Media1956

Ruppelt publishes The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

Edward Ruppelt (left) in 1953, when he headed Project Blue Book Associated Press, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edward Ruppelt, former head of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, published an inside account of its UFO investigations with Doubleday. In the book he wrote that he created the term 'UFO' to replace 'flying saucers'.

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Significance

Sources

FirsthandThe Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Edward J. Ruppelt, Doubleday, 1956) (opens in a new tab)Project Gutenberg / 1956

How sources are chosen and tiered

Jan 1950Media

Keyhoe's 'The Flying Saucers Are Real' in True magazine

Retired Marine Maj. Donald Keyhoe argued in True magazine's January 1950 issue that flying saucers were interplanetary craft and disputed Air Force explanations. Radio and press amplified the claim, and Keyhoe expanded it into a 1950 book of the same name.

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15 Nov 1977Media

Close Encounters of the Third Kind premieres

Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind had its premiere in New York. Its title uses a term coined by Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who was credited as a technical adviser. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2007.

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10 Sep 1993Media

The X-Files premieres on Fox

Fox premiered Chris Carter's drama The X-Files, in which a skeptic and a believer investigate unexplained phenomena. It ran to 2002, and its 1996 Peabody citation said it prompted viewers to discuss unexplained phenomena and the motives of government officials.

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16 Dec 2017Media

AATIP revealed by the New York Times

The New York Times reported that the Pentagon had run a little-known Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, funded with about $22 million from 2008 to 2011. The story ran with two Navy videos and said Luis Elizondo had led the program.

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Significance