Documented sightings from the 1940s, sorted from most recent.
A disc-shaped object repeatedly appeared over a searchlight in Norwood, Ohio, tracked by Army instruments and witnessed by hundreds over several months.
Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh observed a formation of yellowish-green rectangular lights moving silently across the New Mexico sky, baffling one of history's most accomplished astronomical observers.
USAF pilot George Gorman engaged in a 27-minute aerial dogfight with a maneuvering light over Fargo that outperformed his P-51 Mustang.
Two Eastern Airlines pilots observed a cigar-shaped craft with glowing windows pass their DC-3 at close range, prompting Project Sign's ET conclusion.
A Soviet pilot was scrambled to intercept a silver object over the USSR's most secret missile base; the object reportedly disabled his aircraft with a beam.
Captain Thomas Mantell died pursuing a large metallic UFO over Kentucky, becoming the first pilot death attributed to a UFO chase.
The US military initially announced recovery of a 'flying disc' near Roswell, NM before retracting the statement, creating the most famous UFO controversy in history.
Just ten days after Kenneth Arnold's sighting, airline pilots on United Flight 105 observed multiple disc-shaped objects over Idaho, marking the first professional pilot UFO report of the modern era.
Private pilot Kenneth Arnold's sighting of nine unusual objects near Mount Rainier launched the modern UFO era and coined the term 'flying saucers.'
Over 800 UFO sightings in just two weeks during the summer of 1947 created a nationwide phenomenon that launched government investigations and permanently changed American culture.
Three days before the Kenneth Arnold sighting, harbor patrolman Harold Dahl reported six doughnut-shaped craft ejecting molten material near Puget Sound. Two investigating officers later died in a plane crash.
Over 2,000 reports of rocket-shaped objects over Scandinavia prompted a Swedish military investigation that concluded 80% were unexplained.
Mysterious luminous spheres paced Allied bomber crews over Europe and the Pacific during WWII, feared as Axis weapons but never explained.
The US military fired over 1,400 anti-aircraft rounds at unidentified objects over LA weeks after Pearl Harbor, with a famous searchlight photo capturing the event.