20th Century
| Date | Name | City, State | Country | Description | Sources | Hynek Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908-06-30 | Tunguska event | Podkamennaya Tunguska River | Russian Empire | The explosion is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5--10 kilometres (3--6 mi) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of metres across.The Tunguska event is the largest impact event over land in Earth's recent history. Impacts of similar size over remote ocean areas would most likely have gone unnoticed before the advent of global satellite monitoring in the 1960s and 1970s.UFO enthusiasts however class it as an exploding UFO. | 0 | |
| 1909 | Mystery Airships | Otago | New Zealand | Strange moving lights and some solid bodies in the sky were seen around Otago and elsewhere in New Zealand, and were reported to newspapers | ||
| 1917-08-13 09-13, 10-13 |
Miracle of the Sun | Fátima | Portugal | Thousands of people observed the sun gyrate and descend. This was later reinterpreted by Jacques Vallée, Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada as a possible UFO sighting, but not recognized as such due to cultural differences. | ||
| 1940s | The Foo Fighters | Small metallic spheres and colorful balls of light repeatedly spotted and occasionally photographed worldwide by bomber crews during World War II. | 1 | |||
| 1942 | Hopeh Incident | Hopeh | China | Photographs show what is reported to be a UFO. | 0 | |
| 1942-02-24 | Battle of Los Angeles | Los Angeles, California | United States | Unidentified aerial objects trigger the firing of thousands of anti-aircraft rounds and raise the wartime alert status. | 2 | |
| 1946 | The Ghost Rockets | Scandinavia | Numerous UFO sightings were reported over Scandinavia, causing the Swedish Defense Staff expressed concern. | 2 | ||
| 1946-05-18 | UFO-Memorial Ängelholm | Ängelholm Municipality | Sweden | Gösta Karlsson reports seeing a UFO and its alien passengers. A model of a flying saucer is now erected at the site. | 3 | |
| 1947-06-21 | Maury Island incident | Washington | United States | Harold A. Dahl reported that his dog was killed and his son was injured by encounters with UFOs. He also claimed that a witness was subsequently threatened by the Men in Black. | 2 | |
| 1947-06-24 | Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting | Washington | United States | The UFO sighting that sparked the name flying saucers. This sighting is considered as the start of the "Modern UFO era". | 1 | |
| 1947-06 | 1947 UFO sightings | Washington | United States | Several UFO sightings reported a few hours after the sighting of Kenneth Arnold. | 1 | |
| 1947-07-08 | Roswell UFO crash | Roswell, New Mexico | United States | United States Army Air Forces allegedly captures a crashed saucer and its alien occupants. | 3 | |
| 1948 | The Green Fireballs | United States | Objects were reported over several United States military bases; an official investigation followed. | 2 | ||
| 1948-01-07 | Thomas Mantell | Kentucky | United States | US Air Force sent a fighter pilot to investigate a UFO sighting over Fort Knox, Kentucky; the pilot was killed while pursuing the UFO. | 2 | |
| 1948-07-24 | Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter | Alabama | United States | Chiles and Whitted, American commercial pilots, reported that their aeroplane had nearly collided with a UFO | 1 | |
| 1948-10-01 | Gorman Dogfight | North Dakota | United States | A US Air Force pilot sighted and pursued a UFO for 27 minutes over Fargo, North Dakota. | 2 | |
| 1949 | Frank Scully | New Mexico | United States | An alleged retrieval of a grounded UFO and its occupants from a plateau in New Mexico | 3 | |
| 1950-04 | Varese Close Encounter | Varese | Italy | A factory worker sighted 3 Humanoids near a craft. One of the entities saw him and shot him with a beam, although it did not do any harm to the man. | 3 | |
| 1950-05 | Dr. Alexandro Botta UFO incident | United States | A famous controversial case wherein Doctor A. Botta claimed to have entered a crashed UFO over a plateau. | 3 | ||
| 1950 | Mariana UFO Incident | Great Falls, Montana | United States | The manager of Great Falls' pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The film was extensively analyzed by the US Air Force and several independent investigators. | 0 | |
| 1950-05-11 | McMinnville UFO photographs | McMinnville, Oregon | United States | Two farmers took pictures of a purported "flying saucer." These are among the best known UFO pictures, and continue to be analyzed and debated to this day. | 1 | |
| 1951-08-25 | Lubbock Lights | Lubbock, Texas | United States | Several Lights in V-Shaped formations were repeatedly spotted flying over the city. Witnesses included professors from Texas Tech University and photographed by a Texas Tech student. | 1 | |
| 1952-07-13 | 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident | Washington, D.C. | United States | A series of sightings in July 1952 accompanied radar contacts at three separate airports in the Washington area. The sightings made front page headlines around the nation, and ultimately lead to the formation of the Robertson Panel by the CIA. | 1 | |
| 1952-07-24 | Carson Sink UFO incident | Nevada | United States | Two pilots saw three unusual Delta-wing aircraft flying in a V-formation over Carson Sink. | 1 | |
| 1952-09-12 | The Flatwoods Monster | Flatwoods, West Virginia | United States | 6 local boys and a woman report seeing a UFO land, and saw a spade-headed creature near the landing site. | 3 | |
| 1953-05-21 | Prescott Sightings | Prescott, Arizona | United States | Three Prescott residents sight a total of eight craft at Del Rio Springs Creek, 20 miles north of Prescott. | 0 | |
| 1953-08-12 | Ellsworth UFO Case | Bismarck, North Dakota | United States | A UFO appearing as a red glowing light is witnessed by 45 people. The sighting takes place over a two night period. | 1 | |
| 1953-11-23 | The disappearance of Felix Moncla | Lake Superior | United States - Canada | U.S Air Force Pilot disappears while pursuing a UFO. | 2 | |
| 1953-12-16 | Kelly Johnson/Santa Barbara Channel Case | Seen from Agoura, California, and from aircraft flying over Pacific Ocean | United States | Legendary Lockheed aircraft engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, designer of the F-104, U-2, and SR-71, and his wife observed a huge Flying Wing over the Pacific from the ground in Agoura. Meanwhile, one of Johnson's flight test crews aboard an WV-2 (see EC-121) spotted the craft from Long Beach, California. USAF concluded these trained observers had seen a lenticular cloud, even though Johnson considered and ruled out that explanation. | 1 | |
| 1955-08-21 | Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter | Kentucky | United States | A group of strange, goblin-like creatures are reported to have attempted to attack a farm house. The family shot at them several times with little or no effect. | 3 | |
| 1957 | Antonio Villas Boas | São Francisco de Sales | Brazil | Antonio Villas Boas claimed to have been abducted and examined by aliens. He also claimed to have had sex with an alien woman while aboard the UFO. | ||
| 1957-05-03 | Edwards Air Force Base UFO | California | United States | Jack Gettys and James Bittick, who were filming base installations on behalf of Gordon Cooper, observed the landing and departure of a flying disk. Their film evidence was sent to Washington. | 1 | |
| 1957-05-20 | Milton Torres 1957 UFO Encounter | East Anglia | United Kingdom | US Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres reports that he was ordered to interecept and fire on a UFO displaying "very unusual flight patterns" over East Anglia. Ground radar operators had tracked the object for some time before Torres' plane was scrambled to intercept. | 2 | |
| 1957-09 | Ubatuba UFO Explosion | Ubatuba | Brazil | Two Fishermen watched a UFO crash and explosion, and retrieved fragments of the object. | 2 | |
| 1957-10 | Antonio Villas Boas Abduction | São Francisco de Sales | Brazil | One of the very first abduction claims. | 4 | |
| 1957-11-02 | Levelland UFO Case | Levelland, Texas | United States | Numerous people describe seeing a glowing, egg-shaped object and a cigar-shaped object which caused their vehicle's engines to shut down. | 2 | |
| 1957-11-04 | Fort Itaipu UFO Invasion | Praia Grande, São Paulo | Brazil | UFO attacks the sentinels of military unit. | 2 | |
| 1957-12 | Old-Saybrook UFO incident | Connecticut | United States | 3 separate sightings possibly describing the same cigar-shaped object, all of which whom sighted the occupants inside. | 3 | |
| 1958-01-16 | Trindade UFO Incident | Trindade Island | Brazil | 9 Separate sightings and 7 photos of UFO's were reported in the Trinidade Island during the meteorological and geological expeditions in the island. | 2 | |
| 1959 | Dyatlov Pass incident | Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic | Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | Mysterious deaths of experienced skiers in the Urals is believed to have been caused by "unidentified orange spheres" and an "unknown compelling force". | 2 | |
| 1959-06-26&27 | Father William Booth Gil sighting | Boianai | Papua New Guinea | Missionary and 25 independent witnesses saw a UFO being repaired by 4 human-like occupants. | 3 | |
| 1961-09-19 | Betty and Barney Hill abduction | New Hampshire | United States | The first widely publicized alien abduction experience. | 4 | |
| 1964-04-24 | Lonnie Zamora | Socorro, New Mexico | United States | Police officer Zamora reports a close encounter. | 3 | |
| 1964-09-04 | Donald Shrum | Cisco Grove, California | United States | The hunter got lost in a forest and took shelter in a tall tree. After flashing a flashlight in the air, a UFO approached the tree and 2 Humanoids and 1 Robot repeatedly attempted to climb the tree and abduct him, he stopped the entities by shooting them with arrows. | 3 | |
| 1965-03-09 | The Incident at Exeter | Exeter, New Hampshire | United States | Numerous reports of UFO's in Exeter, New Hampshire. | 2 | |
| 1965-12-09 | Kecksburg UFO incident | Kecksburg, Pennsylvania | United States | Mass sighting of a falling UFO, followed by a cordoning-off of the crash site. | 2 | |
| 1966 | The Mothman Prophecies | Point Pleasant, West Virginia | United States | A wave of reported sightings of a winged humanoid are connected to other mysterious events including sightings of UFOs. | 3? | |
| 1966-03 | Michigan Swamp Gas Sightings | Washtenaw County & Livingston County, Michigan | United States | Widely reported wave of sightings with a large number of law enforcement witnesses. Originally attributed to "swamp gas" by J. Allen Hynek. Watershed case that brought a spotlight of public doubt on "official" UFO investigations, instigated a congressional inquiry by then-Representative Gerald R. Ford. The sighting appears to be the "turning point" for Hynek. | 2 | |
| 1966-04-06 | Westall UFO | Clayton South, Victoria | Australia | A sighting reported by hundreds of people. Witnesses of "The Clayton Incident" still gather for reunions. | 0 | |
| 1966-04-17 | Portage County UFO chase | Ohio | United States | Several police officers pursue what they believe to be a UFO for 30 minutes. | 1 | |
| 1966-10-11 | The Grinning Man | Elizabeth, New Jersey | United States | A tall man with no nose or ears is reported in a neighborhood shortly after UFO sighting. | 3 | |
| 1966 | Indrid Cold | Point Pleasant, West Virginia | United States | The sightings of the "Grinning Man" in Point Pleasant. | 3 and 4 | |
| January 25, 1967 | Betty Andreasson Abduction | South Ashburnham, Massachusetts | United States | An alleged abduction of eleven people by pear-shaped-headed creatures from a red UFO. | 4 | |
| 1967-05-20 | Falcon Lake Incident | Falcon Lake, Manitoba | Canada | A man is reported to have been burned by the exhaust from a UFO. | 2 | |
| 1967-08-29 | Close encounter of Cussac | Cussac, Cantal | France | A young brother and sister claim to have witnessed a UFO and its occupants. | 3 | |
| 1967-09-01 | Snippy the Horse Mutilation | San Luis Valley, Colorado | United States | Widely considered to be the first unusual animal death to be related by its witnesses to UFOs and aliens. | 2 | |
| 1967-10-04 | Shag Harbour UFO Crash | Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia | Canada | A UFO was reported to have crashed into Shag Harbor. A Canadian naval search followed, and officially referred to the incident as a UFO crash. | 2 | |
| 1967-12-03 | Herbert Schirmer | Ashland, Nebraska | United States | Sergeant Herbert Schirmer claimed that he was abducted. | 4 | |
| 1968-08 | Buff Ledge Camp Abduction | Lake Champlain | United States | Two teenagers reported a sighting of a UFO over the Lake Champlain, and claimed to have experienced missing time. | 4 | |
| 1969 | Jimmy Carter UFO incident | Leary, Georgia | United States | Jimmy Carter's sighting. | 2 | |
| 1970-01-01 | Cowichan District Hospital UFO Incident | Cowichan | Canada | Several nurses and patients reported sighting a UFO with masked occupants. | 3 | |
| 1973-05 | The Judy Doraty Abduction | Texas | United States | Four people claimed to have been abducted from their car by aliens with egg-shaped heads, and to have witnessed a cattle mutilation. | 4 | |
| 1973-10 | Skylab 3 UFO Encounter | Outer Space | Outer Space | 1 | ||
| 1973-10 | The Alabama Close Encounter | Alabama | United States | A policeman describes seeing an alien which he described as being created out of "Tin Foil" | 3 | |
| 1973-10-11 | Pascagoula Abduction | Mississippi | United States | 2 men fishing on the Pascagoula River claimed to be abducted by strange looking humanoids. | 4 | |
| 1973-10-17 | Eglin Air Force Base Sighting | Florida | United States | An unidentified object was tracked by a Duke Field radar unit during the same time period, and within the same area, that 10 to 15 people observed four strange objects flying in formation between Milton, Florida, and Crestview, Florida, along Interstate 10, according to Eglin officials. Reports from the base indicated that a bright glowing ball of light could be seen travelling parallel with an Air Force C-130 aircraft but at a much higher altitude. | 2 | |
| 1974-01-23 | Berwyn Mountain UFO incident | Llandrillo, Merionethshire, North Wales | United Kingdom | An alleged UFO crash involving lights in the sky moments before a large impact shock. The cause of the incident was however soon revealed as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake. | 0 | |
| 1975-10-30 | Wurtsmith AFB | Near Oscoda, Michigan | United States | USAF security personnel reported an unidentified craft flying within exceptionally-secure Strategic Air Command airspace over a B-52 base housing nuclear weapons and delivery systems. An incoming KC-135 tanker was later ordered to commence pursuit over Lake Huron. The object or objects, last seen back over the base's weapons storage area, were never identified. | 1 | |
| 1975-11-05 | Travis Walton | Arizona | United States | Logger Travis Walton reports being abducted by aliens for five days. Walton's six workmates claimed to have witnessed the UFO at the start of his abduction. Walton described the event and its aftermath in the book The Walton Experience, which was dramatized in the film Fire in the Sky. | 4 | |
| 1976-06-22 | 1976 Canary Isles sightings | Canary Islands | Spain | Several lights and a spherical transparent blue craft, piloted by two beings was reported. | 3 | |
| 1976-08 | Stanford Abduction | Kentucky | United states | 3 Women were alleged to be abducted and harassed by aliens. | 4 | |
| 1976-08-20 | Allagash Abductions | Maine | United States | Four campers claimed to have been abducted by alien beings in the Allagash wilderness. | 4 | |
| 1976-09-19 | 1976 Tehran UFO incident | Tehran | Iran | A UFO disabled the electronic equipment of two F-4 interceptor aircraft, along with ground control equipment, an event thoroughly documented in the U.S. DIA report. The Iranian generals involved in the incident claimed the object was extraterrestrial. | 2 | |
| 1977 | Colares UFO flap | Colares | Brazil | A bewildering account of an island attacked by UFOs shooting harmful beams of radioactive light at the residents. | 2 | |
| 1978-05-10 | Emilcin Abduction | Emilcin | Poland | A man in Emilcin, Poland is said to have been abducted by "grays." There is now a memorial at the site. | 4 | |
| 1978-10-21 | Valentich Disappearance | Victoria | Australia | Contacting air traffic control, an Australian pilot reported seeing a UFO before his aircraft vanished. | 2 | |
| 1978-12-21 | Kaikoura lights | South Island | New Zealand | A series of sightings by a Safe Air freight plane; the airplane was escorted by strange lights that changed color and size. | 1 | |
| 1979-08-27 | Val Johnson Incident | Marshall County, Minnesota | United States | A deputy sheriff spotted a bright light which appeared to have collided with his patrol car and damaged it. The deputy also suffered temporary retinal damage from the "light". | 2 | |
| 1979-11-09 | Dechmont Woods Encounter | Livingston, Scotland | United Kingdom | A forester, Bob Taylor, was pulled by two spiked globes towards a UFO, which stood on a clearing. He lost consciousness and afterwards had trouble walking and speaking. He was also constantly thirsty for several days. | 4 | |
| 1979-11-11 | Manises UFO Incident | Valencia | Spain | Three large UFOs forced a commercial flight to make an emergency landing at Manises Airport. | 2 | |
| 1980-12-28 | Rendlesham-Woodbridge Incident | Suffolk, England | United Kingdom | A sighting by military personnel, which at first appeared to be a downed aircraft. | 2 | |
| 1980-12-29 | Cash-Landrum incident | New Caney, Texas | United States | A huge diamond-shaped UFO irradiates three witnesses, who all required treatment for radiation poisoning. The UFO was escorted by military helicopters. The victims have since sued the US Government. | 2 | |
| 1981-01-08 | Trans-en-Provence Case | Trans-en-Provence | France | Renato Nicolai, a farmer, saw an object which had the shape of two saucers, one inverted on top of the other. The UFO left physical evidence on the ground, in the form of mechanical pressure and burnt residue on the grass. | 2 | |
| 1981 | Hudson Valley Sightings | Hudson Valley | United States | A Wave of UFO cases in the Hudson Valley. | 2,3 and 4 | |
| 1983-06 | Copely Woods Encounter | Indiana | United States | Hundreds of Basketball-Sized ball of lights were sighted around a neighborhood, leaving unusually obvious marks behind. | 2 or 4 | |
| 1985 | Whitley Strieber | New York | United States | The abduction that took place in Whitley Strieber's Apartment. | 4 | |
| 1986-05-19 | São Paulo UFO sighting | São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | Brazilian Air Force detect and intercept UFOs on southeastern Brazil. As many as twenty UFOs were seen and tracked by ground radar and at least six airplanes during the night of May 19. | 2 | |
| 1986-11-17 | Japan Air Lines flight 1628 incident | Alaska | United States | A group of UFOs flew alongside Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 for 50 minutes above Northeastern Alaska. One of the objects trailing the Boeing 747 was detected by military radar. | 2 | |
| 1987-11-11 | Gulf Breeze UFO incident | Florida | United States | Ed Walters, a building contractor, saw a UFO and took photos of it. Walters continued to see UFOs for three weeks and he documented the sightings taking photos. Today most investigators think that the Walters' photos are fake, but other people in Gulf Breeze claimed UFO sightings during the same period. | 2 | |
| 1990-03-30 | Belgian UFO wave | Ans, Wallonia | Belgium | Mass sighting of large, silent, low-flying black triangles, which were tracked by multiple NATO radar and jet interceptors, and investigated by Belgium's military. Photographic evidence exists. | 1 | |
| 1991-09-15 | STS-48 incident | Space Shuttle Discovery while in orbit | Outer space | Video taken during mission STS-48 shows a flash of light and several objects, apparently flying in an artificial or controlled fashion. NASA explained them as ice particles reacting to engine jets. Philip C. Plait, in his book Bad Astronomy, agreed with NASA, but Jack Kasher proposed five arguments against them being ice particles. James Oberg disputed these, and Lan Fleming argued that the shuttle's exhaust plume as not the cause of the flash of light that preceded the objects' abrupt change of course. Mark J. Carlotto noted that one of the objects apparently had three lobes arranged in a triangular pattern. | 0 | |
| 1993-03-26 | Kelly Cahill | Dandenong | Australia | 8 Witnesses described seeing a large glowing UFO shortly after midnight. They also encountered 7 feet (2.1 m), void-colored aliens with glowing red eyes. | 5 | |
| 1994-06 | Meng Zhaoguo Incident | Wuchang | China | Meng claimed to have been abducted and forced to have sexual intercourse with a 10 feet (3.0 m), six fingered, female alien with braided leg fur. | 5 | |
| 1995-5-25 | America West Airlines Flight 564 | Bovina, Texas | United States | A 300–400 foot long cigar-shaped UFO with rotating strobe light followed an America West Boeing 757 | 2 | |
| 1996-01-20 | Varginha UFO incident | Varginha, Minas Gerais | Brazil | Multiple sightings and the alleged capture of an alien by the Brazilian military. | 3 | |
| 1996-10-05 | Westendorff UFO sighting | Pelotas | Brazil | Pilot observes a UFO emerge from a mother craft | 1 | |
| 1996-12-02 | STS-80 incidents | Space Shuttle Columbia while in orbit | Outer space | A video taken during mission STS-80 of the Space Shuttle Columbia was analyzed by Mark J. Carlotto. It included three unusual phenomena: two slow-moving circular objects; a strange rapidly moving burst of light near the Earth's surface; and a number of object traces near the shuttle. The first two may be shuttle debris and an unusual atmospheric phenomenon. An analysis of the object traces near the shuttle suggested they were not shuttle debris or meteors, though James Oberg deemed them to be nearby sunlit debris. | 2 | |
| 1997-03-13 | Phoenix Lights | Phoenix, Arizona | United States | Lights and craft of varying descriptions, most notably a V-shaped pattern, were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. | 1 |
Read more about this topic: List Of Reported UFO Sightings