Culture and science
NICAP, APRO, MUFON, CUFOS, NIDS, To The Stars, the Sol Foundation and other private groups. 41 events, newest first.
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.
MediaJul 1964
NICAP released The UFO Evidence, edited by Richard Hall, which selected 746 reports from more than 5,000, favoring qualified and multiple witnesses. Copies went to congressional leaders and then to every member of Congress.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, Public domain
Close encounters1962
Several British UFO research groups and individuals came together at an inaugural meeting in Kensington, London, to form the British UFO Research Association, which describes itself as a non-cultist, scientifically evaluative body.
Close encounters18 Apr 1961
Wisconsin resident Joe Simonton said a saucer landed in his yard and its occupants handed him pancakes after he gave them water. The Air Force and NICAP looked into the report; the pancakes were analyzed and found to be ordinary, and the story was largely dismissed.
Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain
Government5 Aug 1960
Donald Keyhoe's NICAP told UPI that Senate leader Lyndon Johnson had the Preparedness subcommittee staff keep watch on UFO sightings; congressional sources confirmed it. NICAP kept pressing for open hearings, which a House panel declined in 1961.
Photo: US Senate, Public domain
Government28 Feb 1960
NICAP made public a December 1959 Air Force Inspector General directive telling commands to treat UFO reports as serious defense business. NICAP board member Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first CIA director, said a copy went to Congress and called for open congressional hearings.
Photo: U.S. Gov., Public domain
GovernmentApr 1958
An April 1958 CIA memo answering letters from Leon Davidson and NICAP's Donald Keyhoe recommended sending them a declassified Robertson Panel report written in late 1957 that omitted any CIA tie. The CIA kept refusing to release the full report until 1975.
Media22 Jan 1958
During the live CBS program 'UFO: Enigma of the Skies', the network cut the audio while NICAP director Donald Keyhoe spoke about material before Congress. CBS said he had departed from the approved script and denied censorship; UFO groups long cited the moment as a cover-up.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, 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.
Whistleblowers16 Jan 1957
NICAP board chairman Delmer Fahrney, a retired rear admiral who once ran the Navy guided-missile program, told reporters that reliable reports showed fast objects entering the atmosphere under apparent intelligent guidance. The Air Force said most reports had ordinary explanations.
Close encounters1957
After founding director T. Townsend Brown was removed at the end of 1956, retired Marine Major Donald Keyhoe took charge of the civilian group NICAP. Under him it pressed Congress to scrutinize Air Force secrecy about UFOs.
Photo: CBS, "The Mike Wallace Interview" 1958 March 8, Public domain
Close encounters24 Oct 1956
The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena was incorporated in Washington, D.C., organized by a group led by T. Townsend Brown. Donald Keyhoe became director in early 1957 and the group grew into a leading civilian UFO organization that pressed Congress for hearings.
Photo: Richard H. Hall / NICAP, Public domain
MediaJan 1954
Ted Bloecher and others founded Civilian Saucer Intelligence in New York City in January 1954. With Isabel Davis and Lex Mebane in its research section, the group became known for careful case work before its members moved on to NICAP.
GovernmentNov 1951
Starting in November 1951, the reactivated Project Grudge, renamed Blue Book in March 1952, issued a series of 12 classified status reports on its work. They were declassified in 1960 but, per the Condon Report, were hard to obtain until NICAP published them in 1968.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Sightings15 Mar 1951
A chief aircraft engineer at the Delhi Flying Club and about 20 others reported a long, bullet-shaped object trailing a white cloud that looped over the field and left at high speed. The case is in the Project Blue Book files, and NICAP says Blue Book listed it as unidentified.
Photo: Ashish Bhatnagar, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media1951
Engineers and writers led by North American Aviation employee Edward J. Sullivan formed Civilian Saucer Investigation in Los Angeles in late 1951. It collected sighting reports, shared many with the Air Force, issued four bulletins and folded in 1954; its files later passed to NICAP.
