Around the world
Cases and official studies across Europe, from Belgium to Scandinavia. 61 events, newest first.
Media1973
The Archives for UFO Research (AFU) was founded in Sodertalje, Sweden, moving to Norrkoping in 1979 and becoming a non-profit foundation in 1980. Renamed the Archives for the Unexplained in 2013, it says it holds over a million clippings and more than 50,000 original European UFO reports.
SightingsMay 1971
The Belgian civilian group SOBEPS was launched in May 1971, with Lucien Clerebaut and Patrick Ferryn among its founders. During the 1989-1991 Belgian wave it organized night watches and investigated reports; it dissolved after 36 years.
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.
Media1958
Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung published Ein moderner Mythus, later translated as Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. Jung set aside whether saucers were physical craft and treated the wave of sightings as a psychological and cultural response to an anxious era.
Photo: Francis Domiano, CC0
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.
Military4 Sep 1957
Four Portuguese Air Force F-84G pilots on a training flight from Ota reported a changing yellow, then red, sphere with smaller spheres around it over Cordoba for about 35 minutes. Formation leader Jose Lemos Ferreira, later armed forces chief, retold it in 2007; the crew filed a joint report.
Photo: Ricardo Reis from Lisboa, Portugal, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings27 Oct 1954
Play stopped during a Fiorentina-Pistoiese match when about 10,000 spectators and players watched objects cross the sky and a filmy 'angel hair' fall. A University of Florence lab reported boron, silicon, calcium and magnesium in samples; skeptics suggest migrating spider silk.
MediaJun 1952
German newspapers, starting with the Saarbrucker Zeitung, reported that Norway's military had recovered a flying saucer on Spitsbergen. The story grew with each retelling and was never verified; researchers regard it as a hoax with no basis in any official record.
Photo: Wilson44691, Public domain
Military4 Nov 1948
A top secret U.S. Air Forces in Europe intelligence cable reported recurring saucer sightings, including an object over Neubiberg Air Base, and relayed Swedish officers' view that some reflected advanced technology. The Pentagon included it in its May 2026 UFO records release.
Photo: USAAF, United States Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB Alabama., 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
