Note from Richard Dolan

Any timeline of UFOs or UAP could conceivably go for thousands of pages —

there are indeed that many well-attested sightings. What we have here is a
short but reliable guide that gives an interested reader a great overview of the
incredible history of UFO sightings.

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17,000 to 19,000 years ago

5,000 to 7,000 years ago

2000 BCE

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1504-1450 BCE
Possibly the earliest contemporary written account of an Unidentified Aerial
Phenomena/Unidentified Flying Object (UAP/UFO), from an Egyptian papyrus
during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III. It describes an intensely bright and
silent “circle of fire” that came from the sky, giving off a foul odor, and joined
by several other identical objects.

1000 BCE (approx.)

Early Sanskrit literature depictions of “Vimanas,” or chariots of the gods. These
objects sped through the air “as brilliant as the sun and made a noise like the
thunder of a storm.”

500 BCE
The “Wheel of Ezekiel” as depicted in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). “As I
looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living
creatures, one for each of the four of them…. like the gleaming of a chrysolite.”

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August 16, 1663
Remarkable UFO sighting from the village of Robozero, Russia, somewhat
north of Moscow. Fiery object approaches the village, hovers, maneuvers,
leaves, returns, and eventually leaves. Several people suffer burns, and the
pond has strange sediment deposited over it. Local priest writes to senior
clergy for advice. Letter found in a monastery in the early 19th century.

1742
UFO sighting in London. Educated
observer describes something like a
rocket that traversed the sky at slow
speed in a horizontal wavy S motion.
Described in the publication
Philosophical Transactions.

August 5, 1927
Fascinating aerial sighting in the Altai Himalaya region by philosopher and
explorer Nicholas Roerich and his party. In a diary entry, Roerich wrote: “We all
saw, in a direction from north to south, something big and shiny reflecting the
sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp this thing
changed in its direction from south to southwest. And we saw how it
disappeared in the intense blue sky.”

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June 13, 1933
Possible crash of a UFO near Maderno, Northern Italy with claims of alien
bodies recovered. It is claimed that a special secret commission was founded
by Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini, headed by Guglielmo Marconi, senator
Luigi Cozza, and astronomer Gino Cecchini. This was known as 'Gabinetto
RS/33' (Cabinet Research and Espionage/33).

1941-1945
“Foo fighters” seen by hundreds of witnesses throughout the Second World
War in both the European and Pacific theaters of operation. Some reports
included large swarms of objects, others of individual craft that could cause
operational interference in the engines of fighter aircraft. Exceptional
maneuverability both horizontally and vertically. No publicized conclusions to
this day.

March 1945
Aleutian Islands. Aboard the US
attack transport "Delarof," 14 sailors
saw a dark sphere rise out of the
ocean, follow a curved trajectory,
and fly away after circling their ship.

Spring-Summer 1946
The “ghost rockets” seen initially in
Sweden but then throughout much of
Europe, from the United Kingdom to
Greece, often maneuvering, sometimes
landing. Interest by the US intelligence
community. No explanation to this day.

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June 21, 1947
Multiple craft seen over Maury Island, Washington, including one that ejected
strange material into the water. Controversial case, investigated by FBI and
military.

June 24, 1947

Private pilot Kenneth Arnold sees “flying
saucers” in formation flying at estimated
speed of 1,200 mph near Mt. Ranier,
Washington. This starts the public
awareness of flying saucers and UFOs.

April 5, 1948
Well-publicized sighting by scientists at White Sands Proving Ground, New
Mexico. Disc-shaped UFO streaks across the daytime sky for several minutes
in a series of extraordinary maneuvers. Tracked by instrumentation at a speed
of 18,000 mph and measured to be over 100 feet in diameter.

Summer 1948
President Harry Truman begins to receive
quarterly briefings on UFOs from his Air Force
liaison, Colonel Robert B. Landry. This continued
through the end of his Presidency in January 1953.

September 1948
The US Air Force initiates Project Sign, the
precursor to the more famous Project Blue Book.
This begins a quiet analysis of UFO reports by the
military.
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December 5, 1948
Beginning of the baffling “green fireballs” phenomenon in New Mexico. These
are not fireballs and appear to be maneuvering objects under control. Great
concern by the classified community. Sightings continue into the early 1950s.

January 31, 1949

Important FBI memo indicating that
the matter of flying saucers is
considered “Top Secret” by the US
military.

February 11, 1949

Project Sign is “demoted” to Project
Grudge, essentially a quiet
debunking/ignoring effort by the Air
Force in relation to UFOs.

April 24, 1949

White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. Scientists and engineers see UFO,
“plainly visible” and “elliptical in shape and had a ‘whitish-silver color.’” Rapidly
drops its angle of elevation, then zooms upward out of sight. No sound.
Computed altitude of UFO when it was first seen: 56 miles. Computed speed:
over 25,000 mph. Size: 40 feet wide and 100 feet long. Very much like the Tic Tac
UFO of 2004, only larger.

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June 10, 1949
Another UFO sighting over White Sands Proving Ground during US Navy missile
testing. One missile flying at 2,000 feet per second (over 1,300 mph) was joined by
two small circular objects, one on each side. One object passed through the
missile’s exhaust, joined the other object, and together they accelerated upward,
leaving the missile behind.

1950
Publication of the first
books on flying saucers in
the US by authors Frank
Scully and Donald Keyhoe.

March-April 1952
Project Grudge is renamed Project Blue Book. It will keep this name until it is
shut down in 1969.

1952
Creation of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) by James and
Coral Lorenzen, a very important UFO group through the 1980s.

January 14-18, 1953

The CIA sponsored Robertson Panel, in which a
team of scientists evaluate UFO reports from the
US military. This classified panel primarily
recommended a policy of strict information
control concerning UFOs, especially through a
program of “debunking” via major media sources.

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1956
Formation of the National Investigative
Committee on Aerial Phenomena
(NICAP). This will be one of the most
important civilian-based UFO
organizations for many years.

April 24, 1964

Famous encounter by New Mexico
state trooper Lonnie Zamora and a
landed UFO near the town of Socorro.

1969
Creation of the Midwest UFO Network,
soon renamed Mutual UFO Network.
Within a few years, MUFON would be
the largest civilian-based UFO
organization in the world. The US Air
Force closes Project Blue Book, on the
recommendation of the Condon
Committee.

1974
Strengthening of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the United States.
This soon facilitated the release of thousands of pages of previously classified
government documentation on UFOs, often attest to the seriousness with which
the US military took the phenomenon.

November 1989-April 1990

Series of UFO sightings (often triangular) over Belgium and northwestern
Germany.
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March 13, 1997
The famous Phoenix Lights, which were actually two
distinct events: one during the daytime seen by
witnesses from Nevada down to past the Mexican border;
and the nighttime video recorded of a large circular ring
of stationary lights in the sky above the city of Phoenix.

May 9, 2001
The Disclosure Project, headed by Dr. Steven Greer,
holds a major event at the National Press Club in
Washington, DC. Many witnesses attesting to the
reality of UFOs, with significant press coverage.

November 14, 2004

Date of the now-famous Tic Tac UFO encounter by crew members of the USS.
Nimitz carrier group off the coast of southern California.

November 7, 2006
Unknown disc-shaped object seen by at least a dozen witnesses at Chicago’s
O’Hare International Airport. The object hovered in plain sight for between five
and fifteen minutes. It then accelerated up and away, punching a hole into a
cloud, through which blue sky was visible. The event was initially denied by
United Airlines and the FAA, but subsequent investigation forced them to admit
they were lying.

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January 8, 2008
Enormous UFO seen by many ground
witnesses in Stephenville, Texas, being
pursued by multiple F-16 fighter-interceptors.
This was initially denied by the Air Force, but it
subsequently admitted that F-16s were in the
air on a “training mission.” No
acknowledgement of the UFO, of course.

April 29, 2013

Commencement of the week-long
Citizens Hearings on UFOs at the
National Press Club in
Washington, DC, organized by
Steven Bassett. Six retired
members of US Congress and
Senate presided while over forty
researchers and witnesses gave
testimony to the reality of UFOs.

December 16, 2017

Two articles on UFOs appear in the New York Times, and another in Politico,
providing support for the reality of UFOs. The existence of the Pentagon’s UFO
program known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program
(AATIP) is revealed, as well as details of the Tic Tac UFO encounter of 2004. Luis
Elizondo and Christopher Mellon facilitate the release via FOIA of three
controversial videos from the Navy: the Tic Tac, the Gimbal, and the Go-Fast
videos. This initiates a significant change in how establishment media treats the
matter of UFOs — or as they are increasingly called — UAP.
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January 2018
FOIA request releases the titles of 38
scientific papers written under the
auspices of AATIP on a range of fringe
scientific concepts related to UFOs,
including “space-time metric
engineering,” “traversable wormholes,”
and more.
May 2018
Journalist George Knapp reveals an
analysis by Bigelow Advanced Aerospace
Systems (BAAS) while on contract to the
AATIP program. This analysis not only
supports the reality of UFO/UAP but
provides much technical speculation as
to the science and capabilities of these
objects.

June 2018
Dr. Hal Puthoff gives a remarkable lecture
at the Society for Scientific Exploration on
the alleged “metamaterial.” He states that
its manufacture is a mystery and highly
advanced, but that it apparently is an
“outstanding waveguide” for high
frequency electromagnetic radiation in
the terahertz range. The unstated
implication is that it could conceivably
provide antigravitic application.

September 2019
The Pentagon finally acknowledges the authenticity of the three UAP/UFO videos
released at the end of 2017 by Elizondo and Mellon.

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July 20, 2020
New York Times publishes another
article on UFOs, this time coming very
close to acknowledging the reality of
UFO crash retrievals.

May 2021
Significant coverage of UAP/UFO in
major media, including noteworthy
pieces by the New Yorker magazine and
the television show 60 Minutes.

June 25, 2021

Release of the long-awaited UAP Task
Force report to the US Senate
Intelligence Committee.

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