The unifying  Facebook event titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” created back in July became a sensation with nearly 3 million users signing up to find out what is really going on at the military base. Meme accounts and Twitter users created highly amusing jokes and trends concerning Area 51 and its conspiracies.

On Friday, September 20th nearly 3,000 people gathered around the military base for the “raid”, with posters and tinfoil hats prepared. Although many were anticipating a storm, it was more of a peaceful gathering, people laughing and posing for pictures with the guards. 

The US military involved with the base security took the raid very seriously and did not know what to anticipate. They even sent out a public tweet to warn the “invaders”, but it was deleted shortly after. The deleted tweet, by a PR arm of the US military, showed a photo of a stealth bomber, stating it would be the last thing raiders would see. The military unit later made a statement saying that the tweet no way reflected their stance.

According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s office, one arrest was made, not for an attempt at freeing an alien, but for public urination. Ten days before the planned raid, two tourists were caught by police after being found trespassing on Department of Energy land near Area 51.

The raid was not as everyone was expecting, with no sightings of aliens and only a fraction of committed raiders making an appearance, but was still an iconic event nonetheless.