Around the world
British cases and the Ministry of Defence UFO files. 79 events, newest first.
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
Military1983
Lt. Col. Charles Halt's January 1981 memo to the UK Ministry of Defence, 'Unexplained Lights', describing lights and landing traces near RAF Woodbridge, was released in the U.S. under FOIA. In October 1983 the News of the World ran it as a front-page UFO landing story.
Photo: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt, Public domain
Media1982
British researcher Paul Devereux's book Earth Lights argued that some unexplained light reports are natural geophysical phenomena linked to stresses in the earth's crust. Critics, including a 1983 Magonia review, disputed the tectonic link.
MilitaryDec 1980
U.S. Air Force personnel at RAF Woodbridge reported unexplained lights in Rendlesham Forest on two nights, including an object seen near the base's back gate. Deputy base commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt reported the events to the UK Ministry of Defence in a January 1981 memo.
Photo: Charles Halt, CC0
Government18 Jan 1979
The Earl of Clancarty moved a House of Lords debate calling for an intra-governmental study of UFOs. Replying for the government, Lord Strabolgi said reports had ordinary explanations, denied any cover-up and saw no case for an official study. The motion was withdrawn.
Media26 Nov 1977
Around 5:10 pm, a distorted voice claiming to speak for an alien intelligence replaced Southern Television's news sound for almost six minutes, apparently by jamming the Hannington transmitter. The IBA investigated; no culprit was ever identified, and it is generally treated as a hoax.
Photo: Matthew Prior, CC BY-SA 4.0
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
Sightings4 Feb 1977
About 15 Broad Haven Primary pupils said they saw a silver cigar-shaped craft in a field behind the school; some described a figure in a silver suit. The MoD got their drawings but offered no explanation. An RAF officer suspected a prankster; a local man admitted a silver-suit prank in 1996.
Photo: Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings1977
Through 1977, residents around Broad Haven and Little Haven in Pembrokeshire reported lights, craft and silver-suited figures, a flap the press called the Dyfed or Broad Haven Triangle. MoD files show an RAF Brawdy officer checked a hotelier's report; a local man later admitted a silver-suit prank.
Photo: Celuici, CC0
Media18 Mar 1976
Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth premiered at the Leicester Square Theatre in London, with David Bowie in his first major film role as Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien visiting Earth.
Photo: Jean-Luc, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings23 Jan 1974
A loud bang and bright lights over the Berwyn Mountains in north Wales led to a fruitless search and later claims of a covered-up crash. Seismologists recorded a magnitude 3.5 earthquake near Bala that night, and MoD files released in 2010 attribute the event to the quake plus a bright meteor.
Photo: Eirian Evans, CC BY-SA 2.0
Military8 Sep 1970
USAF exchange pilot Capt. William Schaffner was lost when his RAF Lightning from Binbrook hit the sea at night during an exercise shadowing a slow RAF target aircraft; his body was never found. Claims from 1992 on that he chased a UFO conflict with the inquiry's accident findings.
Photo: Adrian S Pye, CC BY-SA 2.0
Sightings24 Oct 1967
Before dawn, Devon police constables Roger Willey and Clifford Waycott reported following a bright, cross-shaped light near Holsworthy for about 50 minutes, and a civilian motorist parked nearby said he saw it too. RAF Chivenor said it knew of no aircraft that matched.
Photo: SequenceDancer, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings4 Sep 1967
Six beeping metal-domed saucers were found in a line from the Isle of Sheppey to Somerset, drawing police, military and Ministry of Defence responders before they were revealed the same day as a charity stunt by Royal Aircraft Establishment apprentices.
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
Close encounters1962
Several British UFO research groups and individuals came together at an inaugural meeting in Kensington, London, to form the British UFO Research Association, which describes itself as a non-cultist, scientifically evaluative body.
Media1960
MGM released Wolf Rilla's British film Village of the Damned, adapted from John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos. A whole English village falls unconscious, and the women later bear telepathic children; the BFI describes it as tapping fears of alien invasion and mind control.
Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Public domain
Military13 Aug 1956
Over the night of Aug. 13-14, 1956, USAF ground radars at RAF Bentwaters and Lakenheath tracked fast-moving targets, some with visual reports, and an RAF Venom night fighter was sent up and reported a radar lock. The Condon study rated a genuine UFO 'fairly high' in probability.
Photo: Bev Dickinson, CC BY-SA 2.0
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
Media1955
Former RAF pilot Derek Dempster founded Flying Saucer Review in London in 1955. A Gale reference entry says it was seen as uncritical under editor Brinsley le Poer Trench (1956-59) but later, under Charles Bowen, became one of the most influential UFO journals.
Military14 Oct 1954
Flt. Lt. James Salandin of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force said that after taking off from North Weald in a Meteor jet he saw two round objects streak between two other Meteors near Southend, then a third head straight at him before veering past. He later said he regretted not firing his camera gun.
Photo: Robert Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0
MilitaryJul 1954
Lord Dowding, who led RAF Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, wrote in the Sunday Dispatch that he was convinced flying saucers existed and were not built by any nation on Earth. Historians say the statement worried the Air Ministry and drew ridicule.
Photo: Ministry of Information official photographer, Public domain
Sightings15 Feb 1954
Thirteen-year-old Stephen Darbishire took two blurry photos of a disc near the Old Man of Coniston that were reproduced widely. He later said at various times that the picture was genuine and that it was a hoax, and it is generally treated as a fake.
Photo: Strider52, CC BY-SA 3.0
Media1954
A book credited to Cedric Allingham claimed its author met a Martian pilot near Lossiemouth in February 1954. In 1986 researchers argued it was a spoof: Peter Davies admitted revising it and posing as Allingham, and they named astronomer Patrick Moore, who never admitted a role, as author.
Photo: David Scanlan, Public domain
Media1953
London publisher T. Werner Laurie issued a book pairing Desmond Leslie's history of sky sightings with George Adamski's claim of meeting a Venusian in 1952. It became a bestseller and a founding text of the contactee movement; Adamski's claims are widely regarded as hoaxes.
