sceptics keen to solve the mystery of the "Solway Firth Spaceman".
Analysis showed the picture was not doctored in any way.
But despite Templeton's insistence, there was a much more banal explanation.
The figure was most likely Templeton's wife, standing with her back to the camera.
An overexposure of the film meant her blue dress, seen in another photo taken that day, appeared white in the photo.
This was all unknown to child star Danny Lloyd, who throughout production thought he was making a drama movie.
The horror elements of the film were kept secret from Lloyd, with director Stanley Kubrick fiercely protective of the young actor.
Lloyd would not watch the movie until five years after it was released.
He did not pursue a career in acting and is now a biology professor.
While Kubrick was kind to Lloyd, he was famously cruel to actress Shelley Duvall.
Duvall would be forced to endure intensely long days in which she would be required to stay in a state of terror and hysteria.
One shot required 127 takes of Duvall, a Guinness World Record.
Co-star Jack Nicholson said Kubrick would be "a different director" around Duvall.
On May 23, 1969, a United States Air Force mechanic stole a giant military aircraft in a tragic case of lovesickness.
After a night of heavy drinking, Sergeant Paul Meyer bluffed his way past ground crew at an American air base in eastern England and took off in a four-engined Hercules C-130, like this one.
Masquerading as an officer, he ordered ground crew to refuel the giant plane. While Meyer held a civilian pilot's licence, he had no experience of flying the 60-tonne military transporter.
Despite efforts to stop him after his ruse was blown, he took off in the early morning and plotted a course for his home state of Virginia.
Meyer, left, was stationed in the UK and had been due to return home.
Suffering depression, he requested early leave but was knocked back by his commanding officer.
From the cockpit of the stolen Hercules, Meyer called his wife Mary Anne Meyer said: "I got a bird in the sky and I'm coming home." But her desperate husband never made it. He crashed the Hercules into the English Channel an hour and 45 minutes into his flight.
Decades on speculation continues about Meyer's flight including theories that it was shot down because it was a top-secret CIA aircraft.
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