Topic
Civilian, police and airline reports, from single witnesses to mass sightings seen by thousands. 305 events, newest first.
Sightings3 Sep 1965
Brazoria County deputies Billy McCoy and Robert Goode said a huge dark object with a bright purple light came close to their patrol car near Damon, Texas. An Ellington AFB officer interviewed them and called them credible, and Project Blue Book listed the case as unidentified.
Photo: Djmaschek, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings19 Aug 1965
Teenager Harold Butcher reported a football-shaped object hovering near his family's dairy barn, with others nearby reporting similar sightings. The Air Force record card lists the case as unidentified; a purple residue found at the site was judged unrelated.
Photo: Adam Moss, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings3 Aug 1965
Orange County highway traffic investigator Rex Heflin took three Polaroid photos of what he said was a metallic disk crossing Myford Road near Santa Ana, then a fourth of a smoke ring. The Air Force-funded Condon study (case 52) found the evidence inconclusive and internally inconsistent.
Sightings2 Aug 1965
After a sheriff's dispatcher reported an object near Wellington, Kansas, the Wichita Weather Bureau radar tracked several slow, erratic targets for over an hour. The Condon study judged them likely false radar returns from strong temperature inversions.
Sightings4 Jun 1965
In orbit over the Pacific, Gemini 4 commander James McDivitt reported a white cylindrical object that seemed to have arms. NORAD suggested the Pegasus B satellite; the Condon study doubted that match and listed the sighting among three astronaut cases not adequately explained.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Sightings1965
From Christmas 1964 residents of Warminster reported loud unexplained sounds, dubbed 'the Thing', then lights and objects by mid-1965. Local journalist Arthur Shuttlewood championed the reports, and a 1965 Daily Mirror photo drew thousands of skywatchers. Sightings faded by the early 1970s.
Photo: Chris Heaton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings24 Apr 1964
Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora reported a shiny oval object and a roaring flame in a gully, then found burned brush and ground marks. Blue Book chief Hector Quintanilla called it the best-documented case on record, and it stayed unidentified.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Sightings21 Oct 1963
Members of the Moreno family and a household worker said several glowing objects hovered near their estate and the railway line for about 40 minutes, casting beams and leaving a sulfur smell. A police officer filed a report and a wire story reached foreign papers within days.
Photo: User:Ignaciogimenez, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings15 Feb 1963
Farmer Charles Brew reported a domed object descending near his milking shed at Willow Grove, near Moe, Victoria. RAAF officers interviewed him and judged it most likely a weak tornado-like weather effect; the Department of Air said it could not reach a firm conclusion.
Photo: JU580 at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Sightings5 Sep 1962
A fiery reentry over Wisconsin before dawn left a roughly 20-pound metal chunk in a Manitowoc street, found by two police officers. Laboratory analysis tied it to Sputnik 4, a Soviet test spacecraft, making it a well-documented case of space debris rather than a UFO.
Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings4 Mar 1960
A bright fireball and detonation over central Alberta in the early morning was seen by hundreds of people. Nearly 700 stones were then recovered near Bruderheim, the largest meteorite fall recovered in Canada, most of them by the University of Alberta.
Sightings7 Apr 1959
Cameras of the Ondrejov Observatory photographed a bright fireball whose meteorites fell near Pribram. It was the first meteorite fall traced back to its orbit in the solar system from photographs, a model for instrument-based study of fireballs.
Photo: Czech Wikipedia user Packa, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings26 Oct 1958
Phillip Small and Alvin Cohen said an egg-shaped object hovered over a bridge at Loch Raven Dam near Baltimore, their car died, and a flash and bang left their faces burning. Towson police found nothing; an Air Force investigator left it unidentified.
Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings17 Dec 1957
Skandinavisk UFO Information (SUFOI) formed in Denmark to collect UFO reports. It later became the body handling UFO inquiries made to Danish authorities and now says most reported sightings have ordinary explanations.
Sightings2 Nov 1957
Over about two hours, drivers near Levelland reported a large glowing object and said their engines and headlights failed as it passed. The Air Force attributed the reports to ball lightning; physicist James McDonald later told Congress no storms were near that night.
Photo: Leaflet, CC BY-SA 3.0
SightingsNov 1957
Project Blue Book logged 361 reports in November 1957, one of its busiest months, helping make 1957 the only year from 1953 to 1965 with over a thousand reports. The surge came days after Sputnik 2 and included Levelland, Texas and a White Sands report the Air Force publicly addressed.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
SightingsJul 1957
NICAP published the first issue of its members' newsletter, The U.F.O. Investigator, in July 1957. The issue included a policy statement saying NICAP had no evidence to support contactee claims; the newsletter became the group's main outlet for case reports.
Sightings1957
A Rio de Janeiro society columnist printed a letter with an illegible signature claiming a disc exploded over the sea near Ubatuba, with fragments said to be ultra-pure magnesium. Tested for the Condon Report, a sample was less pure than commercial magnesium and matched a 1940 Dow strontium batch.
Photo: Carla404, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings1957
Ground Saucer Watch, a civilian UFO group of scientists, engineers and laypeople, formed in 1957 to study UFO reports with technical methods. It later pursued lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests for government UFO files before folding over money problems.
Sightings1955
UFO researcher Arai Kin'ichi founded the Japan Flying Saucer Research Association in 1955. It reportedly grew past 1,000 members; novelist Mishima Yukio joined in 1956 and wrote for its bulletin Uchuki in 1957.
Photo: Ken Domon, Public domain
