Key figures
The astronomer who advised Project Blue Book, coined "close encounters" and founded CUFOS. 25 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Open J. Allen Hynek as a timeline
Media8 Jan 2019
History premiered a period drama from executive producer Robert Zemeckis, starring Aidan Gillen as astronomer J. Allen Hynek, with episodes drawn from Air Force Blue Book cases. It ran two seasons before History ended it in 2020.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
Media1987
Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings by J. Allen Hynek, Philip Imbrogno and Bob Pratt was published by Ballantine after Hynek's 1986 death, collecting accounts of the large lights reported over New York's Hudson Valley in the 1980s.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Close encounters27 Apr 1986
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, longtime scientific consultant to the Air Force UFO projects, died at 75 in Scottsdale, Arizona. He had become a critic of Blue Book's methods, founded the Center for UFO Studies and coined the 'close encounters' terms in his 1972 book.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Media1984
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, drawn by a potential benefactor for his UFO research. The hoped-for revival of his work did not materialize, and he died in Scottsdale in 1986.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Close encounters1979
Allan Hendry, chief investigator for Hynek's Center for UFO Studies, published a guide drawn from 1,307 reports he probed in 15 months. He found prosaic causes for all but about 8.6 percent; skeptic Philip Klass praised it highly in a review.
Media1979
The Center for UFO Studies, founded by astronomer J. Allen Hynek, began publishing the Journal of UFO Studies in 1979 as a scholarly outlet. The first series ran to 1983 and a second series from 1989 to 2006.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Government27 Nov 1978
At a UN Special Political Committee meeting on Grenada's UFO item, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, speaking with Grenada's delegation, said the phenomenon's scope was not recognized, and Jacques Vallee urged scientific study while saying there was no evidence UFOs were visitors from space.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Media15 Nov 1977
Steven Spielberg's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind had its premiere in New York. Its title uses a term coined by Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who was credited as a technical adviser. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2007.
Photo: Sanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 4.0
Media1977
J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's longtime scientific consultant on Project Blue Book, published The Hynek UFO Report, drawing on Blue Book material to criticize how the Air Force handled UFO reports. MUFON reissued it in 2020.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
GovernmentFeb 1975
J. Allen Hynek's article 'The UFO Mystery' in the February 1975 FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin urged police to pass UFO reports to his Center for UFO Studies in Northfield, Illinois, which kept an unpublished toll-free hotline for police and official agencies.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Media1975
Former Blue Book consultant J. Allen Hynek and computer scientist Jacques Vallee published 'The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects', treating UFOs as a real but unexplained phenomenon and proposing a framework for further study.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Close encounters1973
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, former scientific consultant to Project Blue Book, started the Center for UFO Studies, initially run from a room in his Evanston home. He led it as scientific director until his death in 1986; it continues as a research library and archive.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Close encounters1972
Northwestern astronomer J. Allen Hynek, long a scientific consultant to the Air Force's UFO projects, published The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. It sorted reports into close encounters of the first, second and third kind, a scheme later echoed in Spielberg's 1977 film.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
MediaApr 1969
In a review essay titled 'The Condon Report and UFOs', Blue Book science consultant J. Allen Hynek argued that the report's own unexplained cases did not support its conclusion that further UFO study was not worthwhile, and faulted its case selection and methods.
Photo: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 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
Media17 Dec 1966
In a national magazine, Air Force consultant J. Allen Hynek wrote that most UFO reports had ordinary explanations but a small residue remained puzzling. He criticized how the Air Force handled the subject, called for real scientific study and said he had seen no evidence of a deliberate cover-up.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Close encounters21 Oct 1966
J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's own scientific consultant on UFOs, published a letter in the journal Science urging scientists to give unexplained reports serious, scholarly study rather than dismissing the subject.
Photo: United States Government, 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
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
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
Government1960
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's scientific consultant on UFO reports, chaired Northwestern University's astronomy department and directed its Dearborn Observatory from 1960 to 1978, the base for his later UFO research.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
MediaApr 1953
Ohio State astronomer J. Allen Hynek, then an Air Force consultant, published a paper arguing that unexplained aerial reports, many from credible observers, showed patterns that deserved serious scientific study rather than dismissal.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Government31 Dec 1952
Project Blue Book's Status Report No. 8 summarized summer 1952 conferences its contract astronomer, J. Allen Hynek, held with 44 professional astronomers. Five had seen things they could not readily explain; most were neither hostile nor very interested in the subject.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
Military1949
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek reviewed the 237 reports gathered by the Air Force's Project Sign. His final report attributed about a third to astronomical causes such as planets and meteors, about a third more to balloons, rockets, flares or birds, and left about a fifth unidentified.
Photo: US Air Force, Public domain
Government1948
In early 1948, Air Force officers from Wright-Patterson asked J. Allen Hynek, director of Ohio State's McMillin Observatory, to help Project Sign find which saucer reports were astronomical. Hynek, then a skeptic, had no role in Grudge but returned as Blue Book's consultant from 1952 to 1969.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
