Culture and science
The books that shaped how the public sees UFOs. 176 events, newest first.
Media24 Mar 1975
Saturday Review Press/Dutton published John Keel's account of his 1966-67 investigation of 'Mothman' sightings, strange lights and visitors in West Virginia. Keel framed the events as 'ultra-terrestrial' rather than extraterrestrial; the book was loosely adapted into a 2002 film.
Photo: Jacket design by Peter Parnell, Public domain
Media1975
Former Blue Book consultant J. Allen Hynek and computer scientist Jacques Vallee published 'The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects', treating UFOs as a real but unexplained phenomenon and proposing a framework for further study.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Media1975
Jacques Vallee published The Invisible College (Dutton), describing an informal network of scientists he said had quietly traded UFO data for years, and asking whether the phenomenon acts on human belief. A French edition, Le college invisible, appeared the same year.
Photo: Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media1975
David M. Jacobs published The UFO Controversy in America with Indiana University Press, a history of the U.S. debate over UFO reports.
Photo: Hinata47d, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media1975
Arizona State University librarian Larry Kusche checked the records behind famous Bermuda Triangle disappearances one by one. His Harper and Row book found many losses happened in storms, outside the area, or had ordinary explanations, and it is widely credited with debunking the legend.
MediaJan 1974
Aviation Week editor Philip J. Klass published UFOs Explained with Random House, arguing case by case that reports came from balloons, meteors, rocket debris, aircraft, radar effects, hoaxes and mistaken witnesses rather than alien craft. It became a standard skeptical reference.
Photo: Robert Sheaffer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Skinwalker Ranch1974
Utah State University plant scientist Frank Salisbury published The Utah UFO Display: A Biologist's Report, on reports from the Uintah Basin that teacher Joseph Junior Hicks had collected since the 1960s. Salisbury interviewed witnesses himself from 1968.
Government1974
Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla Jr., a former chief of Project Blue Book, wrote a book proposal titled 'UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma', dated 1974. A scan of the typescript, described as his proposal for a book, is publicly available online.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
Close encounters1973
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, former scientific consultant to Project Blue Book, started the Center for UFO Studies, initially run from a room in his Evanston home. He led it as scientific director until his death in 1986; it continues as a research library and archive.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Sightings1973
After several hundred calls about strange lights around Piedmont in early 1973, Southeast Missouri State physics professor Harley Rutledge led his own team to investigate. He issued a paper that year and expanded it into a 1981 book. No government inquiry took place.
Photo: Drowzy at English Wikipedia, Public domain
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
Close encounters1972
Northwestern astronomer J. Allen Hynek, long a scientific consultant to the Air Force's UFO projects, published The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. It sorted reports into close encounters of the first, second and third kind, a scheme later echoed in Spielberg's 1977 film.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
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
Government17 Dec 1969
Air Force Secretary Robert Seamans Jr. announced the end of Project Blue Book, citing the Condon study and its review by the National Academy of Sciences. The Air Force said no case it had studied showed a threat to national security or evidence of extraterrestrial vehicles.
Photo: United States Air Force Archive, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government20 Oct 1969
Brig. Gen. C. H. Bolender, Air Force deputy director of development, recommended ending Project Blue Book. It noted that UFO reports that could affect national security went through standard military channels and were not part of the Blue Book system. Researchers disagree on what that implies.
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
Government1969
An Air Force-funded University of Colorado study led by physicist Edward Condon was made public. It concluded that further UFO study was unlikely to advance science, and the Air Force later cited it when closing Project Blue Book.
Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Public domain
GovernmentJan 1969
An Air Force-requested National Academy of Sciences panel chaired by Gerald Clemence reviewed the University of Colorado UFO study and judged its scope and methods sound, agreeing that further UFO study deserved no high priority. The Air Force cited this review when it closed Project Blue Book.
Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0
Close encounters1969
After a stormy board meeting, Donald Keyhoe gave up the directorship of NICAP and moved to its board; accounts cite money troubles. Jack Acuff took over as the civilian group declined in the years after the Air Force closed Project Blue Book.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, Public domain
GovernmentJan 1969
The Air Force-funded Condon Report included the 1956 Lakenheath-Bentwaters radar-visual case as its Case 2. The study said it learned of the case in winter 1968 from an unsolicited letter by the retired USAF watch supervisor on duty that night, and obtained the Blue Book file afterward.
Photo: Chris, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military24 Oct 1968
Missile-site maintenance and security crews near Minot AFB reported a glowing object for over three hours, and a returning B-52 crew tracked a target on radar that paced the bomber while its radios failed to transmit. Project Blue Book attributed the reports to a natural phenomenon.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Government12 Mar 1968
Atmospheric physicist James McDonald told a Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute symposium that UFOs were a serious scientific problem, criticized Project Blue Book as inadequate, and called for well-funded international research.
Photo: United States Government, 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
