On this day in conspiracies

Three years after the collapse, the National Transportation Safety Board issues its final report, identifying a single failed eyebar link, weakened by stress-corrosion cracking, as the structural cause of the disaster.

Fourteen members are shot and their bodies arranged in a star or sunburst pattern in a forest clearing in the Vercors mountains of France, near Saint-Pierre-de-Chérennes, then set on fire by two members who kill themselves last. Sixteen die in all, including three children. The bodies are found on 23 December.

Actor Morgan Freeman is falsely reported dead after a Twitter user posts a message dressed up as a retweet from CNN ('RT @CNN: Breaking News...'). The fake spreads under #RIPMorganFreeman. CNN publicly states it never reported any such thing; Freeman is alive.

Colombia's Supreme Court acquits Plazas Vega in a split decision, citing doubts about witness testimony and a lack of conclusive proof against him personally. His acquittal does not disturb the finding that disappearances occurred; it narrows who has been held individually criminally liable.

The New York Times reveals the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and publishes the FLIR1 video alongside Fravor's firsthand account. The Nimitz encounter moves abruptly from the fringe into national news, and becomes the anchor case of the modern UAP story.

The New York Times reveals the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a Pentagon effort to study UAP, and publishes Navy cockpit videos of unexplained objects. UAP re-enters mainstream news after decades on the fringe.

The New York Times reveals the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and publishes Navy videos of unexplained objects. The later Immaculate Constellation report will claim, without independent corroboration, that the Department of Defense created the secret program in 2017 partly in reaction to this disclosure.

Brunel is detained at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris as he prepares to board a flight to Dakar. French investigators had been examining his role in arranging transport and accommodation for young women and girls on Epstein's behalf.

DHS, the FBI, the FAA, and the Department of Defense issue a fuller joint statement: after examining technical data and citizen tips, they assess the sightings as a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, law-enforcement drones, manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones, with no evidence of a foreign or adversary operation.

In a candid Instagram Live Q&A, asked why her speaking voice has changed over the years, Gomez answers directly: 'There's no excuse. I don't really care.' She adds, 'sometimes things happen. I get weird. My throat kind of swells inside sometimes.' A plain-spoken account of a real, health-linked change, given months before the clone framing peaks.