A Brief History of UFO Sightings
UFOs aren’t just a modern phenomenon: If we look back through history, we find that people have reported seeing unidentified flying objects since ancient times. In classical Greece and Rome, the philosopher Plutarch wrote of flaming spears and shields that moved in formation in the heavens; the historian Livy told of a “phantom navy” seen shining in the sky; and the writer Julius Obsequens told of golden spheres of fire that flew through the air. It’s only far more recently, however, that the idea of UFOs as an indication of extraterrestrial life has become established in the wider public consciousness — whether we believe in visitations from little green men or not.
Scientifically and statistically speaking, there’s a rational argument to be made for the existence of intelligent species in the universe apart from ourselves. When it comes to UFOs, however, the question is whether these species have actually crossed the vast expanse of space to visit Earth. This is where things get complicated. As the scientist Enrico Fermi posited in his famous Fermi paradox, if there are other civilizations spread throughout the galaxy, then why haven’t we heard from them? Scientists continue to tackle the question, with theories such as the “Great Filter” (that alien civilizations have existed but were wiped out) and the “zoo hypothesis” (that extraterrestrial life exists, but is choosing not to contact Earth). Then there are the ufologists and budding Fox Mulders out there who argue that the aliens are already here — that UFOs are spacecraft from other worlds, and the truth is out there for anyone willing to accept it.
The modern history of UFOs is, of course, full of tantalizing details that have convinced many to believe that actual UFOs of the extraterrestrial variety have visited Earth and continue to do so. According to recent polling, 42% of Americans believe in UFOs, and most of these Americans believe that unidentified flying objects are alien spacecraft visiting Earth from other planets or galaxies. Here are some of the most pivotal events in the history of UFOs — events that have helped convince many people that aliens are indeed among us.
Kenneth Arnold and the Flying Saucers
On June 24, 1947, a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold was flying close to Mount Rainier in Washington state when he saw nine shiny, circular objects flying in formation. Each object was about 100 feet across, and each one flew at what he estimated as about 1,200 miles per hour (roughly twice as fast as any known aircraft at the time). The report was soon picked up by the Associated Press, which described Arnold’s strange sighting of “nine bright saucer-like objects.” The story then exploded across the United States, with the new term “flying saucers” on everyone’s lips. Just like that, the modern age of UFO sightings had begun.
The Roswell Incident
Ten days before Kenneth Arnold saw his flying saucers, a rancher named W.W. “Mac” Brazel and his son were driving across their ranchland about 80 miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. They came across a patch of land in the desert strewn with rubber strips and metallic-looking, lightweight fabric. Baffled, they returned home. It wasn’t until weeks later on July 4 that they returned to collect the debris—unaware of the nationwide flying saucer fervor that had recently begun—which they then delivered to the local sheriff. From there, things escalated quickly, and the case passed up through the military ranks until it reached the commander of the Eighth Air Force in Fort Worth, Texas. Then, the Air Force made a curious decision. Rather than admit the true nature of the wreckage — it was a crashed Air Force balloon that was part of the secretive Project Mogul — they released an extraordinary press release stating they had recovered a “flying disk.”
Naturally, the story spread like wildfire. The Air Force soon tried to backtrack, stating that it was actually a weather balloon carrying a radar target, but the damage had been done. To this day, conspiracy theories permeate the so-called Roswell incident, which in some accounts has been embellished to include recovered gray aliens and extraterrestrial technology.
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Project Blue Book
Following Kenneth Arnold’s flying saucer sighting, the Roswell Incident, and the general furor surrounding UFOs that began in the late-1940s, the United States Air Force launched a systematic investigation into unidentified flying objects. Known as Project Blue Book, it was the first large-scale government investigation into UFOs. Formed in 1952, the project investigated 12,618 reported sightings that occurred between 1947 and the project’s termination in 1969. Most of the cases were found to be caused by weather balloons, swamp gases, meteorological events, or temperature inversions. But more than 700 Project Blue Book entries could not be explained by investigators. In the end, the project appeared to be a refreshingly open examination of UFO phenomena, as it was open to the public and not conducted in secret, yet it ultimately provided even more fodder for the ufologists.
The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill
On a September night in 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving along an empty country road in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. All was normal, apart from a strange light in the sky that appeared to be following them. When they stopped, the light — which Betty described as a “spinning disk” — came closer until it was right above them. They drove off in a panic, dazed and groggy from the experience, and when they arrived home they realized that the journey had taken two hours longer than it should have. Two years later, they finally talked publicly about the incident. As media interest grew, the Hills underwent hypnosis, revealing further details about their supposed abduction: a flying disk, gray beings, metal tables, and bodily probing. The story was turned into a bestselling book and later a movie (The Interrupted Journey and The UFO Incident, respectively) which helped establish the incident as the archetypal abduction case.
The Rendlesham Forest
In 1980, United States Air Force personnel stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, saw a series of strange lights in the nearby Rendlesham Forest. The first sightings occurred on the night of December 26. When Air Force security guards went to investigate, they saw what one of them described as a red, oval, sunlike object in a clearing in the woods, which then lifted up through the trees and shot back toward the coast. Over the next couple of days, servicemen went back into the forest to investigate further. They found impressions on the ground in a triangular shape as well as burned and broken trees. Then, in the early hours of December 28, things got even stranger. The deputy base commander described how a flashing light seemed to descend upon him and his colleagues, and how three bright objects hovered just above the horizon, occasionally emitting streams of light down to the ground. The Rendlesham Forest incident, often referred to as “Britain’s Roswell,” remains an extremely strange case — and one of the most famous UFO sightings in history.
The Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
In 2020, the Pentagon officially released three short UFO videos shot from U.S. Navy fighter jets showing “unidentified aerial phenomena” (“UAP” now being the government’s preferred term for UFOs). The videos had been released previously by a private company, but this was the first time the Pentagon officially acknowledged their existence. Naturally, these videos garnered a great deal of media and public attention, which in turn prompted the Pentagon to take the whole UFO/UAP situation more seriously. For the first time since Project Blue Book, a major investigation was launched, culminating in the unclassified “2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.” The report covered 510 cataloged UAP sightings from branches of the United States military. Of those, 171 remained “uncharacterized and unattributed,” with some described as demonstrating “unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities.” It’s certainly an intriguing turn of events, and people are once again looking to the skies in search of UFOs.
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