1938
Orson Wellss national broadcast of "War of the Worlds."
Many people thought that the broadcast was real and sent much of the American public into panic. Frightened listeners actually thought that an invasion of malevolent beings from the planet Mars was in progress.

1946
In May of 1946, reports of mysterious aerial objects over Sweden began to flood the offices of their government. In the initial press releases, the papers referred to these UFO's as "Ghost Rockets." The Swedish military became involved soon afterwards, and poured considerable resources into trying to find an earthly explanation for the sightings. With no satisfactory conclusion, the military went back to normal operations by the end of that year.

1947
June 24, 1947..A civilian pilot, Kenneth Arnold, reports seeing 9 flying saucers flying in formation at an altitude of 9200 feet and at almost 1700 mph. He estimated them to be 20 to 25 miles away from him and between 45 to 50 feet long. Based upon their visual description, and the way they seemed to skip through the air, he deemed the objects to look like flying saucers.
July 3-5, 1947 Roswell Crash, see the Roswell page.

1948
On January 22, 1948, a secret organization called "Project Sign" was formed to do an in-depth study of the UFO phenomenon. This highly-classified group set up its operations at Wright-Patterson A.F.B. in Ohio.
During the course of that year, reports of the existence of this organization were leaked to the public. On December the 16th, the U.S. Air Force announced that "Project Sign" had been terminated. The reason given for the dispersal was that the group hadn't found any viable evidence collaborating the existence of UFO's, and it was found to be no longer "cost effective."
In secrecy, the project continued, this time under the code-name "Project Grudge." This group was in the business of "proving" that the existence of UFO's was complete non-sense. Even as they gathered all pertinent evidence, they publicly ridiculed UFO witnesses.

1950
It was another big year for American UFO sightings. At the time, a popular official "cover story" was that the UFO sightings could be attributed to the military flight-testing an experimental craft called "The Flying Flapjack." The actual craft in question was slow and noisy, barely even resembling anything akin to the UFO's. The craft could more accurately been described as a "Flying Toad," than a flying saucer.
Soon the USAF contended that all of the reports of UFO's could be attributed to the "Flying Flapjack." This turned out to be a tactical mistake, as it was soon "leaked" that only one prototype of that craft was ever constructed, and it was on display in an American air museum.

1951
"Project Grudge" was changed into "Project Bluebook."

1952
By the end of 1952, the U.S. Air Force had received more than 1500 reports of UFO sightings, eclipsing any previous year. Even with all of the negative reporting concerning UFO's, more and more credible, and often prominent citizens were coming forth as witnesses. Some of these people were well-known, including some highly-respected astronomers.

1953
In January of that year, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States organized a special panel to discuss how to deal with the UFO problem. This forum was to last four days, but concluded after only 12 hours had elapsed. A few of the panels recommendations were as follows;

1. Special high-tech cameras should be used to monitor the airspace, in the search for UFO's.

2. APRO and CSI. This was the civilian counter-part of the organizations formed to investigate the extraterrestrial presence. They would be closely monitored by the military, as some of the civilian members had considerable influence over citizens.

3. Use a separate government body to verify that the UFO's were not the property and invention of the U.S. military.

4. Teach the American public to be able to identify normal natural and convention aerial objects. This would supposedly significantly lessen the number of UFO reports.

1965
July 3, 1965...Newspaper reports, In Antarctica: Argentinean, British and Chilean military and scientific personnel observed an UFO moving at a frightening speed doing incredible maneuvers. It was something solid, glowing blue-green and causing electromagnetic interference with their equipment. A lenticular shaped "flying saucer" was tracked by theodolite, binoculars and magneto graph tapes. Also, 10 color photographs were taken of the UFO.

1966
In April of that year, the government assembled an independent group of civilian scientists to start a new UFO investigation. A Dr. Edward Uhler consented to head the panel. Prior to this, Dr. Uhler had published some personal writings in which he concluded that there was no substance to the existence of UFO's. He went on to debunk the notion of life anywhere else in the cosmos. Many people became upset when learning of the Dr's contrary reports.

1967
On March 1st, Lt. General Hewitt T. Wheless, U.S.A.F., sent out notices to all branches of the military, warning of persons impersonating military officers, harassing private citizens and confiscating UFO photos.

1969
On January 17th of that year, "Project Bluebook" was shut down, claiming a lack of any credible evidence to justify the on-going existence of that program. The public dismissal of the notion of the existence of UFO's worked very well for them. Secretly, two more classified groups were formed to continue the pursuit of information concerning the phenomenon. These new projects were given the code names "Blue paper" and "Old new moon."

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