Newest first
The latest events on the record: hearings, official reports, releases and reported encounters. Each one links to its sources.
Media8 Sep 2020
Retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor gave a nearly four-hour interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast, retelling his 2004 encounter with a white 'Tic Tac' object off California and discussing fighter flying and UFO reports. The episode added to his widely viewed first-hand accounts.
Photo: U.S. House Committee On Oversight and Accountability, Public domain
Government4 Aug 2020
Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist approved a Navy-led task force to detect, analyze and catalog UAP that could threaten national security. The Pentagon announced it on August 14.
Photo: DNI, Public domain
Sightings1 Aug 2020
After loud booms over Central Tapanuli, a stone of over 2 kg punched through the roof of coffin maker Josua Hutagalung's house in Kolang, with more fragments found nearby. Arizona State University classified it as a rare carbonaceous (CM) meteorite.
Photo: Ahmad Fairuz, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media23 Jul 2020
The New York Times reported that Pentagon UFO work had continued inside the Office of Naval Intelligence as the UAP Task Force and that a Senate report expected periodic public findings. Consultant Eric Davis said he had briefed officials on 'off-world vehicles'; none has been publicly verified.
Photo: U.S. Navy, Public domain
Government16 Jul 2020
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told CBS reporter Jim DeFede that objects were flying over U.S. military bases and exercises and were not American. He called them a national security risk worth investigating, and said an off-world origin might be better than an adversary's technological leap.
Photo: United States Senate, Public domain
Media15 Jul 2020
Huntington Beach police arrested MUFON executive director Jan Harzan in July 2020 after detectives posing online as a 13-year-old girl set up a meeting, on suspicion of arranging to meet a minor for a lewd act. MUFON's board said on July 15 that he had been permanently removed.
Government11 Jul 2020
Andrei Kuryakov of Russia's Ural prosecutor's office said the reopened inquiry found the nine hikers who died in 1959 fled their tent in a storm fearing an avalanche and froze. Soviet investigators' 'unknown, compelling force' wording had fed theories ranging from military tests to aliens.
Photo: Anonymous / Soviet investigators, Public domain
Media11 Jul 2020
History began the second season of Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation. Former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo and former defense official Chris Mellon examined military and civilian sightings and argued the objects warrant serious government study.
Photo: Max Moszkowicz, CC BY 3.0
Sightings2 Jul 2020
A bright fireball seen across the Kanto region at about 2:32 am set off reports around Tokyo. Fragments found in Narashino, Chiba, days later were confirmed by Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science as the country's 53rd known meteorite.
Photo: National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan, Public domain
Media1 Jul 2020
Netflix's reboot of 'Unsolved Mysteries' launched with six episodes, one of them 'Berkshires UFO', about a reported sighting in western Massachusetts. The volume quickly reached Netflix top-ten lists in several countries.
Photo: Cosgrove/Meurer Productions and 21 Laps, Public domain
Government17 Jun 2020
In the report on its intelligence bill, the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Marco Rubio, directed the DNI and Defense Secretary to report on UAP within 180 days of enactment. The resulting preliminary assessment was released in June 2021.
Photo: US Senate, Public domain
SightingsJun 2020
Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk, held for about 36 hours in December 2018 during the Gatwick drone hunt and never charged, sued Sussex Police for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment and were paid 200,000 pounds in compensation and legal costs.
Photo: Andy Mabbett, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media29 May 2020
Andrew Patterson's debut The Vast of Night went to Amazon Prime Video instead of theaters. Set in a late-1950s New Mexico town, it follows a switchboard operator and a radio DJ who trace a strange audio signal. It had won an audience award at Slamdance.
Military12 May 2020
The Naval Safety Center released eight aviation hazard reports to The War Zone under FOIA. Seven described 2013-2014 encounters between Super Hornets and unidentified objects in training airspace off Virginia and North Carolina; one 2019 report concerned a balloon.
Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain, Public domain
Sightings11 May 2020
The U.S. military reported that China's Long March 5B core stage reentered uncontrolled over the Atlantic. Long metal pieces then reported in the villages of Mahounou and N'guinou, Ivory Coast, were attributed by astronomer Jonathan McDowell and others to the rocket; no injuries were reported.
Photo: China News Service, CC BY 4.0
Media8 May 2020
Hulu released the first season of 'Solar Opposites', an adult animated series from Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan about four aliens who flee their exploding planet and crash-land in an American suburb. Hulu later called it its most-watched original comedy premiere to that date.
Photo: Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA, CC BY 2.0
Military28 Apr 2020
Asked about the Pentagon release of Navy UFO videos, Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono said no SDF pilot had met a UFO and that he did not really believe in them, but that encounter procedures would be set and Japan would seek the US analysis.
Photo: Prime Minister's Official Residence, CC BY 4.0
Government27 Apr 2020
The Defense Department authorized the release of three Navy infrared videos, FLIR1, Gimbal and GoFast, that had already circulated publicly. It said the objects in them remain unidentified.
Photo: United States Navy, Public domain
Media31 Mar 2020
History premiered The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, a series following a team funded by owner Brandon Fugal, including astrophysicist Travis Taylor, as it investigates reported phenomena at the Utah ranch. It has continued for several seasons.
Photo: US Army, Public domain
Media31 Mar 2020
UC Berkeley's SETI@home, which used volunteers' home computers to search radio data for alien signals, stopped distributing new work on March 31, 2020, citing diminishing returns. The team moved to analyzing its accumulated results.
Photo: Al Piskun, CC BY-SA 4.0
