The Area 51 raid happened on the 20th of September 2019. The raid consisted of 3,000 people attending Alien-Stock, an Area 51 festival in the neighboring town of Rachel, Nevada near the air force base. While 3,000,000 people were going to raid, only 175 people showed up to the gates of the base.

At Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, the original creator of the facebook event called “Area 51 raid: They can’t stop us all” held the original event that he created. Overall only 2 people were arrested at the gate of Area 51 and almost no people were arrested in the neighboring towns.

Matty Roberts, the original creator of the facebook event, posted the Facebook event around late June. In total, 300 million people said they were going to attend and 2,000,000 more were interested in the event.

Although many people saw it as a joke, the military personal at the base were preparing for an actual raid in case that some people attempted to get into the base. By the time the raid was supposed to take place, the military had already prepared enough and expected 40,000 people to attend the event.

The U.S. military mistakenly posted on twitter saying “The last thing #Millennials will see if they attempt the #area51raid today” with a picture of military officers in front of a stealth bomber. Later the U.S. military commented that the tweet in “no way does it reflect our stance on the matter.”