Government and military
Hearings, briefings, letters and laws, from the 1966 House hearing to the 2025 task force. 122 events, newest first.
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
GovernmentJul 1969
Lynn E. Catoe of the Library of Congress compiled 'UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography', listing more than 1,600 items, at the request of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to support the University of Colorado UFO study.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
Government29 Jul 1968
The House Committee on Science and Astronautics held a one-day symposium on UFOs chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. Six scientists, including J. Allen Hynek, James McDonald and Carl Sagan, presented views, and further papers were added to the printed record.
Photo: US Congress, 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
Government5 May 1966
The Library of Congress Legislative Reference Service issued a report by Robert L. Chartrand, assisted by William F. Brown, summarizing UFO reports, Air Force monitoring under Project Blue Book and public reaction. It came weeks after the April 1966 House Armed Services hearing on UFOs.
Photo: William Henry Jackson, Public domain
Government5 Apr 1966
The House Armed Services Committee held an open hearing on UFOs with Air Force Secretary Harold Brown, Blue Book consultant J. Allen Hynek and Maj. Hector Quintanilla. Brown said an advisory board found no threat and urged contracts with universities to study selected sightings.
Photo: United States Department of Defense, Public domain
Government28 Mar 1966
House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan wrote to the leaders of the House Armed Services and Science and Astronautics committees urging an investigation of UFOs, calling the Air Force's 'swamp gas' explanation of the Michigan sightings flippant. The Armed Services hearing followed on April 5.
Photo: Gerald R. Ford / US Congress, Public domain
Sightings20 Mar 1966
Police and residents near Dexter and Hillsdale, Michigan reported glowing lights over swampy ground. Air Force consultant J. Allen Hynek suggested swamp gas, drawing ridicule, and Rep. Gerald Ford called for hearings, which the House Armed Services Committee held that April.
Photo: Gerald R. Ford / US Congress, Public domain
GovernmentMar 1966
After meeting Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas Harvey about the Dexter sightings, Michigan Rep. Weston Vivian went to Washington planning to ask the Defense Department and the Air Force to investigate, according to a press report entered in the April 1966 House hearing record.
Photo: US Government Printing Office, Public domain
Government1966
University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James McDonald began an intensive study of UFO reports and visited Wright-Patterson AFB to review Air Force UFO files. He later told a House symposium the files surprised him and changed his views.
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
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
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
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
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
Media30 Mar 1956
MGM released Forbidden Planet, a big-budget science fiction film loosely based on The Tempest in which a future human crew travels by space cruiser to a distant world. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2013.
Photo: Loew's International (MGM), Public domain
Close encounters21 Aug 1955
Eleven people at the Sutton farm near Kelly, Kentucky, reported small glowing creatures around the house through the night and fired guns at them. City and state police and military police from Fort Campbell searched and found shell casings but no other trace. Skeptics later proposed owls.
Media9 Apr 1953
William Cameron Menzies' color film, distributed by 20th Century-Fox, premiered in Detroit. A boy sees a saucer land behind his house and finds Martians controlling townspeople, including his parents, through devices implanted in their necks.
Photo: Twentieth Century-Fox, Public domain
Media1951
Twentieth Century Fox released Robert Wise's The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which the visitor Klaatu lands a flying saucer in Washington with his robot Gort to warn humanity against violence. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1995.
Photo: "Copyright 1951 by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. ", Public domain
Government16 Feb 1949
Los Alamos lab staff met with FBI, Atomic Energy Commission and military representatives to discuss green fireballs seen over New Mexico. The meeting judged them no serious threat and led to Project Twinkle, a camera watch that was never fully set up and ended about two years later.
