Cases and themes
Foo fighters, ghost rockets and other reports from before and just after 1947. 7 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open World War II and the first sightings as a timeline
Government5 Aug 2010
A National Archives release of MoD UFO files included a second-hand account that Winston Churchill ordered a wartime encounter between RAF bombers and a UFO kept secret to avoid mass panic. The claim came via a relative of one of Churchill's bodyguards and is unconfirmed.
Photo: Sgt. J. Mapham, No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Public domain
Close encountersAug 1947
Weeks after Kenneth Arnold's report, a Gallup poll released in August 1947 found that about 90 percent of Americans had heard of flying saucers. Asked what they were, the largest groups gave no answer or called them illusions; others guessed U.S. secret weapons or hoaxes.
Sightings4 Jul 1947
Shortly after leaving Boise, the crew of a United Air Lines flight reported five flat-bottomed objects silhouetted against the sunset and followed them for about 45 miles. Ten days after Kenneth Arnold's report, it was one of the first airline crew sightings and is cited in a 1952 CIA briefing.
Photo: Crookall, James, Public domain
Sightings24 Jun 1947
Private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported nine fast objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Press coverage of his account set off the first U.S. wave of flying saucer reports, and the Air Force later carried the case as unexplained.
Photo: Kenneth Arnold, Public domain
MediaJun 1947
The East Oregonian in Pendleton broke Kenneth Arnold's sighting report and the Associated Press carried it nationally. Within days other newspapers were calling such objects 'flying saucers', a label that stuck for decades. The paper itself says its own reporters did not coin the phrase.
Photo: UPI, Public domain
Military19 Jul 1946
In summer 1946 Swedes reported hundreds of rocket-like objects; on July 19 witnesses saw one dive into Lake Kolmjarv, but an army search of the lakebed found nothing. A Defence Staff committee attributed many reports to meteors, suspected Soviet tests for the rest, and never found proof.
Photo: Swedish military photo, Public domain
MilitaryJan 1945
An AP story datelined January 1, 1945 reported that U.S. 415th Night Fighter Squadron crews had for weeks seen balls of light pacing their planes over Germany, which they called 'foo-fighters'. TIME followed on January 15; suggested causes ranged from flares to St. Elmo's fire, and none was settled.
Photo: United States Army Air Forces, Public domain
