Topic
The books, broadcasts, films, podcasts and reporting that shaped what the public knows. 495 events, newest first.
Media2005
Paradise Valley physician Lynne Kitei, author of a book on the 1997 Phoenix Lights, premiered her documentary on the sightings at a Phoenix-area cinema in 2005. She has said she witnessed the lights herself.
Media2005
Werner Herzog's 'science-fiction fantasy' The Wild Blue Yonder features Brad Dourif as an alien from Andromeda who narrates over NASA shuttle footage, and whose story ties to the craft said to have landed at Roswell. It won the FIPRESCI critics' prize at the Venice festival.
Photo: Nicolas Genin, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media24 Sep 2004
Revolution Studios released 'The Forgotten', directed by Joseph Ruben, with Julianne Moore as a mother told her son never existed. She discovers aliens took him and fights to recover him against opposition from both government and alien forces.
Photo: Nicolas Genin, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media5 Jul 2004
The History Channel began UFO Files, a documentary series reviewing reported UFO sightings from the late 1940s onward. Episode guides list the first broadcast on July 5, 2004.
MediaJul 2004
USA Network premiered The 4400, a miniseries about a large group of missing people, possibly alien-abduction victims, who suddenly return all at once. Trade reports said its debut set a basic-cable ratings record for a new series.
Media13 Sep 2003
A stainless-steel Mothman sculpture by retired welder Bob Roach was unveiled in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, with author John Keel as guest of honor. It became a tourist landmark for the town's 1966-67 creature reports.
Photo: Csassen13, CC0
Media8 Aug 2003
Rakesh Roshan's Hindi film Koi... Mil Gaya opened in India. Hrithik Roshan plays a young man who befriends a small blue alien, nicknamed Jadu, left behind by a spacecraft. Variety reported it as a runaway hit; critics noted its debt to E.T.
Photo: Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0
Media21 Mar 2003
Warner Bros. released Lawrence Kasdan's 'Dreamcatcher', from Stephen King's 2001 novel. Aliens crash a spaceship in the Maine woods, including a grey humanoid called 'Mr. Gray', while a military colonel played by Morgan Freeman wages a long secret war against them.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media1 Jan 2003
After Art Bell announced his retirement in October 2002, citing back problems, George Noory was named to take over the late-night paranormal talk show Coast to Coast AM on January 1, 2003.
Photo: SMG2019, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media2003
Jang Joon-hwan's South Korean black comedy Save the Green Planet! follows a man who kidnaps a pharmaceutical executive he believes is an alien from Andromeda plotting to destroy Earth.
Photo: MediaLog Movie (YouTube), CC BY 4.0
Media27 Dec 2002
Brigitte Boisselier of Clonaid, a company founded by the UFO-based Raelian movement, told a Florida news conference that a cloned baby girl called Eve had been born. She offered no proof, and no independent verification was ever produced.
Photo: Asklepioscaduceus, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media2 Dec 2002
Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, a ten-part Sci Fi Channel drama following families entangled with alien abductions and government secrecy from the 1940s onward, premiered. It won the 2003 Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries.
Photo: Helene C. Stikkel, Public domain
Media22 Nov 2002
The Sci Fi Channel aired a two-hour special hosted by Bryant Gumbel on the dig it sponsored at the reputed 1947 crash site. University of New Mexico archaeologists led by William Doleman worked there for 10 days in September 2002; Doleman said they found items he could not yet identify.
Photo: Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0
MediaNov 2002
Thai broadcaster iTV aired footage it said showed Lao soldiers firing tracer rounds across the Mekong during the yearly glowing-ball festival at Nong Khai. Thousands of residents protested the report, and Laos' ambassador objected; skeptics favor fireworks or tracers as the cause.
Photo: J A Forbes, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media2 Aug 2002
Disney's Touchstone released Signs, a thriller in which crop circles on a Pennsylvania farm herald an alien invasion. It grossed about $408 million worldwide, among the most successful alien-themed films of its decade.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media3 Jul 2002
Sony released 'Men in Black II', the sequel to the 1997 hit that turned the Men in Black of UFO lore into a comic secret agency policing aliens living on Earth.
Photo: Randall A. Golden, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media21 Jun 2002
Disney released the animated film Lilo and Stitch, in which a destructive, genetically engineered alien escapes captivity, lands in Hawaii and is adopted as a pet by a young girl. Roger Ebert called it a jewel.
Photo: Disney Enterprises, Inc., Public domain
Media19 May 2002
Fox aired The Truth, the two-hour finale of The X-Files, ending its nine-season original run. Creator Chris Carter said it would close some storylines but not answer every question about the government-conspiracy plot. The series later returned in 2016.
Photo: David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0
MediaMar 2002
Universal re-released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for its 20th anniversary with added scenes and digital effects. The guns carried by government agents chasing the boys were digitally replaced with walkie-talkies, a change Spielberg later called a mistake.
Photo: White House Photographic Office, Public domain
Media25 Jan 2002
Screen Gems released a thriller starring Richard Gere loosely adapted from John Keel's 1975 book about strange sightings around Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It renewed public interest in the Mothman reports and the 1967 Silver Bridge collapse.
Photo: Jacket design by Peter Parnell, Public domain
