Cases and themes
Sightings seen by many people at once, and the waves of reports that swept regions or countries. 47 events, newest first.
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.
Media1967
Researcher Ted Bloecher privately published a compilation of newspaper accounts from the summer 1947 flying saucer wave. NICAP describes it as the work he is best known for in UFO research.
Sightings1965
From Christmas 1964 residents of Warminster reported loud unexplained sounds, dubbed 'the Thing', then lights and objects by mid-1965. Local journalist Arthur Shuttlewood championed the reports, and a 1965 Daily Mirror photo drew thousands of skywatchers. Sightings faded by the early 1970s.
Photo: Chris Heaton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government20 Feb 1962
On the first U.S. orbital flight, John Glenn reported thousands of glowing specks he called 'fireflies' drifting past Friendship 7. On the next Mercury flight Scott Carpenter released similar showers by tapping the hatch, and NASA's history links them to frost on the capsule.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Military15 Sep 1960
Edward J. Ruppelt, the Air Force officer who led the UFO project during the 1952 wave and later wrote a book about it, died of a heart attack on September 15, 1960, at age 37.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
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
Media1958
French writer Aime Michel's 1958 book, published in English as Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery, argued that same-day sightings in the 1954 French wave fell on straight lines. Astronomer Donald Menzel later argued the alignments matched chance.
Close encounters5 Nov 1957
During the November 1957 wave, grain buyer Reinhold Schmidt said a cigar-shaped craft stalled his car near Kearney and that he spoke with German-speaking occupants. Air Force investigators concluded the story was a hoax made for publicity.
Military5 Nov 1957
The Coast Guard cutter Sebago reported several fast-moving radar targets and a brief bright light before dawn during the November 1957 wave. The Condon study judged the light a meteor and most radar returns likely anomalous propagation.
Photo: Florida Department of Commerce, Public domain
SightingsNov 1957
Project Blue Book logged 361 reports in November 1957, one of its busiest months, helping make 1957 the only year from 1953 to 1965 with over a thousand reports. The surge came days after Sputnik 2 and included Levelland, Texas and a White Sands report the Air Force publicly addressed.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
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 encounters29 Nov 1954
Delivery men Gustavo Gonzalez and Jose Ponce told Caracas police that in Petare they met a small, hairy, very strong being and that Gonzalez grappled with it; later retellings add several beings and a glowing craft. It became a noted episode of the 1954 Venezuela wave, with no physical evidence.
Photo: Andres Gerlotti agerlotti, CC0
Military1953
Capt. Edward Ruppelt, who had run the Air Force's UFO project through the 1952 wave, left Project Blue Book and the Air Force in 1953. His 1956 book says he asked for a transfer in December 1952, no replacement came, and he was again handling Blue Book cases in August 1953.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Government1 Aug 1952
Reporting for a CIA study group formed after the 1952 sighting wave, Edward Tauss of the Office of Scientific Intelligence found most sightings easily explained but advised continued monitoring with the Air Force, while keeping CIA interest from the press and public.
Military28 Jul 1952
During the July 1952 wave, a front-page newspaper report quoted the Air Force as disclosing that jet fighters were on round-the-clock nationwide alert against flying saucers, with orders to bring one down if they could. HISTORY ties such coverage to a press frenzy the Air Force then tried to calm.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
SightingsJul 1952
1952 brought the Air Force more UFO reports than any year before, about eight times the totals for each of the previous two years per the Condon Report. Project Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt dated the 'Big Flap' from about June 1, with reports peaking in July, including the Washington radar cases.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Media15 May 1952
United Artists released Red Planet Mars, a Cold War drama in which an American scientist makes radio contact with Mars and the replies upend world politics. It reached theaters during the record 1952 wave of U.S. saucer reports.
Sightings17 Mar 1950
Many residents of Farmington reported large numbers of fast, darting objects on St. Patrick's Day 1950, after scattered reports on the two previous days. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later suggested fragments of a burst Skyhook balloon as the likeliest cause.
Photo: Christopher Nicol, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government11 Jul 1947
A 30-inch metal disc with a plastic dome turned up in a Twin Falls yard during the 1947 saucer wave. An FBI agent alerted his office and Army officers flew in to take it, but police then said four local teenagers had confessed to building it from radio and phonograph parts as a prank.
Photo: Albert William Stevens, Public domain
Sightings4 Jul 1947
During the July 1947 wave, Portland police officers, a harbor patrol crew and residents reported groups of fast, wobbling disks over the city, with sheriff's deputies across the river in Vancouver, Washington, reporting more. Ruppelt summarized the reports from Air Force files.
Sightings4 Jul 1947
Off-duty Coast Guard yeoman Frank Ryman photographed what he called a white saucer from his Lake City home in Seattle. Newspapers ran it the next day as one of the first photos of the 1947 wave; analysts later dismissed it as a weather balloon.
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
