A short timeline of modern UFO and UAP history
Condensed. 18 landmarks, one line each. The handbook carries the full research timeline.
- June 24, 1947
Kenneth Arnold, Mount Rainier, 1947
A businessman-pilot, nine bright objects, and the headline that named an era.
- June-July 1947; revived 1978-1997
Roswell, July 1947: the Disc That Became a Balloon
An Army press release, a one-day retraction, thirty years of silence, and the story that built a town.
- 1948 (alleged) / 1949-1956 (hoax and exposure)
Aztec, 1948: the Crashed-Saucer Con
A newspaper columnist, two oilmen, a three-dollar gadget, and the first 'little men' story that was a documented fraud.
- 1947 to 1969
Project Blue Book, 1952 to 1969
The U.S. Air Force spent two decades logging 12,618 reports, then closed the files on December 17, 1969.
- 1947 to 1969
UFO report peak years (1952, 1957, 1966)
The Air Force's own year-by-year count shows three surges and a collapse, and almost none of the unknowns survive scrutiny.
- Aug 21-22, 1955
Kelly-Hopkinsville: The Night of the Goblins
August 1955: a Kentucky farmhouse, a lot of gunfire, and the origin of the 'little green men' that were never green.
- Oct 15-16, 1957 (story told Feb 1958)
Antônio Villas Boas: The Farmer Who Said He Was Taken
A Brazilian plowman, a night field, and the strange story that put physical contact into the abduction genre before Betty and Barney Hill.
- Sept 19-20, 1961
Betty and Barney Hill
A New Hampshire couple, a missing night, and the story that taught America how an alien abduction was supposed to sound.
- Oct 11, 1973
Pascagoula: Two Shipyard Workers and a Hidden Tape Recorder
October 1973, a river pier, and the sheriff who left two frightened men alone in a room with a microphone.
- Nov 5-11, 1975
Travis Walton: Five Days in the Arizona Forest
A logging crew, a blinding light, a missing man, and a case still fought over by believers, polygraphers and former friends.
- Dec 26-28, 1980
Rendlesham Forest: Britain's Roswell
Three nights, two US airbases, one deputy commander with a tape recorder, and a story that kept growing for forty years.
- 1982 to 2026 (main events 1989-1990)
Bob Lazar and the Discs at S-4
A Las Vegas photo-shop owner told a TV reporter he reverse-engineered nine flying saucers; thirty-seven years later nobody has verified the job, and nobody has fully explained the story.
- Sept 16, 1994
Ariel School: Sixty-Two Children and a Field in Ruwa
September 1994, a playground in Zimbabwe, and the children who said they met beings in black.
- 1947 (claimed) / 1997 (book)
Corso's The Day After Roswell: Alien Tech in Your Pocket
A retired Army colonel's 1997 book says Roswell wreckage seeded modern electronics, and the Senator who wrote its foreword disagreed.
- November 14, 2004 (video public 2017; Pentagon release April 27, 2020)
USS Nimitz, 2004: the Tic Tac encounter
Two Navy pilots, a radar-watching cruiser, a grainy infrared clip, and a dispute over what it proves.
- 2007/2008-2012; public Dec. 16, 2017
AAWSAP, AATIP and the 38 DIRDs
A Senate-backed Pentagon contract, a billionaire contractor, 38 physics papers, and a fight over what the program actually was.
- December 2017 to October 4, 2026 (as of)
The U.S. government and UAP, December 2017 to October 4, 2026
From a New York Times scoop to Congress's records fight to the 2026 PURSUE file drops, with the 'as of' date stamped on the page.
- June 2023 - October 2026
Grusch Under Oath: the July 26, 2023 Hearing and Everything After
A former intelligence officer tells Congress there is a crash-retrieval program, declines to name it, and the Pentagon says it can find no trace.
Each entry is a full, sourced case file or briefing in the handbook, with its claims labeled. Only the sample case file is free.
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