UFO Sightings in The United States - 1947

1947

• The Maury Island incident is an early modern UFO encounter incident that happened on June 21, 1947. It allegedly took place shortly after the sighting of the original flying saucers by Kenneth Arnold. It is also one of the earliest reported instances of an alleged encounter with so-called "Men in black suits." Opinions remain divided regarding the case and whether it was genuine or a hoax.

• On June 24, 1947, Arnold said he saw nine unusual objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier, Washington while he was searching for a missing military aircraft in his CallAir A-2. He described the objects as almost blindingly bright when they reflected the sun's rays; their flight as "erratic" ("like the tail of a Chinese kite") and flying at "tremendous speed." Arnold's story was widely carried by the Associated Press and other news outlets, and is usually credited as the catalyst for modern UFO interest, though many less-publicized UFO incidents preceded it.

• On July 7, 1947, Vernon Baird, a pilot of a commercial photographic plane, was mapping the region between Helena and Yellowstone Park. Baird claimed that he was at 32,000 feet when he saw a flying disc. He took an evasive action and the disc appeared to split into two sections and lose altitude over the Tobacco Root Mountains of western Montana. Bozeman's base looked for the UFO on the ground but found nothing. The next day Baird's boss announced that the story was a hoax.

• The Roswell UFO Incident involved the recovery of materials near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947 which have since become the subject of intense speculation and research. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened, and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The United States military maintains that what was recovered was a top-secret research balloon that had crashed. However, many UFO proponents believe the wreckage was of a crashed alien craft and that the military covered up the craft's recovery. The incident has evolved into a recognized and referenced pop culture phenomenon, and for some, Roswell is synonymous with the term UFO, and likely ranks as the most famous alleged UFO incident.