Topic
The books, broadcasts, films, podcasts and reporting that shaped what the public knows. 495 events, newest first.
Media5 Jan 1973
NBC aired In Search of Ancient Astronauts, a U.S. version of the German Chariots of the Gods documentary narrated by Rod Serling. It promoted von Daniken's ancient-astronaut claims, which scholars regard as pseudoscience, and preceded the In Search of... series.
Photo: CBS Television; portrait by Gabor Rona, Public domain
Media1973
The Archives for UFO Research (AFU) was founded in Sodertalje, Sweden, moving to Norrkoping in 1979 and becoming a non-profit foundation in 1980. Renamed the Archives for the Unexplained in 2013, it says it holds over a million clippings and more than 50,000 original European UFO reports.
Media1973
Donald Keyhoe, a longtime critic of Air Force UFO secrecy, published 'Aliens from Space: The Real Story of Unidentified Flying Objects', restating his long-held case that the Air Force withheld UFO evidence, after Project Blue Book had closed.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, Public domain
Media1972
Cornell University Press published 'UFO's: A Scientific Debate', edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page. It collects papers from the American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium on UFOs held in Boston on Dec. 26-27, 1969.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
Media26 Apr 1970
Harald Reinl's West German documentary Erinnerungen an die Zukunft, built on Erich von Daniken's ancient-astronaut thesis, premiered aboard a Lufthansa 747 from Frankfurt to New York. Scholars reject the thesis as pseudoscience, yet the film drew an Oscar nomination.
Photo: Michal Manas, CC BY 3.0
Media1970
Writer John A. Keel published UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse through Putnam. The book linked modern UFO reports to strange phenomena recorded over the centuries. Keel later wrote The Mothman Prophecies.
Photo: Jacket design not credited, Public domain
MediaOct 1969
Jacques Vallee's Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers (Henry Regnery) compared modern accounts of UFO occupants with fairy lore and religious legends, and listed a century of reported landings. It became the key text for treating UFO encounters as part of a folklore tradition.
Photo: Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaApr 1969
In a review essay titled 'The Condon Report and UFOs', Blue Book science consultant J. Allen Hynek argued that the report's own unexplained cases did not support its conclusion that further UFO study was not worthwhile, and faulted its case selection and methods.
Photo: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Public domain
Media14 May 1968
John G. Fuller's Look article described turmoil in the Air Force-funded Colorado UFO study, quoting a 1966 memo by coordinator Robert Low that spoke of a 'trick' to make the project look objective. Condon called the article false and misleading; two dismissed staff members were central to the story.
Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Public domain
Media2 Apr 1968
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington. The film signals alien intelligence only through a black monolith rather than showing aliens. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1991.
Photo: Warner Brothers, Public domain
Media1968
Swiss writer Erich von Daniken's first book, published in German in 1968 and in English as 'Chariots of the Gods?', argued ancient monuments showed alien visits. It launched the 'ancient astronaut' genre; scientists rejected his claims as contrary to historical and scientific evidence.
Photo: Stephen Jackson, Public domain
Media1968
Aviation Week avionics editor Philip J. Klass published his first UFO book, arguing that many reports, including the Exeter sightings, could be explained by corona discharge and other plasma effects akin to ball lightning. It began his long career as a leading UFO skeptic.
Photo: Robert Sheaffer, CC BY-SA 3.0
MediaJan 1968
Frank Telford's 'The Bamboo Saucer' opened in Providence, Rhode Island, in late January 1968. In the film, a U.S. team and a Soviet team searching mainland China for a reported UFO find the craft hidden in a ruined church and join forces against Chinese troops.
MediaNov 1967
Cambridge graduate student Jocelyn Bell recorded a radio source pulsing with clockwork regularity, and her team briefly weighed whether it could be another civilization. Published in Nature in February 1968, it was recognized as the first pulsar, a rotating neutron star.
Photo: Billthom, CC BY-SA 4.0
MediaNov 1967
Hammer released Roy Ward Baker's film of Nigel Kneale's serial Quatermass and the Pit, titled Five Million Years to Earth in the U.S. Workers extending the London Underground uncover an ancient Martian spacecraft. The story turns on Martians having visited Earth millions of years ago.
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Public domain
MediaOct 1967
Tsuburaya Productions' 'Ultraseven', the third entry in the Ultra Series, began airing on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in October 1967 and ran until September 1968. The tokusatsu show centered on a defense force battling invaders from space.
Photo: TSUBURAYA PRODUCTIONS, Public domain
Media29 Sep 1967
Gerry Anderson's puppet series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons began airing on ATV Midlands. Set in 2068, it follows the agency Spectrum and its indestructible agent Captain Scarlet in a war of nerves with the Mysterons, unseen beings from Mars.
Photo: Chemical Engineer, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media26 Jan 1967
NBC aired the Star Trek episode Tomorrow Is Yesterday, written by D.C. Fontana. The Enterprise is thrown back to the late 1960s, where the U.S. Air Force detects it as a UFO and sends a jet to intercept; the pilot is beamed aboard and must later be returned.
Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain
Media10 Jan 1967
ABC premiered The Invaders, a Quinn Martin series starring Roy Thinnes as an architect who sees a saucer land and cannot persuade authorities that aliens are infiltrating society. It ran as a midseason replacement into 1968.
Photo: ABC Television, Public domain
Media1967
Researcher Ted Bloecher privately published a compilation of newspaper accounts from the summer 1947 flying saucer wave. NICAP describes it as the work he is best known for in UFO research.
