January 1952 / T053
The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization is founded
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin; later other U.S. bases
Witness account
Coral and Jim Lorenzen established APRO as a civilian organization collecting and investigating UFO reports. It developed international contacts and became an important conduit for accounts from Latin America and for reports involving alleged occupants. Its publications help date the circulation of cases whose events were said to have happened months or years earlier.
Public record
The organization’s newsletters, correspondence and case collections are historical sources; the National UFO Historical Records Center describes the surviving institutional collection.