Cases and themes
People who said they met friendly space beings, and the groups and movements that grew around them. 18 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open Contactees and UFO movements as a timeline
Media26 Mar 1997
San Diego County authorities found 39 members of the Heaven's Gate group dead in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion after a planned mass suicide. Officials and people who knew the group said members believed a UFO trailing Comet Hale-Bopp would take them away.
Photo: Heaven's Gate, Public domain
MediaNov 1996
Amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek called Art Bell's late-night radio show to report an object trailing Comet Hale-Bopp, and others then claimed it was an alien craft. Astronomers identified it as an ordinary star; the story later figured in coverage of the Heaven's Gate suicides.
Photo: ESO/E. Slawik, CC BY 4.0
Sightings1 Dec 1994
Night-shift workers at a forest farm near Guiyang reported a roar, bright light and violent wind, and trees across a wide strip were snapped. A local UFO group proposed a hovering craft; academician Ouyang Ziyuan attributed the damage to a thunderstorm downburst.
Photo: Akira CA, CC BY-SA 3.0
Close encountersJun 1991
Robert Bartholomew, Keith Basterfield and George Howard reviewed biographies of 152 people who reported abductions or ongoing contact with UFO occupants. They found little history of mental illness but traits of a fantasy-prone personality in most cases, and urged clinicians to test for it.
Close encounters1979
Jacques Vallee published Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (And/Or Press), a critical look at contactee groups and UFO cults that questioned the motives of those promoting alien-contact beliefs.
Photo: Cmichel67, CC BY-SA 4.0
Close encounters14 Sep 1975
Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, later leaders of Heaven's Gate, spoke on UFOs and salvation at a Waldport inn; about 20 local people gave up their belongings and left with them. The departures became national news that fall, including on CBS's evening newscast.
Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0
Close encounters13 Dec 1973
French motor-sport journalist Claude Vorilhon said a small being stepped from a craft that landed in a volcanic crater near Clermont-Ferrand and gave him a message. Renamed Rael, he built a UFO-based religion whose Clonaid company made an unproven 2002 human cloning claim.
Photo: Romary, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media26 Sep 1965
Italy's Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) traces its founding to a September 1965 meeting of a Turin UFO group, where members agreed to create a national body uniting the country's scattered civilian UFO associations.
Close encounters23 Apr 1965
George Adamski, the best-known 1950s contactee, died of a heart attack in Maryland at 74. His claims of meeting Venusians and his saucer photographs had been dismissed by investigators, including Blue Book consultant J. Allen Hynek, who called the photos crude fakes.
Photo: Unknown (likely a Buffalo Evening News or press photo), 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
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.
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
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.
Close encounters1955
London cab driver George King founded the Aetherius Society in 1955, saying he had made contact with alien beings who passed on guidance for humanity. The group still reports thousands of members, with centers in London, Los Angeles and Auckland.
Photo: Hjamesberglen, CC0
Close encounters1954
Ernest and Ruth Norman started Unarius in southern California in 1954, teaching past-life therapy and channeled messages from extraterrestrial 'Space Brothers'. Later based in El Cajon, the group predicted a fleet landing in 2001 that did not occur; scholars study it as a UFO religion.
Media1953
London publisher T. Werner Laurie issued a book pairing Desmond Leslie's history of sky sightings with George Adamski's claim of meeting a Venusian in 1952. It became a bestseller and a founding text of the contactee movement; Adamski's claims are widely regarded as hoaxes.
Government1953
FBI records released under FOIA show the Bureau tracked contactee George Adamski and the flying-saucer clubs that promoted him in the 1950s, filed under espionage, and record that FBI and Air Force OSI agents had interviewed him. The file is now on the FBI's online Vault.
Photo: Unknown (press photo), Public domain
Close encounters20 Nov 1952
George Adamski claimed he met a man from Venus beside a landed scout ship near Desert Center, California, after leaving six companions down the road. His 1953 book with Desmond Leslie told the story and sold widely; Blue Book chief Ruppelt recounted it with open skepticism.
Photo: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0
