The Tulli Papyrus
In 1953 Tiffany Thayer's Fortean magazine Doubt published what it called a translation of an Egyptian papyrus found among the papers of Alberto Tulli, a former director…
Pliny's Burning Shield, 100 BC
In Book II of his Natural History, written around AD 77, Pliny the Elder includes a short chapter on 'burning shields' (clipei ardentes) among the wonders of the sky. His…
Julius Obsequens' Book of Prodigies: Shields, Armies and a Golden Globe
Julius Obsequens, a Roman writer of the late 4th or early 5th century AD, compiled a year-by-year catalogue of the portents reported to the Roman state between 249 and 12…
Flaming Shields over Sigiburg, 776
The Royal Frankish Annals, the semi-official chronicle of Charlemagne's court, describe a sky event at the hilltop fortress of Sigiburg in 776, during the Saxon wars…
Byland Abbey 'Silver Disc', 1290
One of the most widely repeated 'medieval UFO' reports. In 1953 a letter to The Times of London claimed that a Latin manuscript recently found at Ampleforth Abbey…
Miracle of the Sun, Fátima, 1917
Through 1917, three shepherd children near the Portuguese village of Fátima, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, said a radiant lady was…
Roswell, New Mexico
In June 1947 ranch foreman Mac Brazel found a field near Corona strewn with foil, rubber, tape and light sticks. After hearing about the new 'flying disc' craze, he…
Kenneth Arnold, Mount Rainier
Flying his small CallAir plane from Chehalis toward Yakima, Idaho businessman Kenneth Arnold broke off a search for a missing Marine transport when a sharp flash caught…
The Twining Memo: 'Something Real'
Three months into the 1947 wave of flying disc reports, Army Air Forces intelligence asked Air Materiel Command at Wright Field for its considered view. The reply, signed…
Farmington 'Saucer Armada', New Mexico
On the morning of 17 March 1950 traffic slowed on Farmington's Main Street as crowds stood pointing at the sky. For about an hour, the Farmington Daily Times reported…
McMinnville (Trent) Photographs, Oregon
Evelyn Trent was feeding rabbits behind the family farmhouse outside Sheridan, Oregon, when she saw a silvery, metallic-looking disc gliding slowly toward the farm. She…
Great Falls (Mariana) Film, Montana
Checking the wind before an afternoon game at Great Falls' empty Legion Stadium, baseball manager Nick Mariana saw a flash and then two bright, silvery objects moving…
Tremonton Film, Utah
Driving north from Tremonton, Utah, on 2 July 1952 with his family, Navy Warrant Officer Delbert Newhouse, a veteran aerial photographer with more than a thousand hours…
Kelly–Hopkinsville Encounter, Kentucky
Around 7 pm on a hot Sunday, visitor Billy Ray Taylor came in from the well at the Sutton family's rural farmhouse near Kelly, Kentucky, saying he had seen a shining…
Ubatuba Magnesium Fragments
In mid-September 1957 the Rio de Janeiro society columnist Ibrahim Sued opened an envelope holding a letter and three small chips of grey metal. The writer, whose…
Trindade Island Photographs, Brazil
In January 1958 the Brazilian Navy training ship Almirante Saldanha was at remote Trindade Island, some 1,100 km off Brazil, supporting International Geophysical Year…
Father Gill, Boianai, Papua
Rev. William Gill, an Australian Anglican priest running the mission at Boianai in what was then the Territory of Papua, had written to a colleague on 26 June 1959 that…
Betty and Barney Hill
Driving home to Portsmouth from a holiday in Niagara Falls and Montreal, Betty and Barney Hill noticed a bright point of light that seemed to shadow their car down U.S…
Wanaque Reservoir, New Jersey
On the evening of 11 January 1966 the police radio in Wanaque, a Ramapo Mountains town around the Newark water supply reservoir, was flooded with about 30 calls from…
Tully Saucer Nest, Queensland
On a clear, hot morning, banana grower George Pedley was driving a tractor past Horseshoe Lagoon on Albert Pennisi's cane farm near Tully, in far north Queensland, when…
The Ummo Affair, Spain
On 6 February 1966 a Madrid man named José Luis Jordán Peña reported seeing a huge circular craft on three legs, its underside marked with a strange emblem: three…
Westall School, Melbourne
During morning break on Wednesday 6 April 1966, students on the oval at Westall High School in Melbourne's southeastern suburbs began shouting and pointing at a silvery…
Portage County Police Chase, Ohio
Before dawn on 17 April 1966, Portage County deputy Dale Spaur and auxiliary officer Wilbur 'Barney' Neff stopped to check an abandoned car on Route 224 near Ravenna…
Falcon Lake (Stefan Michalak)
Stefan Michalak, a Winnipeg industrial mechanic prospecting for quartz and silver in the Precambrian rock near Falcon Lake, said a clatter of geese made him look up to…
Langenburg Rings, Saskatchewan
Edwin Fuhr, 36, was swathing his rapeseed (canola) field north of Langenburg on a Sunday morning when he noticed something sitting just above the grass near a slough: a…
Kōfu Encounter, Japan
Two seven-year-old cousins were roller-skating near their housing estate in Kōfu at dusk when two glowing orange objects appeared overhead. Frightened when the lights…
Travis Walton Disappearance
At dusk on 5 November 1975 a seven-man thinning crew was driving out of the Turkey Springs contract area when, they said, they rounded a bend and saw a glowing…
Trans-en-Provence Landing Trace
Late on the afternoon of 8 January 1981, Renato Nicolaï was building a small concrete shelter for a water pump behind his house outside Trans-en-Provence when a faint…
Gulf Breeze Photographs
In November 1987 the weekly Gulf Breeze Sentinel printed Polaroid photographs of a glowing, many-windowed craft with a bright ring on its underside hovering over a quiet…
Ilkley Moor Photograph
Early on a foggy December morning, a retired police officer who later went by the name Philip Spencer set out across Ilkley Moor to visit his father-in-law, carrying a…
Ariel School, Ruwa
During the mid-morning break on 16 September 1994, pupils at Ariel School, a private primary school near Ruwa about 22 km south-east of Harare, said one or more silvery…
O'Hare Airport Sighting
During the late-afternoon rush on 7 November 2006, a United Airlines ramp worker pushing back Flight 446 to Charlotte spotted a dark, metallic-looking disc hovering low…
El Bosque Air Base Video, Chile
During the change-of-command ceremony for the Chilean Air Force commander at El Bosque Air Base in Santiago in November 2010, crowds filmed the acrobatic team and fighter…
USS Theodore Roosevelt Encounters (Gimbal and GoFast)
From 2014 into 2015, Navy fighter crews flying from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt off the US East Coast reported repeatedly picking up unknown objects on…
PURSUE: the Pentagon's first UAP file releases
On 8 May 2026 the Department of War launched WAR.GOV/UFO and published the first tranche of files under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP…