Barney and betty hill died
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Betty and Barney Hill Papers, 1961-2006
Collection number: MC 197
Size: 7 boxes (2.33 cu.ft.)
About Betty and Barney Hill
Betty and Barney Hill lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Betty (1919-2004) was a social worker, with a degree from the University of New Hampshire, and Barney (1923-1969) was a postal worker. The couple were catapulted into the international spotlight when in September 1961 they claimed to have been abducted by aliens in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The two were returning home to Portsmouth from a trip to Montreal, Canada, when as they were driving in the middle of the night, they saw lights approaching from the sky. What followed is said to be the first well-documented, feasibly legitimate UFO abduction in history. The couple claimed that they saw bipedal humanoid creatures in the window of a large spacecraft that landed in a field, after which they had no recollection of the next two hours. They returned home to Portsmouth unable to explain the two missing hours. Both Betty and Barney had physical changes from the ni
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Barney Hill, UFO Witness born
Barney Hill was born on this date in 1922. He was a Black man who, with his wife, were the first persons reportedly abducted by an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).
Hill was born in Newport News, VA, and was the youngest of four children, whose father was a shipyard worker. After the family moved to Philadelphia, Hill graduated from high school, attended Temple University, and enlisted in the Army. After service, he was employed as a postal worker. He married Ruby Horn, and they had two children. He later divorced and was remarried to Betty Hill, a white woman. The Hills moved to her hometown of Portsmouth, N.H.
The Hills were returning to New Hampshire from a holiday in Niagara Falls on the night of September 19, 1961. Traffic was sparse as Barney drove through the White Mountains on Route 3. Close to midnight, the couple noticed a strange light in the sky that started to move. Hill stopped the car, and as Betty exercised their dog, Delsey, he observed the object through binoculars. Barney told Betty that it was probably an airplane.
As th
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A gripping account of an alien abduction and its connections to the breakdown of American society in the 1960s
“Excellent and exhaustive.”—Colin Dickey, Slate
In the mid-1960s, Betty and Barney Hill became famous as the first Americans to claim that aliens had taken them aboard a spacecraft against their will. Their story—involving a lonely highway late at night, lost memories, and medical examinations by small gray creatures with large eyes—has become the template for nearly every encounter with aliens in American popular culture since.
Historian Matthew Bowman examines the Hills’ story not only as a foundational piece of UFO folklore but also as a microcosm of 1960s America. The Hills, an interracial couple who lived in New Hampshire, were civil rights activists, supporters of liberal politics, and Unitarians. But when their story of abduction was repeatedly ignored or discounted by authorities, they lost faith in the scientific establishment, the American government, and the success of the civil rights movement.
Bowman tells the fascinating story of the Hills as an
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