Timeline of Ufology

This is a timeline of key events in the ostensible study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Note that ufology is not an academic subject and what constitutes the "study" of UFOs can vary from serious inquiry into the social, political, and religious phenomena which surround the belief in UFOs to pseudoscientific pronouncements and the fraudulent claims of hoaxers.

20th century

• 1919 - American writer Charles Fort published The Book of the Damned.
• 1950 - American aviator Donald Keyhoe published the book The Flying Saucers Are Real.
• 1950 - The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence organized the Flying Saucer Working Party, an investigative committee for UFOs. They released a report in the following year which attributed UFO sightings to misidentifications, hoaxes or delusions.
• 1952 - The United States Air Force started Project Blue Book, which was headquartered at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
• 1953 - The Robertson Panel, headed by American mathematician and physicist Howard P. Robertson, was formed to investigate the wave of UFO sightings reported to the Project Blue Book in 1952.
• 1956 - The US-based civilian research group, National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena, was founded by Thomas Townsend Brown.
• 1960 - Jacques Vallee published the book Challenge to science: the UFO enigma, where he discussed the extraterrestrial hypothesis of UFOs.
• 1960 - Captain Edward J. Ruppelt published The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, where he used the term UFO.
• 1962 - The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence started the UFO desk, a telephone hotline for collecting UFO sighting reports.
• 1966 - J. Allen Hynek testified at the Congressional hearing of the House Armed Services Committee that there is no evidence of extraterrestrial visitors.
• 1967 - The Falcon Lake Incident occurred, followed by investigations from various Canadian and US governmental agencies.
• 1969 - The Condon Committee released the report titled Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects.
• 1969 - The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) was established by Allen R. Utke, Walter H. Andrus Jr., John F. Schuessler, and others. The first MUFON annual conference was held in Peoria, Illinois in the following year.
• 1972 - J. Allen Hynek published his book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry, where he described the three types of close encounters between humans and UFOs.
• 1973 - Carl Sagan and Thornton Page edited and published the book UFO's—A Scientific Debate, a collection of exchanges and articles derived from the namesake symposium organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1969.
• 1973 - The Center for UFO Studies was founded by American astronomer J. Allen Hynek.
• 1974 - The documentary film UFOs: Past, Present, and Future directed by Ray Rivas was released. It received a nomination for the 33rd Golden Globe Awards.
• 1974 - The US-based National UFO Reporting Center was established in Davenport, Washington by Robert Gribble.
• 1975 - Jacques Vallee published his book The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race, which popularized the concept of invisible college in ufology.
• 1977 - J. Allen Hynek published The Hynek UFO Report.
• 1977 - The French Space Agency formed the research unit GEPAN, later renamed to GEIPAN (French: Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés) for the investigation of the UFO phenomena. The first director of the unit was Claude Poher.
• 1978 - Italy experienced a wave of UFO sightings that were reported in news outlets. The Italian Air Force was orderd by the prime minister Giulio Andreotti to start documenting UFO cases.
• 1979 - The Center for UFO Studies started publishing the Journal of UFO Studies.
• 1979 - American astronomer Allan Hendry published The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating and Reporting UFO Sightings.
• 1986 - Wendelle C. Stevens and August Roberts published two volumes of UFO Photographs Around the World.
• 1994 - Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack published his book Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens.
• 1999 - The non-profit organization COMETA released the COMETA report, titled Les OVNI et la Défense: à quoi doit-on se préparer? (UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?).

2000s

• 2002 April - David Clarke and Andy Roberts published their book Out of the Shadows: UFOs, the Establishment and Official Cover-Up, where they claimed that the belief in UFOs is a form of mass hysteria.
• 2004 May - A former head of GEIPAN Jean-Jacques Velasco and journalist Nicolas Montigiani published their book Ovnis: L'Evidence (UFOs: The Evidence).
• 2007 March - The French agency GEIPAN publishes its UFO database online.
• 2007 - The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was established by the United States Department of Defense. The information was only made public in 2017.
• 2008 January - Robert L. Hastings published the first edition of his work UFOs & Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites.
• 2008 May - UK National Archives started releasing past files on UFO investigations.
• 2009 December - The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence closed its UFO desk.

2010s

• 2010 January - Richard M. Dolan and Bryce Zabel published their book A.D. After Disclosure: The People's Guide to Life After Contact.
• 2010 August - Leslie Kean pubslished her book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record.
• 2010 September - A press conference involving first-hand UFO witnesses was organized by Leslie Kean and others at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C..
• 2012 July - Michael D. Swords and Robert Powell published the book UFOs and Governments: A Historical Inquiry.
• 2014 April - Nick Pope, Jim Penniston, and John Burroughs published the book Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the World's Best-Documented UFO Incident.
• 2014 July - The first edition of the CAIPAN (Collecte et l’Analyse des Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, or Collection and Analysis of Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena) international conference organized by the French Space Agency and GEIPAN took place in Paris.
• 2015 January - John Greenewald Jr. released over 130,000 pages of declassified United States Air Force documents relating to UFOs.
• 2015 October - The UFODATA project was announced.
• 2017 October - To the Stars Academy was founded by Jim Semivan, Harold E. Puthoff, and Tom DeLonge.
• 2017 December - The New York Times pubslished an article written by Leslie Kean, Ralph Blumenthal, and Helene Cooper in the front page of to expose the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.
• 2019 February - Religious scholar Diana Walsh Pasulka published her book American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology.
• 2019 May - The History Channel aired the first season of its documentary series Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation, featuring Luis Elizondo as a main narrator and Tom DeLonge as one of the producers. In one episode, Elizondo introduced to the public the five observables of UFOs (or UAPs).

2020 - 2025

• 2020 - Enigma Labs was founded by Alex Smith to collect UFO data.
• 2020 April - Andrew McGrillen started That UFO Podcast on YouTube, which featured interviews and attracted a growing audience in the genre.
• 2020 August - The United States Department of Defense announced the establishment of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. The move also called for the use of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena instead of UFOs.
• 2020 October - James Fox released the documentary film The Phenomenon.
• 2021 May - The International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research (ICER) was launched.
• 2021 June - The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force released the report titled Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.
• 2021 July - The Galileo Project was announced in a press conference and astrophysicist Avi Loeb became its director.
• 2021 October - Australian journalist Ross Coulthart published his book In Plain Sight: A fascinating investigation into UFOs and impossible science.
• 2022 March - The Canadian government released 500 pages of UFO sightings report for the past 20 years.
• 2022 May - United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation held the first public hearing on UFOs in 50 years. Scott Bray and Ronald Moultrie testified in the hearing.
• 2022 July - The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established within the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense. Sean M. Kirkpatrick was named its first director.
• 2022 September - The Canadian Office of the Chief Science Advisor launched the Sky Canada Project.
• 2022 December - The United States Department of Defense suggested to change the name of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena to account for unidentified submerged objects and trans-medium objects.
• 2023 January - The National Geographic channel aired the docuseries UFOs: Investigating the Unknown.
• 2023 February - The Society for UAP Studies held its inaugural symposium.
• 2023 April - The Scientific Coalition For UAP Studies released its first report, UAP Pattern Recognition Study 1945-1975 US Military Atomic Warfare Complex.
• 2023 June - American former intelligence officer and whistleblower David Grusch was interviewed by Ross Coulthart on NewsNation, where he claimed the existence of decades-long crash retrieval and reverse engineering program organized by the U.S. federal government.
• 2023 July - A congressional hearing on UAP was organized where David Fravor, Ryan Graves, and David Grusch testified their claims.
• 2023 August - The Sol Foundation was established in California. It held its inaugural symposium in November, 2023.
• 2023 November - American journalist Garrett Graff published his book UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There.
• 2023 December - The nonprofit organization UAPx released its first results on its expedition in 2021.
• 2024 January - Limina: The Journal of UAP Studies from the Society for UAP Studies published its first issue.
• 2024 March - AARO released the Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, stating that no verifiable evidence that UAP sightings represented extraterrestrial activities.
• 2024 March - The first UAP conference was held at the European Parliament.
• 2024 June - A parliamentary group was established in Japan for UAP investigations with Yasukazu Hamada as its head.
• 2024 June - American historian Greg Eghigian published his book After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon.
• 2024 August - Luis Elizondo published his memoir Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs.
• 2024 October - US National Archives released the records of UFO investigations in the period of 1948 to 1968.
• 2024 November - Subcommittees of the House Oversight Committee held a hearing under the title Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth. The experts who testified include Timothy Gallaudet, Luis Elizondo, Michael Shellenberger, and Mike Gold.

See also

• Investigation of UFO reports by the United States government
• List of investigations of UFOs by governments
• UFO conspiracy theories

Further reading

General information

• Hynek, J. Allen (1966-10-21). "UFO's Merit Scientific Study". Science. 154 (3747): 329–329. doi:10.1126/science.154.3747.329. ISSN 0036-8075.
• "What we know from decades of UFO government investigations". National Geographic. 2024-11-15. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
• "UFOs: Top 10 Sightings & Timeline | HistoryExtra". www.historyextra.com. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "Enigma Labs Library".
• Pilkington, Mark (2010-09-01). "Mark Pilkington's top 10 books about UFOs". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "UFO Research Guide". public1.nhhcaws.local. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
• Paton, Callum (2019-04-17). "What Are the Most Credible UFO Sightings?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
• Kirkpatrick, Sean. "We Need to Investigate UFOs—But Without the Distraction of Conspiracy Theories". Scientific American. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "Major Cities Chiefs Association's guide on UAPs" (PDF). 2024.

UFO/UAP databases

• "Data Bank | NUFORC - Latest UFO Sightings". nuforc.org. 2021-09-06. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "UFOCAT from Center for UFO Studies". Center for UFO Studies. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "Recherche de cas | GEIPAN". www.geipan.fr. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "Enigma Labs UFO Sightings".
• "SKYWATCH UAP Sightings". skywatch-uap-sigthings.vercel.app. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "UFODATA Project". www.ufodata.net. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "UAP Records from AARO". www.aaro.mil. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "The UK National Archives - UFO files at The National Archives | The National Archives". Archives Media Player. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• "Records Related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) at the US National Archives". National Archives. 2024-02-15. Retrieved 2024-11-16.

UFO/UAP astronomy

• Watters, Wesley Andrés; Loeb, Abraham; Laukien, Frank; Cloete, Richard; Delacroix, Alex; Dobroshinsky, Sergei; Horvath, Benjamin; Kelderman, Ezra; Little, Sarah; Masson, Eric; Mead, Andrew; Randall, Mitch; Schultz, Forrest; Szenher, Matthew; Vervelidou, Foteini (2023). "The Scientific Investigation of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Using Multimodal Ground-Based Observatories". Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation. 12 (1). arXiv:2305.18566. Bibcode:2023JAI....1240006W. doi:10.1142/S2251171723400068. ISSN 2251-1717.
• Lembeck, Michael F.; Heimerdinger, Dan; Graves, Ryan; Snow, Marty; Reali, Peter (2023-06-12). "Detection, Characterization, and Evaluation of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena". American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi:10.2514/6.2023-4322. ISBN 978-1-62410-704-7.
• Teodorani, Massimo (2024-01-31). "Investigating UAP Events Using Astronomical Techniques". Limina - The Journal of UAP Studies. 1 (1). doi:10.59661/001c.92684. ISSN 2995-0384.
• Ailleris, Philippe (2024-01-31). "Exploring Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Through Instrumented Field Studies: Historical Insights, Current Challenges, and Future Directions". Limina - The Journal of UAP Studies. 1 (1). doi:10.59661/001c.92682. ISSN 2995-0384.
• Villarroel, Beatriz; Krisciunas, Kevin (2024-10-17), A Civilian Astronomer's Guide to UAP Research, arXiv:2411.02401, retrieved 2024-11-16

UFO/UAP encounters

• Spanos, Nicholas P.; Cross, Patricia A.; Dickson, Kirby; DuBreuil, Susan C. (1993). "Close encounters: An examination of UFO experiences". Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 102 (4): 624–632. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.102.4.624. ISSN 1939-1846.
• Dewan, William J. (2006). ""A Saucerful of Secrets": An Interdisciplinary Analysis of UFO Experiences". The Journal of American Folklore. 119 (472): 184–202. ISSN 0021-8715.
• French, C; Santomauro, J; Hamilton, V; Fox, R; Thalbourne, M (2008). "Psychological aspects of the alien contact experience". Cortex. 44 (10): 1387–1395. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2007.11.011.
• Bryan, C. D. B. (2011-11-02). Close Encounters Of The Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-80316-0.
• Appelle, Stuart; Lynn, Steven Jay; Newman, Leonard; Malaktaris, Anne (2014), Cardeña, Etzel; Lynn, Steven Jay; Krippner, Stanley (eds.), "Alien abduction experiences.", Varieties of anomalous experience: Examining the scientific evidence (2nd ed.)., Washington: American Psychological Association, pp. 213–240, doi:10.1037/14258-008, ISBN 978-1-4338-1529-4, retrieved 2024-11-16
• "Close encounters of the psychological kind". BPS. 2015. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Pasulka, D. W. (2023-11-07). Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-250-87957-8.

UFO/UAP policy

• Wendt, Alexander; Duvall, Raymond (2008). "Sovereignty and the UFO". Political Theory. 36 (4): 607–633. doi:10.1177/0090591708317902. ISSN 0090-5917.
• Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (2021-04-30). "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
• Pope, Nick (2023). "UFOs: A National Security Issue".
• Olmo, Julio Plaza del (2024). "The UAP land in the European Parliament".