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…
Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire (2 Kings 2)
In the Second Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah knows in advance that he is about to be 'taken up'. He and his disciple Elisha walk from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and…
Ezekiel's Wheels (Ezekiel 1)
The Book of Ezekiel opens with the most famous 'flying machine' passage in the Bible. A priest deported to Babylonia, Ezekiel says he was standing among the exiles by the…
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…
Fiery Dragons over Northumbria, 793
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's entry for 793 begins with dread. That year terrifying omens came over the land of the Northumbrians: great sheets of light rushing through the…
Gangwon Province Objects, Joseon Korea, 1609
The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty preserve an official dispatch from Yi Hyeong-uk, governor of Gangwon Province, entered in the Gwanghaegun Diary in the 9th lunar month of…
USS Supply 'Remarkable Meteors', North Pacific, 1904
Early on 28 February 1904 the US Navy stores ship Supply was steaming from Guam toward San Francisco when the officer of the deck, Acting Boatswain Frank Garvey, saw…
Great Meteor Procession, 1913
At about nine o'clock on the evening of 9 February 1913, people across Canada watched something no one had a word for. A long procession of perhaps 40 to 60 bright…
Foo Fighters, 1944-1945
In the last winter of the Second World War, American night-fighter crews flying over the Rhine began reporting glowing balls of light that joined them in the dark. On 27…
Ghost Rockets over Sweden, 1946
In the summer of 1946, a year after Germany's V-weapons fell silent, Swedes began reporting 'ghost rockets': fast rocket- or cigar-shaped objects, sometimes winged…
Chiles–Whitted Encounter, Alabama
In the small hours of 24 July 1948 an Eastern Air Lines DC-3 bound from Houston to Atlanta was cruising near Montgomery when Capt. Clarence Chiles saw a dull red glow…
Washington, D.C. Radar–Visual Flap
Just before midnight on Saturday 19 July 1952, controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport picked up seven unknown blips south-southwest of the city, moving…
Flatwoods Monster, West Virginia
At dusk on 12 September 1952, boys playing in Flatwoods, West Virginia, saw a bright object streak across the sky and seem to come down on a hilltop farm. With local…
Kecksburg, Pennsylvania
Just before dusk on 9 December 1965, a brilliant fireball streaked across the sky from Michigan and Ontario toward Pennsylvania, dropping reports of hot debris, grass…
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…