UFO case directory

Ezekiel's throne vision c. 593/592 BCE — date assigned within the biblical narrative
Livy's shining ships in the sky Winter 218 BCE — event date in Livy's retrospective history
Plutarch's falling, wine-jar-shaped fiery body 74 BCE — conventional date of the narrated military encounter
Magonia and the four people accused of arriving in sky ships Early ninth century CE
The Nuremberg 'aerial battle' 14 April 1561; broadside issued in 1561
The Basel solar appearances and dark globes 27–28 July and 7 August 1566
James Everell and the Muddy River light 1639 — specific night not securely established
Boston harbor lights, with an independent contemporary letter 18 January 1644 and subsequent January nights; contemporary Old Style 1643/4
The great meteor depicted at Windsor 18 August 1783
Utsuro-bune, the 'hollow boat' and foreign woman 1803 alleged arrival; securely described manuscript witnesses include c. 1815 and 1825
John Martin's object compared in apparent size to a saucer January 1878, on a Tuesday; possibly 22 January; surviving reprint dated 25 January
Bonilla's objects crossing the solar disc 12–13 August 1883; published September 1885
The Sacramento lights and the beginning of the 1896 airship wave 17 November 1896; major press coverage 18–19 November
H. G. Shaw and Camille Spooner's attempted-abduction story 25 November 1896 alleged encounter; published 27 November
The Aurora airship crash and purported burial 17 April 1897 alleged crash; published 19 April
Alexander Hamilton's airship and stolen heifer Probably Monday, 19 April 1897 in the story; published 23 April
The 1909 British 'scareships' Spring 1909, with prominent May reporting
C. Lethbridge's roadside airship encounter Night of 18 May 1909; interview published 19 May
The New Zealand airships and Kelso children's drawings July–August 1909; Kelso school report dated Friday, 23 July
The unidentified aircraft heard over Sheerness 14 October 1912; parliamentary answer 21 November
The 1913 phantom-airship panic Late 1912–early 1913
Fátima and the 'Miracle of the Sun' 13 May–13 October 1917; principal public solar event 13 October
Charles Fort publishes The Book of the Damned 1919
Roerich's shining oval over the expedition camp 5 August 1927; first book publication 1929
The alleged 1933 Italian crash and Gabinetto RS/33 1933 alleged event; anonymous documents surfaced from 1996 and public presentation followed in 2000
RAF collection of 'night phenomena' before the famous foo-fighter publicity From 1942; specific RAF file includes December 1943 reports
The 'Battle of Los Angeles' Night of 24–25 February 1942
The 415th Night Fighter Squadron's foo fighters 27 November 1944–23/24 April 1945; a unit summary also mentions late October
Foo fighters become a widely reported wartime mystery 2 January 1945, following an Associated Press dispatch dated 1 January
The Scandinavian ghost rockets 1946, especially the summer and autumn
The Kölmjärv lake incident 19 July 1946, about 11:45 a.m.; military search began 20 July
Maury Island: falling debris and an early intimidation story 21 June 1947 (claimed; report circulated later)
Kenneth Arnold and the modern flying-saucer wave 24 June 1947
Roswell: the 1947 debris episode and its later reinterpretation 8–9 July 1947; debris discovery earlier
Twining memorandum recommends a formal study 23 September 1947
Project Sign is authorized and begins work 30 December 1947–22 January 1948
Aztec: the alleged 1948 recovery behind the Scully story 1948 (alleged; public story developed later)
Thomas Mantell dies while pursuing an unidentified object 7 January 1948
Chiles–Whitted report a wingless, windowed object 24 July 1948
The Gorman “dogfight” 1 October 1948
Green fireballs near sensitive installations December 1948–1949
Project Grudge replaces Sign 11 February 1949; August–December 1949
Behind the Flying Saucers and the exposure of Newton and GeBauer 1950 book; exposés 1952 and 1956
Britain’s Flying Saucer Working Party 1950–June 1951
Donald Keyhoe’s The Flying Saucers Are Real January 1950 issue; circulated in late 1949
The Guy Hottel memo records a second- or third-hand saucer claim 22 March 1950
Paul and Evelyn Trent’s McMinnville photographs 11 May 1950
Oskar and Gabriele Linke’s Haselbach encounter 17 June 1950 (claimed); public report July 1952
The Mariana film: a date that should remain uncertain 5 or 15 August 1950
Canada’s Project Magnet and the later Second Storey committee December 1950–1954
The Lubbock Lights 25 August–September 1951
Fort Monmouth sightings help revive official attention 10–11 September 1951
The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization is founded January 1952
Project Blue Book begins before the Washington sightings March 1952
LIFE asks whether the objects are visitors from space 7 April 1952 issue
The Barra da Tijuca flying-disc photographs 7 May 1952
Delbert Newhouse films a group of bright objects 2 July 1952
The Washington, D.C., sightings 19–20 and 26–27 July 1952
The Flatwoods Monster report 12 September 1952
Oloron’s cigar, luminous spheres and angel hair 17 October 1952
Gaillac’s aerial formation and falling white threads 27 October 1952
George Adamski’s claimed meeting with a Venusian 20 November 1952 (claimed); book 1953
The Robertson Panel recommends reducing the UFO reporting burden 14–17 January 1953; memorandum 16 February
Albert Bender and the development of the Men in Black story October 1953; fuller accounts 1956 and 1962
Marius Dewilde’s encounter at the railway tracks 10 September 1954
Florence spectators watch unusual objects and “angel hair” 27 October 1954
Gustavo González and José Ponce report hairy beings 28 or 29 November 1954 (sources differ)
Rosa Lotti Dainelli’s Cennina encounter 1 November 1954
Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 5 May 1955 report; 25 October press release
The Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter 21–22 August 1955
The Lakenheath–Bentwaters radar case 13–14 August 1956
The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena is formed 24 October 1956
The RB-47 electronic-intelligence aircraft encounter 17 July 1957
Ubatuba magnesium fragments enter UFO research 14 September 1957 publication; alleged event date unknown
Antônio Vilas-Boas’s reported abduction Night of 15–16 October 1957 (claimed)
Levelland reports combine luminous objects and stalled engines 2–3 November 1957
Almiro Baraúna’s Trindade photographs 16 January 1958
Father William Gill’s Boianai sightings 26–27 June 1959
Joe Simonton and the alleged visitors’ pancakes 18 April 1961
Betty and Barney Hill: sighting, dreams, hypnosis and publication Night of 19–20 September 1961; hypnosis 1964
Lonnie Zamora’s Socorro encounter 24 April 1964
Donald Shrum’s Cisco Grove “bow and arrow” encounter Night of 4–5 September 1964 (best-supported dating)
James Flynn: an Everglades encounter and reported injury 15 March 1965
Valensole: Maurice Masse, alleged occupants, and ground traces 1 July 1965
Rex Heflin photographs: four images with different documentary histories 3 August 1965
Exeter / Kensington: Norman Muscarello and two police officers 3 September 1965
Kecksburg: a regional fireball, a local search, and a later crash-retrieval story 9 December 1965
Tully saucer nest: George Pedley and a floating circle of reeds 19 January 1966
Michigan sightings, the swamp-gas controversy, and Gerald Ford’s demand for inquiry 20–21 March 1966; Ford statements 25–28 March; hearing 5 April
Westall: school witnesses and a substantial contemporary press trail 6 April 1966
Portage County pursuit: Ohio police follow a light into Pennsylvania 17 April 1966
Air Force announces selection of the University of Colorado for an independent study 7 October 1966
Betty Andreasson: a 1967 date reconstructed in a 1977 investigation Claimed 25 January 1967; first known letter 1975; investigation January 1977
Malmstrom Echo Flight outage, distinct from the later Oscar Flight narrative 16 March 1967
Falcon Lake: Stefan Michalak’s reported encounter and documented injuries 20 May 1967
Cussac: two children report figures beside a bright object 29 August 1967
Lady, widely called Snippy: the Colorado horse-death story September 1967
Men in Black enter a broader late-1960s media cycle 1967 magazine cycle; major book amplification in 1975
Shag Harbour: reported water impact and an official search 4 October 1967
Herbert Schirmer: Condon Case 42 and later onboard account 3 December 1967; examined in 1968
House Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects 29 July 1968
Buff Ledge: two camp employees and a ten-year reporting gap Claimed 7 August 1968; inquiry begins in 1978; book in 1994
Minot: ground reports, a B-52 crew, and radar-scope photographs 24 October 1968
Condon report transmitted in 1968 and released publicly in January 1969 31 October 1968 transmittal; January 1969 public release
Jacques Vallée publishes Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers 1969
Jimmy Carter’s Leary sighting: reconstructed date versus the 1973 form Probably 6 January 1969; form says October 1969; reported September 1973
José Antônio da Silva: Bebedouro abduction claim Claimed 4–9 May 1969
MUFON founded as the Midwest UFO Network 31 May 1969; first symposium 13 June 1970; name changed in 1973
Berkshire / Reed family: a remembered 1969 encounter with a much later public record Claimed 1 September 1969; public documentation largely much later
Project Blue Book terminated; defense reporting did not disappear 17 December 1969
Delphos: Ronald Johnson and a persistent soil-ring claim 2 November 1971
Hynek’s encounter taxonomy and the creation of CUFOS 1972 publication; 1973 CUFOS founding
Pascagoula: same-night police reports and later narrative growth 11 October 1973
Coyne helicopter encounter: crew report and later ground witnesses 18 October 1973
Dionisio Llanca: Bahía Blanca truck-driver encounter 28 October 1973; later interviews and regression
Berwyn Mountains: earthquake and lights become a crash narrative 23 January 1974
Langenburg: Edwin Fuhr’s five spinning objects and grass rings 1 September 1974
Carl Higdon: Wyoming hunter, alleged transport, and a documented search 25 October 1974
Aveley: a family journey, green mist, and later regression 27 October 1974; investigation and regression documented by 1978
Charles L. Moody: Alamogordo and self-hypnosis 13 August 1975
Northern-tier base alerts: separate security reports across several installations Late October–November 1975
Travis Walton: five-day disappearance and disputed explanation 5–10 November 1975
Canary Islands: a widespread luminous display and a separate occupants narrative 22 June 1976
Allagash Four: light sighting, later regressions, and a participant's dissent August 1976; commonly given as 20 or 26 August; investigation late 1980s
Tehran F-4 interceptions and a contemporaneous U.S. defense report 19 September 1976
France establishes GEPAN within CNES 1977
Broad Haven school report and the wider Welsh wave 4 February 1977
Antônio Bogado La Rubia / Paciência: one-legged entities and a reconstructed date Probably 15 September 1977; first disclosure reportedly 30 September; newspaper 4 October
Petrozavodsk: a luminous display, Soviet investigation, and the Kosmos-955 explanation 20 September 1977
Colares and Operação Prato: civilian complaints and Brazilian Air Force fieldwork 1977 wave; military fieldwork October–December; follow-up into 1978
Soviet coordinated research begins: military and Academy of Sciences networks 1978 foundation; January 1980 reporting directive follows
Emilcin / Jan Wolski: invited aboard, not forcibly abducted 10 May 1978
Frederick Valentich disappears after reporting an unidentified object 21 October 1978
Pier Fortunato Zanfretta: immediate alarm, then a series of alleged contacts Night of 6–7 December 1978; repeated claims through 1981
UN General Assembly decision 33/426: coordination invited, no UFO agency established 18 December 1978
Kaikōura lights: two December nights, aircrew, radar, film and competing analyses Nights of 20–21 and 30–31 December 1978
Filiberto Cárdenas: roadside disappearance and undersea-contact narrative 3 January 1979; additional alleged encounter 21 February 1979
House of Lords UFO debate 18 January 1979
Cattle-mutilation investigations: FBI jurisdiction and the separate Rommel project 1979 investigations; Rommel final report June 1980
Lynda Jones: Manchester sighting, lost time, and later medical claims Summer 1979; commonly dated 19 August; regression reported in 1980
Val Johnson: a damaged patrol car and a reported bright-light encounter 27 August 1979
Robert Taylor / Dechmont Law: assault report and unexplained ground marks 9 November 1979
Manises: an airliner diverts after crew reports of unusual lights 11 November 1979
Cergy-Pontoise: a reported disappearance, expanding contact claims, and a confession 26 November 1979–early December 1979; confession reported June 1983
The Roswell Incident revives the crash-retrieval narrative 1980 (publication year)
Cattle mutilations: A Strange Harvest and the Rommel investigation 25 May–June 1980
Paul Bennewitz, Richard Doty and the growth of the Dulce narrative October–November 1980; disclosures followed in 1989 and later
Police constable Alan Godfrey at Todmorden 28 November 1980
Rendlesham Forest: separate the nights, memo and later additions Early hours of 26 and 28 December 1980; memorandum 13 January 1981
The Cash–Landrum encounter and injury claims 29 December 1980
Budd Hopkins: Missing Time and Intruders 1981; follow-up book in 1987
Carlos Díaz: photographs, luminous craft, and continuing contact claims 1981 onward; major international investigation and publicity in the 1990s
Trans-en-Provence and the physical-trace debate 8 January 1981; first police report 9 January
The Nancy or L’Amarante case 21 October 1982
The Hudson Valley boomerang and triangle reports 24 March 1983; wider wave approximately 1982–1986
Project Hessdalen begins systematic observation 3 June 1983; field campaign 21 January–26 February 1984
Majestic 12: receipt, publication and authenticity must be separated December 1984 claimed receipt; public circulation in 1987; FBI inquiry in 1988
Whitley Strieber’s claimed encounter and Communion 26 December 1985 claimed encounter; Communion published 1987
Dalnegorsk and the Height 611 material claims 29 January 1986 (reported event); broader international reporting by 1990
Brazil’s Noite Oficial dos OVNIs Night of 19–20 May 1986
Japan Airlines flight 1628 17 November 1986; public release 29 December; final FAA report 5 March 1987
Gulf Breeze and the Ed Walters photographs 11 November 1987 onward; model controversy public in June 1990
Ilkley Moor and the Philip Spencer account 1 December 1987
The Knowles family on the Nullarbor 20 January 1988, early morning
Bob Lazar’s reverse-engineering claims reach television 15 May 1989; named television interviews later in 1989
Voronezh: a TASS report was not scientific confirmation 27 September 1989 claimed encounter; TASS story 9 October
The Belgian wave, fighter response and Petit-Rechain photograph 29 November 1989 onward; F-16 incident 30–31 March 1990
Linda Napolitano, or Linda Cortile, and the Brooklyn Bridge narrative 30 November 1989 claimed event; public case development 1991–1992; Witnessed in 1996
Calvine: authentic archival connection does not identify the object 4 August 1990 claimed photograph date; surviving print published 13 August 2022
Doug Bower and Dave Chorley disclose crop-circle making 9 September 1991
The MIT abduction-study conference 13–17 June 1992; proceedings published in 1994
Peter Khoury and the Hair of the Alien claim Reported 23 July 1992; earlier encounter reported in July 1988
The A70 encounter: retain the unresolved date conflict August 1992 (day disputed)
The Cosford wave and the Cosmos 2238 rocket re-entry Night of 30–31 March 1993
Kelly Cahill: conscious memories and inaccessible supporting files Night of 7–8 August 1993; principal encounter early 8 August
The X-Files premieres 10 September 1993
John Mack’s Abduction and Harvard’s 1994–1995 review 1994–1995; review outcome announced 3 August 1995
The western Michigan lights and radar reports 8 March 1994
Meng Zhaoguo and the Phoenix Mountain narrative June 1994 (claimed initial sequence; precise days vary)
The Air Force Roswell study: 1994 findings and 1995 volume 8 September 1994 announcement; expanded volume published in 1995
Ariel School: reported close encounter, not an original abduction claim 16 September 1994
Trumbull County: the 1994 episode and 1998 tape recovery Night of 13–14 December 1994; main police sequence early 14 December
GAO’s Roswell records search and the limits of missing files 28 July 1995
Alien Autopsy and the later reconstruction admission 28 August 1995 Fox broadcast; staged reconstruction acknowledged in 2006
NIDS is established and Bigelow acquires Skinwalker Ranch October 1995 NIDS formation; September 1996 ranch purchase
Varginha: creature reports and an expanding capture narrative 20 January 1996; military inquiry in 1997
Phoenix Lights: keep the early formation and later flare display separate 13 March 1997: moving lights around 8 p.m.; stationary lights around 10 p.m.
Heaven’s Gate and the Hale–Bopp belief 26 March 1997 discovery; deaths occurred over preceding days
The Roswell Report: Case Closed 24 June 1997
Gerald Haines’s history of the CIA and UFOs 1997; major public attention in August
The Sturrock panel and its carefully qualified findings 29 September–4 October 1997; report published in 1998
COMETA: a private report with prominent contributors 16 July 1999
Project Condign completed; later disclosed under freedom-of-information law 2000; released publicly in May 2006
Southern Illinois police sightings January 5, 2000
Disclosure Project press conference May 9, 2001
Amy Rylance / Gundiah alleged abduction Night of October 4–5, 2001
Laboratory studies of memory and distress in abduction claimants August 2002; follow-up physiological study July 2004
Mexican Air Force infrared lights March 5, 2004; publicized May 2004
Nimitz / Tic Tac encounter November 14, 2004
GEIPAN replaces SEPRA 2005
O’Hare disc and cloud-hole report November 7, 2006
Kumburgaz videos and alleged visible occupants 2007–2009
GEIPAN opens its public information portal March 22, 2007
Channel Islands pilot observations April 23, 2007
Major UK Ministry of Defence UFO-file releases 2008–2013
Stephenville lights and military-flight controversy January 8, 2008
AAWSAP contract and the later AATIP naming controversy August–September 2008; programme activity into 2012
Giovanna Podda: alleged abductions and hybrid foetuses on television July 1, 2009 public broadcast; earlier claimed experiences
The Ministry of Defence closes its UFO desk November–December 2009
Hangzhou airport interruption and misleading UFO photographs July 7, 2010
Aguadilla infrared video April 26, 2013
East Coast Navy reports and the cube-inside-a-sphere account 2014–2015
Chilean Navy infrared object and apparent emissions November 11, 2014; public release January 2017
GIMBAL infrared recording January 2015
GOFAST recording and later motion-parallax explanation January 2015; public video release March 9, 2018
To The Stars Academy public launch October 11, 2017
Major reporting on Pentagon UFO-related work December 16, 2017
Navy standardizes UAP reporting March 2019; publicly reported April 23, 2019
Drone-like objects around Navy ships July 2019; major documentary reporting in 2021–2022
DoD officially releases FLIR, GIMBAL and GOFAST April 27, 2020
Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force established August 4, 2020 approval; August 14 announcement
ODNI preliminary UAP assessment: 144 reports June 25, 2021
The Galileo Project announced July 26, 2021
AOIMSG announced as successor arrangement to UAPTF November 23, 2021
First dedicated public congressional UFO hearing in more than fifty years May 17, 2022
All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office established July 15, 2022 directive; July 20 announcement
The 2022 UAP annual report is released in 2023 January 12, 2023
Chinese balloon and three later unidentified-object shootdowns February 4 and February 10–12, 2023
David Grusch makes retrieval-program allegations public June 5, 2023
Schumer–Rounds propose the UAP Disclosure Act July 14, 2023
Fravor, Graves and Grusch testify at the House UAP hearing July 26, 2023
Purported nonhuman bodies displayed at a Mexican congressional event September 12, 2023
NASA releases its independent UAP study and names a research director September 14, 2023
The separate FY2023 consolidated UAP annual report October 18, 2023
UAP records-collection provisions become law in a reduced form December 22, 2023
AARO publishes Historical Record Report, Volume I 8 March 2024
House hearing expands the public disclosure debate 13 November 2024
FY2024 annual UAP report released 14 November 2024
Senate hearing examines AARO and case analyses 19 November 2024
Federal response to Northeast drone and light reports November–December 2024; joint statement 16 December
AARO Go Fast resolution card: report date and public availability 6 February 2025 card date; publicly available by 10 February
House task force hears further UAP witnesses 9 September 2025
Trump announces plan to identify and release UFO files 19 February 2026
House task force requests specified UAP videos 31 March 2026
PURSUE Release 01 and public portal launch 8 May 2026
PURSUE Release 02 22 May 2026
PURSUE Release 03 12 June 2026
PURSUE Release 04 10 July 2026
FY2025 UAP report publicly acknowledged July 2026; publicly acknowledged 21 July
PURSUE Release 05 7 August 2026
PURSUE disclosure waiver announced 14 September 2026
PURSUE Release 06 18 September 2026