Culture and science
Scientific studies, academic projects, panels and surveys. 227 events, newest first.
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
Government1985
Physicist Harold Puthoff founded the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, a lab studying the quantum vacuum, gravity and interstellar flight science in relation to space propulsion and energy. It was incorporated under EarthTech International in 1991.
Military1984
Copies of Lt. Col. Charles Halt's audio tape, recorded as he and airmen searched Rendlesham Forest for lights in December 1980, were released to UFO researchers in 1984 by base commander Col. Sam Morgan. Astronomer Ian Ridpath says it reached wide circulation in 1985.
Photo: Taras Young, CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Media16 Sep 1983
Michael Laughlin's Strange Invaders, a pastiche of 1950s saucer films, opened in U.S. theaters. A professor tracks his ex-wife to a small Illinois town that aliens have secretly occupied since 1958.
Media11 Apr 1983
At the 55th Academy Awards, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial won four of its nine nominations: original score for John Williams, sound, sound effects editing and visual effects.
Photo: White House Photographic Office, Public domain
Close encounters1982
Scientists including Stanford's Peter Sturrock formed the Society for Scientific Exploration to study anomalous phenomena. Its council first met on Jan. 5, 1982 in Washington, its first annual meeting followed that June, and it later launched the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
Photo: Mohammad Javanshiry, Public domain
SightingsDec 1981
Residents of Norway's Hessdalen valley began reporting strange lights in December 1981, up to about 20 a week into 1984. Project Hessdalen ran an instrumented field study in 1984, and Ostfold University College set up an automatic measuring station in 1998. Their cause is still debated.
Photo: National Archives of Norway (Riksarkivet), CC BY-SA 4.0
Media14 Dec 1980
Episode 12 of Carl Sagan's PBS series Cosmos, 'Encyclopaedia Galactica', opened with a dramatized retelling of Betty and Barney Hill's 1961 abduction claim, which Sagan then picked apart, before turning to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Photo: NASA/JPL, Public domain
SightingsMay 1980
A UFO enthusiasts' liaison office set up at Wuhan University in 1979 grew by May 1980 into the China UFO Research Association, which later claimed dozens of branches and thousands of members. It gained legal standing under a state-linked umbrella body in 1988 and lost it in 1997.
Photo: Howchou, CC BY-SA 3.0
Close encounters1980
University of Wyoming psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle founded the Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO Investigation, held in Laramie each June, where people reporting contact experiences met. His papers on the psychology of UFO witnesses are held at the university's American Heritage Center.
Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0
Media1979
The Fund for UFO Research was founded in 1979 to give grants for UFO research and public education rather than investigate cases itself. Physicist Bruce Maccabee chaired it from the start; it was later led by Richard Hall and Don Berliner.
Photo: Jacques Poulet ( Jacquespoulet at en.wikipedia ), CC BY-SA 3.0
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
Sightings31 Dec 1978
A TV crew aboard a Safe Air Argosy cargo flight filmed lights off the Kaikoura coast, with returns reported on Wellington radar and the plane's own radar. An Air Force inquiry concluded natural but unusual phenomena; UN-post files released in 2021 show DSIR scientists left them unidentified.
Photo: Richard Goring, CC BY-SA 2.0
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
GovernmentJun 1978
France's CNES UFO study group GEPAN, overseen by a council of senior scientists, presented its first results from 1977-1978 case inquiries in a June 1978 report to that council. CNES later said the findings showed cases worth further study; founding head Claude Poher left in October 1978.
Photo: Edal Anton Lefterov, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media3 Apr 1978
At the 50th Academy Awards, Vilmos Zsigmond won the cinematography Oscar for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The film also received a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing, credited to Frank E. Warner.
Photo: Attilaphoto at Hungarian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government1978
After the 1977 Petrozavodsk reports, the Soviet Union added two parallel studies of anomalous phenomena to its state research plan, one under the Defense Ministry and one under the Academy of Sciences. Participants later said most cases were explained by rocket launches and balloons.
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
Sightings15 Aug 1977
Ohio State's Big Ear radio telescope logged a strong narrowband signal that astronomer Jerry Ehman later circled and marked 'Wow!' on the printout. It was never detected again; Ehman called its origin an open question.
Photo: Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO), Public domain
Media20 Jun 1977
Anglia Television's 'Science Report' aired 'Alternative 3', a spoof documentary with actors claiming missing scientists were being taken to a secret Mars colony. Meant for April Fools' Day, it ran on June 20; viewers flooded Anglia with calls, and some still treat it as real.
Photo: Spudgun67, CC0
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
Media1977
Doubleday published The UFO Enigma by astronomer Donald Menzel and Ernest Taves, with an introduction by Fred Whipple. Appearing after Menzel's death in late 1976, it was his final book offering conventional explanations for UFO reports.
Photo: Fdavis99 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
MediaDec 1976
Astronomer Donald Menzel, a leading skeptic who explained UFO reports as natural and atmospheric effects, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Physics Today ran an obituary by Owen Gingerich in May 1977; his last UFO book appeared after his death.
Photo: Fdavis99 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media30 Apr 1976
Philosopher Paul Kurtz launched the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal at an American Humanist Association meeting. Its journal, later the Skeptical Inquirer, became a main outlet for skeptical critiques of UFO claims, including books by Philip Klass.
Photo: RobertoTenore, CC BY-SA 3.0
