28. Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France, made it illegal to land a flying saucer in the town in 1954
In the mid-20th century, people were genuinely terrified of aliens and UFOs. It’s only in recent years we’ve seen how seriously governments around the world took UFO reports, too. An exception to this rule came in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1954. Mayor Lucien Jeune criminalized the ‘flying over, landing, or taking off of flying saucers’ in the famous winemaking town. Jeune passed the law after a man in northern France reported seeing aliens leaving a ‘cigar-shaped’ spacecraft. Jeune’s son, Elie, dismissed the law as a publicity stunt, but the town effused to overturn the ban in 2016.
