" The intelligence information agency of the 509th Bombardment radical at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today , that the field has make out into will power of a flying saucer . “So started theDaily Recordfront - page story66 age ago yesterday that launched a thousand UFO confederacy theories . Here ’s a spirit at seven other brushes humanity has had with UFOs .
1. Burritt College, Tennessee (1859)
Early risers at Tennessee ’s Burritt Collegespotted a pair of luminous objects(one like a “ small young moon , ” the other “ a tumid ace ” ) floating just north of the sunrise . Professor A.C. Carnes describe the sighting toScientific Americanwith skeptical surmise that the so - called UFO wasjust electricity :
Scientific Americanresponded with a conjecture that “ aloof cloud of moisture ” caused the sighting .
2. Aurora, Texas (1897)
“ The town that almost was n’t ” ( according to the bantam Texan townspeople ’s story book ) find oneself its call to fame on April 17 , 1897 , when townsfolkwatched a tardily - moving airship smash into a wind generator . Dallas Morning Newsreporter S.E. Haydon ( sometimes spell " Hayden”)chronicled the crash :
The Martian ( as it was deemed by an Army officer from neighbor metropolis Fort Worth ) was buried at the Aurora Cemetery , but not before townspeople gave the pilot program a proper funeral with “ Christian rites . ”
In a 1979Timearticle , however , at least one residentclaimed the whole thing was a put-on : " Hayden wrote it as a joke and to add interest to Aurora , " Etta Pegues , 86 , enjoin the magazine publisher .
3. Mount Rainier, Washington (1947)
Kenneth Arnold , an airman and businessman , ushered in what Ufologists consider the modern UFO ageon June 24 , 1947 . Flying over Washington ’s Cascade Mountains search for a missing aircraft , he rather chance several object which he told reporters face like “ a saucer would if you skipped it across the pee . ”
Arnold ’s sighting — he clocked the object ’ flight of stairs from Mt. Rainier to Mt. Adams at an unprecedented 1200 mi per time of day — was made immortal by newspaper reporter Bill Bequette , whocoined the name “ flying dish aerial ” in his story on theAssociated Pressnews conducting wire . By the end of July 1947 , the U.S. media report 800 report card of unidentified flying object .
4. Lubbock, Texas (1951)
On August 25 , 1951 , three professors from Texas Technological College — a geologist , a chemical substance technologist , and a petroleum engineer and department head — find 20 to 30 lights flying over one of the professor ' backyardsat 9 p.m.
Five nights subsequently , a Texas Tech newcomer named Carl Hart , Jr.snapped five shot of the same establishment of luminosity . A lieutenant inquire the “ Lubbock Lights , ” Edward J. Ruppelt , release a statement about the photos , declaring , “ the photos were never prove to be a hoax , but neither were they rise to be genuine . ” The official Air Force account ? They were birds — probably ducks or plovers — with street lights reflect off of them .
5. Washington, D.C. (1952)
At 11:40 p.m. on July 19 in the capital , air traffic controllers noted pale blips flitting on their radars . Fighter jets were dispatched to tail down the object , leading to sensationalist newspaper headline the next mean solar day . In theCedar Rapids Gazetteof Iowa , the front page screamed “ Saucers Swarm Over Capital . ”
6. Leary, Georgia (1969)
At a Lions Club in Leary , Georgia , two twelvemonth before he was elect as the Peach State ’s governor , Jimmy Carter describe watching a self - luminous , color - interchange object discharge across the sky . He’dmention it in a 1973 story , say , “ It did n’t have any solid substance to it , it was just a very peculiar - looking light source . None of us could understand what it was . "
Years later , Carter shied aside from his extraterrestrial sighting , saying that it was only a UFO because it was , in fact , unexplained , and that he have intercourse it could n’t be an exotic ship , thanks to his background in physics ( he was also an amateur uranologist ) . In a2007 interview withThe Skeptic ’s Guide to the Universe , he expose rumors that the CIA refused to give him info about UFO cover charge - ups .
