60 Eerie Declassified UFO Photos From The '60s and '70s
By Sarah Norman | October 24, 2023
As The Aliens Approached, The Two Men Froze
UFOs sightings happen fairly frequently (at least according to UFO sighting witnesses), but in the 1960s and '70s, alien crafts were spotted almost every week throughout America and the rest of the Western world. The rise of inexpensive photography equipment helped witnesses make a better case for their sightings, and often these photos were able to provide evidence that an eyewitness testimony just can’t offer. But in many cases of UFO encounters witnesses are either too awestruck to take action, or technology just doesn’t work. These are just a few of the most exciting stories of UFO sightings from the 20th century.
If you're in a vehicle on the ground and you see a UFO cruising across the sky, it's unlikely that you will actually catch it unless it lands or crashes. That fact didn’t stop two Portage County (Ohio) police officers from giving chase to a UFO on the morning of April 17, 1966. When the officers saw a metallic, disc shaped object in the sky, they engaged in hot pursuit the craft, only to find themselves in Pennsylvania about 30 minutes later. Even thought the craft left them in the dust, their story was backed up by a series of other officers and civilians who also gave chase.
The Solway Firth Spaceman
In October 1973, Cincinnati, Ohio, came under invasion from a glowing object that no one could explain. That evening, a circular white flying craft emitting a yellow glow was seen flying about the trees near Mount Washington, frightening everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods. During the sighting, police reported large-scale equipment and communication failures, and even Governor John J. Gilligan claims that he was caught in a vertical beam of light; fortunately for everyone involved he wasn’t abducted by whomever (or whatever) was on the ship.
In 1973, A UFO Threatened To Abduct The Governor Of Ohio
Co-workers Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed to have been abducted while fishing near Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1973. They were approached by an oval-shaped craft that was levitating about two feet off the ground and making a whirring sound. The friends claimed that three creatures emerged from the ship, then brought them into it, where they were immobilized by the odd-looking entities.
Both of the men lost complete track of time while in the craft, but after a hypnotic regression session Hickson recalled spending about 20 minutes in the craft before he and Parker were brought back to the river’s edge.
UFOs Don't Care If The Cops Chase Them
Who Are The Plejarens, And What Do They Want From Billy Meier?
Billy Meier is a strange figure in the world of UFOlogy. Throughout his life Meier claims to have spotted a series of unidentified crafts, while also coming into contact with the entities who pilot the ships.
In the '60s and '70s, Meier presented a series of photos, metal samples, and sound recordings to back up his claims that he was in regular contact with an alien race known as the Plejarens. Meier’s photos very clearly show large metal discs and otherworldly craft floating about the Swiss countryside -- truly remarkable images, but are they authentic?
Why Do Aliens Keep Visiting Billy Meier?
On March 28, 1965 locals of Kew, England witnessed one of the most fascinating phenomenas in UFO lore - the black triangles. According to the Ministry of Defense, a group of witnesses saw nine or ten triangular objects hovering near Richmond, North Yorkshire, England at about 9:30pm. The ships gave off an orange glow and exited a humming sound. One witness reports that when the triangles came in close proximity to his car, the car sputtered and died. Every witness says that the crafts hovered for a few minutes before taking off vertically, unlike any plane they’d ever seen. Many witnesses later manifested strange red marks across their bodies.
What Were Those Hovering Black Triangles?
In August 1976, Maine’s Allagash Wilderness Waterway became an inadvertent UFO hot spot when four college students spotted an alien craft streaking across the sky. After reporting the ship to a park ranger the students continued on their way.
Years later, one of the students began having violent seizures along with memories of being loaded onto a craft before receiving a medical examination. It’s unclear how long the friends were aboard the ship -- if indeed they ever were -- but the sighting and long-delayed recollection is fascinating nonetheless.
They Didn't Even Know They'd Been Abducted
UFOs sightings happen fairly frequently (at least according to UFO sighting witnesses), but in the 1960s and '70s, alien crafts were spotted almost every week throughout America and the rest of the Western world. The rise of inexpensive photography equipment helped witnesses make a better case for their sightings, and often these photos were able to provide evidence that an eyewitness testimony just can’t offer. But in many cases of UFO encounters witnesses are either too awestruck to take action, or technology just doesn’t work. These are just a few of the most exciting stories of UFO sightings from the 20th century.
While this isn’t technically a UFO sighting, it’s still a super weird incident. In 1964, fireman and amateur photographer Jim Templeton took a series of photos of his five-year-old daughter while they spent the day at Burgh Marsh.
He claims that there was no one else there with them, but the photos seem to tell a disturbingly different story. A figure wearing a white jumpsuit is clearly visible, standing behind his daughter. Templeton insists that he didn’t notice the entity until he received the photos, and despite various theories to what the creature could be, no one’s ever been able to debunk the Spaceman.
Bow Hunter Has A Run-in With Extra-terrestrials
While hunting near Cisco Grove, California Donald Shrum was separated from his friends and ended up lost in the forest in the middle of the night. While trying to find his way home he spotted a white light that looked like it was swerving around the trees. Initially, he believed the light belonged to to a helicopter, but it became apparent that whatever he was watching wasn’t of this world.
Shrum claims that at this point he hid in a tree and attempted to hide from multiple beings that he believes came from either the ship operating the light, or the light itself. The hunter says that he fought off the creatures with a bow and arrow until the morning when the beings finally left him alone.
We Will Never Know What Was Chasing Frederick Valentich In 1978
The disappearance of Frederick Valentich is a little different from many of the UFO encounters you’ll read about. On October 21, 1978, Frederick Valentich radioed into Melbourne, Australia air traffic control to let them know he was being shadowed by a mysterious craft that floated about 1,000 feet above him. He mentioned that it was moving unusually, and that he planned to land at King Island.
But Valentich never landed. After making his call to air traffic control, the Cessna 182 he was piloting was never seen again. After his disappearance, authorities noted a rise in UFO sightings.
What Was The Flying Saucer Spotted Over Rhode Island In 1967?
Harold Trudel had been lucky -- or unlucky -- enough to witness UFOs on a few occasions in his life. On June 10, 1967 he finally set out to properly document his encounters. Around noon at East Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Trudel spotted a metallic, dome-shaped object hovering above a set of power lines. Trudel snapped a few shots of the UFO, which has the look of the “classic” pie pan craft that many of think of when we think about invaders from Mars.
1973, A Family Sees Three Glowing Objects And Stops To Investigate...
First, a report from January 1973, just outside of Coos Bay, Oregon, a military veteran and his family were driving along the coast when they caught sight of a collection strange objects. In total, the family saw three “yellowish” glowing objects that hovered above the ground. When the family got out of their car to inspect the spot where they saw the crafts they found a large, sparkling gem on the ground.
Let's be clear: UFOs are real. A UFO, strictly speaking, is simply an unidentified flying object. If it's in the air and you don't know what it is -- congratulations, you've seen a UFO. But are all the UFOs that have been seen over the years, and particularly in the '60s and '70s, actually signs of alien life visiting (or perhaps planning to invade) the Earth? That's a different question. There are also the stories of abduction, of medical examination by strange life forms on board space-faring craft. These tales describe phenomena that indicate extra-terrestrial life -- but are they true? The stories vary in the details, and contradict rather than confirm each other, and not all narrators are reliable, leaving many skeptics to conclude that it was all just another pop-culture hoax. In the end, we're all left with a handful of pictures that are somewhat convincing and a whole lot of first-person accounts that cannot be verified.
What's believable becomes a very personal question. To paraphrase David Duchovny's Agent Fox Mulder from The X-Files, some people "want to believe" -- and others don't. But one thing is certain: the UFO phenomenon boomed in the '60s and '70s. We were coming out of the postwar era, when technology and military power were a constant source of amazement for Americans -- after all, the Manhattan Project seemed to have unlocked the very keys to the universe in splitting the atom. Science fiction was reaching its peak as a literary genre, and coming to be a familiar element in popular TV shows and movies. And in fact we had proof that space travel was possible -- our own mission to the moon (assuming it indeed happened -- but that's a story for another time). The notion of aliens visiting the earth, descending in saucers or mysterious cigar-shaped crafts, was perhaps not all that far-fetched given all the astonishing gee-whizzery Americans had witnessed in their own lifetimes.
It's hard to dismiss such a large number of accounts -- these people saw something. What it was -- whether a spacecraft, Russian spy plane, secret U.S. weaponry, or the ever-popular (and slightly insulting) "weather balloon" -- is up for debate. It's a long-running, entertaining debate, and one which we might never solve in our lifetimes. We'll kick it off with a standard tale -- weird but not outlandish, memorable but not life-altering. This first one came from the Pacific Northwest, but the rest span all over the country.
Tucson, 1976: Lightning Strikes A Strange Metallic Disc In The Sky
Arizona is a low key hot bed of UFO activity, and while sightings have ebbed and flowed over the years, the '70s was essentially a boom time for UFO sightings in the Grand Canyon state. One night in July 1976 a rain storm descended on Tucson. In the middle of the storm a large metallic disc illuminated by a series of lights along the bottom of the craft was visible in the rain. Onlookers said that lighting struck the craft multiple times, but had no effect.
Wait, Extra-Terrestrials Watched The Moon Landing In 1969?
Were humans were the only beings watching the Apollo 11 Moon landing? A recent viral news story claimed otherwise. According to reports that showed up on numerous and somewhat legitimate websites (including Britain's Daily Star tabloid), the Apollo 11 astronauts saw signs of alien life, shapes that were perhaps spacecraft, while journeying to or roaming the surface of moon on July 20, 1969.
The story seems to have been either completely or partially fabricated, and depends on some extrapolations of Aldrin quotes that the astronaut himself says are inaccurate. For a breakdown of this bit of fake news, read the Washington Post story "No, Buzz Aldrin Didn't See A UFO On His Way To The Moon."
The UFO That Foiled The Iranian Air Force
While most UFO sightings happen in the good old U.S. of A., spacecraft and extra-terrestrials have been spotted all over the world. On September 19, 1976, a UFO was spotted over Tehran, Iran, and everyone freaked out. When an investigating F-4 jet locked onto the craft, its instruments went haywire and the pilot had to return to base.
A second F-4 experienced a similar situation, and despite a total equipment blackout both pilots were fine. The military attempted to explain the UFO as a rogue meteor, but that's a questionable theory -- how could a meteor float in the sky?
A cigar-shaped Venusian interplanetary carrier photographed through a 6" telescope over Palomar Gardens, California
In 1946, a meteor shower brought about a sighting that would spark decades of debate and speculation. George Adamski, accompanied by a group of friends, claimed to have witnessed a massive cigar-shaped "mother ship" at the Palomar Gardens campground on October 9th. In the following year, Adamski presented a photograph of the alleged "mother ship" crossing in front of the moon over Palomar Gardens. As the summer of 1947 ushered in the first widely-publicized UFO sightings in the United States, Adamski upped the ante with a bold assertion: that he had observed 184 UFOs in a single evening pass over Palomar Gardens. Two years later, in 1949, Adamski began delivering UFO lectures to civic groups and organizations in Southern California. These lectures were known for their outlandish claims, including Adamski's assertion that the government and science had confirmed the existence of UFOs via radar tracking of 700-foot-long spacecraft on the far side of the moon.
This is one of three photos of a supposed UFO taken by Rex Heflin, on Aug. 3, 1965, near Santa Ana, Calif.
This is just one of the "Heflin Photos," a series of snapshots taken in Santa Ana, California in 1965. These four photos taken from what looks like the inside of a car are some of the most well regarded photos of UFOs from the middle of the 20th century. Heflin described the floating objects moving like "a gyroscope when losing its stability."
What Happened To The UFO -- And What Parachuted Out Of It?
On January 5, 1965, Max Beran claims that he saw a UFO over the skies of Cambridgeshire, England. The “curved object” was visible in the middle of the day, and Beran claims that it fell about a mile or two away from the city center, and that it looked as if something with a parachute exited the craft. Beran called the local authorities, who sent a car out to investigate, but they didn’t find anything in the area. Despite the lack of physical evidence, the Ministry of Defense still filed a report on Beran, which may imply that there must be more to the story than civilians are permitted to know.
In 1975, A UFO Stole Six Days Of Travis Walton's Life
The Travis Walton UFO sighting and abduction is a story that’s so intense that it serves as the basis for the film Fire In The Sky -- but the real story is even stranger than what Hollywood dreamed up.
On November 5, 1975, 22-year-old Walton and his logging crew were working in the woods of Turkey Springs, Arizona when they saw a bright light moving behind a hill. Upon inspection they saw a large silverly disc hovering above a clearing. While the rest of the crew stayed in their truck, Walton approached the craft and was struck by a beam of light and knocked to the ground. The logging crew fled the scene, and Walton's whereabouts were unknown for almost a week. He claims that his time away was spent in the disc-like craft and at a hangar, containing other similar craft. Walton said that he was examined and sedated by beings, some of whom were alien in appearance and others who seemed to be humans. After being put under sedation, Walton awoke outside a gas station in Heber, Arizona, thinking the episode had taken just a few hours. Despite persistent accusations that he’d made the whole thing up, Walton’s story has never changed.
A picture of a flying saucer photographed by farmer Paul Trent, over his farm in Minnville, Ore., on May 11, 1950
The McMinnville UFO photographs, which have become a celebrated piece of extraterrestrial evidence, were captured by a farming couple, Paul and Evelyn Trent, in McMinnville, Oregon on May 11, 1950. The images were later featured in Life magazine and newspapers across the country, cementing their place in UFO history. Despite being labeled as a hoax by skeptics, many ufologists maintain that the photographs depict a genuine, three-dimensional, unidentified flying object in the sky.
According to an account by astronomer William K. Hartmann, Evelyn Trent was walking back to her farmhouse on the evening of May 11th after feeding her rabbits when she spotted a slow-moving, metallic disk-shaped object heading her way from the northeast. She called out to her husband Paul, who was inside the house, and he too witnessed the object. Paul quickly grabbed his camera and managed to snap two photographs before the object abruptly flew away towards the west. Paul's father also claimed to have seen the object briefly before it disappeared. Despite the ongoing debate over their authenticity, the McMinnville UFO photographs continue to be a source of fascination and intrigue for both believers and skeptics alike.
Was This Couple Abducted By Aliens?
The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction is one of the strangest UFO sightings to come out of the 20th century, and it’s the first widely reported abduction case in the United States. It’s believed that this case set off a rash of sightings, which are seen by skeptics as copycat reports. However, UFOlogists believe that the Hills were simply brave enough to be the first to come forward with their story.
On the night of September 19, 1961, the married couple Betty and Barney Hill were driving near Portsmouth, New Hampshire when they encountered a bright light in the sky around 10:30 pm. Initially they believed they were seeing a meteor shower or another form of interstellar phenomena, but when the light changed direction and began moving vertically they realized that this was no shooting star. The Hills moved in for a closer look and, through a pair of binoculars, they saw an actual craft with different-colored lights.
The Hills attempted to drive away but the craft gave chase, and quickly caught up to them before hovering over their car and passing in front of them. The Hills got out of their car for another look, and that’s when Barney saw a group of figures dressed in black watching the couple from the portholes of the ship. The Hills tried to flee the scene, but the ship gave chase. At that point, the couple felt a tingling sensation and blacked out.
The Hills regained consciousness a short time later, almost 40 miles away from where they initially started. Later, they recalled being taken onto the ship and examined by extra-terrestrial creatures. Both Betty and Barney Hill’s story held up under hypnotic regression sessions, making this one of the most groundbreaking and important UFO sightings ever.
1966: A Mind-Boggling Airshow Over Michigan Lasts An Hour
In 1966, Washtenaw County, Michigan, got its own visit from little green men when local deputies caught sight of a series of objects tearing through the sky in the darkness of the pre-dawn morning. The officers reportedly saw four ships maneuvering through the sky, dipping, turning, and climbing like no plane ever has. The officers maintain that the ships were visible for a little over an hour before going out of view.
The Mystery Of Stonehenge. Stonehenge... New Jersey
North Bergen, New Jersey played host to an incredibly strange UFO sighting in 1975 when a series of strange lights were seen coming from the North Hudson County Park, a spot that sits across the street from an apartment building that was nicknamed “Stonehenge” by locals. Onlookers made their way to the park to see what was up, and reported that they saw a craft briefly touch down in the grass before taking off again. At least one observer swears he saw diminutive creatures descend from the craft on a ladder and collect soil samples before scurrying back up. Since then, the park has been the site of numerous strange supernatural occurrences.
Visitors To Our Planet Left The Future President Spooked
It turns out that even U.S. presidents see UFOs. In 1969, Jimmy Carter was a former Georgia State Senator who was gearing up to run for governor in the 1970 election. Carter was in Leary, Georgia, about to give a speech at a Lions Club when he saw a strange object in the sky. Carter said that the object was initially bright white, but it quickly began to change color from blue, to red, and then again to white.
Carter claims that about 20 people witnessed the incident, and that the craft was essentially clear, and that it didn’t look to have a specific mass. After the ship disappeared Carter and the rest of the witnesses were at a loss to explain what they had seen.
The Mysterious Flaming UFO That Vanished
On December 9, 1965 Kecksburg, Pennsylvania played host to one of the most intense unidentified flying objects seen in America. That evening, a huge fireball was seen over Kecksburg, and the phenomenon was reported as far as Winsdor, Canada. Witnesses and UFOlogists believed that the fireball was caused by a downed extra terrestrial craft, although the U.S. government claimed otherwise.
Even after decades of research into the incident, it’s still unclear what caused the fireball. NASA has theorized that the fireball came from a Russian satellite, but that’s never actually been proven.
The Red-Hot Pyramid That Landed In Michigan
Dexter, Michigan is an out-of-the-way hamlet that keeps to itself, but on March 20, 1966, it hosted some visitors from out of this world. That morning, the sheriff’s office was bombarded with reports of a UFO landing in the woods outside of Dexter Township. One caller reported that the ship was shaped like a pyramid and that it was engulfed in white light.
Interestingly, the ship seemed to be made of something like coral, but it was impossible to see through because of the “heat waves” coming off of it. The reports were so serious that United States Air Force catalogued the accounts in its long-running UFO investigations, known as "Project Blue Book."
Taken: Betty Andreasson Spent Hours Abducted
The phenomenon of "time loss" occurs when time moves ahead faster than an individual's perception of it -- an extreme literary example would be Rip Van Winkle laying down for a nap and waking up 20 years later -- and it's a frequent and terrifying component of alien abduction stories. Betty Andreasson suffered this fate on the night of January 25, 1967. That evening she was with her family when the lights of their home flickered on and off before a red beam passed through the kitchen window and proceeded to explored the house.
Shortly afterward, five creatures entered the house and put her family into a trance. She was put on their craft and physically examined before being brought home by the aliens. She couldn’t recall being gone for an extended period of time, but her family clocked her missing at around four hours.
Hard To Dismiss: The UFO Thousands Of People Saw In 1976
On Spain’s Canary Islands, a bright light was observed on the night of June 22, 1976. That evening, thousands of people reportedly watched as a transparent sphere with two tall creatures standing inside floated about the island for close to twenty minutes. It’s been hotly debated whether or not there were entities inside the object -- and at this point, we'll never know -- but the large number of witnesses makes the story difficult to dismiss.
They Thought It Was Venus. Then It Came Closer
On August 7, 1968 a group of campers at Buff Ledge Camp in Vermont saw what they thought was Venus burning brightly in the sky. However, it was quickly apparent that whatever they saw was a craft moving towards them. The onlookers watched as a light descended from the sky, and three smaller lights separated form the larger one. The lights zoomed around the sky; then one UFO hovered above the onlookers, shot straight up into the sky, and returned only to drop into the lake.
A few minutes later, the craft emerged from the water and once again hovered above the onlookers. Multiple people claim that the next thing they remember is lying with their backs down on the dock, looking up at a completely empty sky.
The U.S. Air Force Couldn't Explain This UFO Visit
In 1961, the U.S. military had a bases in small towns all over the country -- this was the height of the Cold War, after all. Vermont’s sleepy Lyndonville Air Force Station, a radar base located atop East Mountain, held 175 men, and had its own recreation facility and bowling alley. One evening, an object hovered in the sky about the base for nearly 20 minutes. Its believed that this object is the same one from the Betty and Barney Hill case, although this claim can’t be verified. The base shut down in 1963.
When UFOs Terrorize The Highway
On a late night patrol on September 3, 1965, a police officer stopped to take a look at a car on the side of Route 101, outside of Exeter, New Hampshire. The woman in the car said she’d just been chased by a craft with flashing red lights. There’s no proof of her claim, but hours after her report a young man stopped into the Exeter police department to report that he witnessed five bright lights floating over near where he was hitchhiking on Route 150.
One might expect the police to send the kid on his way, but two officers accompanied the hitchhiker to the spot where he saw the lights, and substantiated his claims. No explanation has ever been offered for the case.
The Silver Disc That Menaced Catalina Island
Catalina Island is a lovely little spot for a weekend trip, but on April 15, 1966 it became California’s own little Roswell. That morning, a silver disc flew across the sky at around 170 mph. There’s footage of the craft, but it’s unstable and incredibly grainy, two qualities that can leave skeptical viewers of purported UFO video footage unconvinced.
Two years later, a set of lights were seen in the sky in the exact spot as the 1966 sighting, but this time around there was no grainy or shaky footage -- there was simply no footage at all, which is even less convincing.
The Failed UFO Abduction That Left Its Mark On Robert Taylor
While walking his dog near the M8 motorway on November 9, 1979, Robert Taylor witnessed a flying dome with an exoskeleton resembling sandpaper cruising about the Dechmont Woods in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. Taylor says that the dome tried, unsuccessfully, to drag him aboard a larger ship outfitted with propellers, which left tears in his clothing and scrape marks on his skin. Taylor passed out after the incident, and when he woke up the ships were gone.
First, You See The Mothman. Then Tragedy Strikes
No one knows exactly what the Mothman sightings were. Some people believe that the titular Mothman is a cryptozoological creature (or "cryptid") that acted as a harbinger of doom throughout West Virginia in 1966 and 1967, while some UFOlogists believe that the Mothman was less a creature and more of a ship that was observing devastating events in the northeast. Whatever it was, the Mothman was sighted near a TNT plant in Point Pleasant, West Virginia by multiple onlookers. Whenever the Mothman was sighted, it would be followed by reports of a mysterious man or men in black, as well as malfunctioning phones and television sets.
Whether the Mothman was a creature or some kind of ship is still up for debate. However, the mysterious thing was never seen again after the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant West Virginia on December 15, 1967 – an incident that claimed the lives of over 50 people.
Intruders From Above On The Road To Piedmont, Missouri
In 1973, a high school basketball coach, two of his team managers and three of his players were returning home to Piedmont, Missouri after a game when they noticed a shaft of light beaming from the sky. It was weird, but they didn’t think much of it. Then, a few miles later, the light flicked on again; this time the coach stopped his car and got on foot to check it out.
The coach claimed that he couldn’t tell what shape or size the craft was because of the darkness, but he saw four lights that he assumed were portholes. He said that the craft floated quietly for about 10 minutes before noiselessly disappearing.
The Strange Sight That's Haunted New Zealand For 40 Years
Just about every state has an area where a set of eerie lights can be seen floating in the distance, but New Zealand’s Kaikoura mountain range has played host to a series of UFO sightings that’s ongoing to this day. The lights began arriving on December 21, 1978, when the five white flashing lights appeared before a group of onlookers. Some of the lights were described as about the size of house, while the rest were much smaller.
A few days later, a television crew made its way to the mountains, where they recorded proof of the lights while filming interviews with the some of the people who saw the initial visitation.
1967: Eleven People See A UFO Disappear Into A Lake
On October 4, 1967, residents of Shag Harbor, a fishing village in Nova Scotia, were alarmed when their town became the site of physical contact of a UFO. Or so they thought. At around 11:20 pm, an unidentified craft crashed into the waters of Shag Harbor, with at least 11 people witnessing the event.
The onlookers claimed that the ship made a low whistle and a whoosh before breaking through the waves. The Canadian military got involved almost immediately, and although they conducted a search and rescue mission, they never found the alien craft.
Scanned By A UFO: A Helicopter Pilot's Unnerving Encounter
On October 18, 1973 in Richland County, Ohio, a military helicopter pilot saw a UFO hovering over Mansfield and the Charles Mill Lake. In his report, the pilot claims that he saw a brilliant, but odd light moving towards his helicopter on a collision course. The pilot immediately evaded the craft, and as soon as he was out of the way the orb of light came to a dead stop above him. The craft shone a greenish light on the helicopter, and scanned it for a moment before buzzing off never to be seen again.
An Egg From Space Visited Earth -- 14 Years Before Mork From Ork
New Mexico has long been a hallowed sight of UFO sightings -- and it's not just Roswell. On April 24, 1964, police officer Lonnie Zamora was patrolling when he caught sight of a flame tearing through the sky. Initially, he believed that he was seeing the tail end of an explosion, but as he got closer he realized that his suspicions were wildly inaccurate.
As Zamora drove towards the spot where he saw flames, he found what looked to be an overturned car. The officer claimed that, upon closer inspection, it looked like a large egg sitting on top of a series of slender legs. There were two figures in white jumpsuits outside the craft who noticed Zamora watching them, but paid him no attention.
When Zamora approached the craft, the entities disappeared (presumably inside the craft, but Zamora didn’t actually see where they went) and the ship began to make a low humming sound before levitating and taking off into the sky.
1979: The UFO That Nearly Killed Sheriff Val Johnson
In 1979, Marshall County (Minnesota) Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was patrolling near Stephen, Minnesota, close to 2 am when he noticed a bright light cutting through the clouds and speeding towards his car. Johnson claims that the light collided with his car, smashing the windshield and his headlights.
Johnson says that collision knocked him out for 39 minutes. Moreover, it froze his car’s clock for 14 minutes. After being medically examined, a doctor noted that Johnson had burns across his body and retinal damage due to the light.
In Wales, Two People Saw The Same UFO -- Months Apart
Broad Haven, Wales, seems an unlikely magnet for UFOs, but in 1977 a series of sightings earned the area the nickname “The Dyfed Triangle.” But one sighting stands out, that of ten-year-old David Davies, who claims that he saw a silver, cigar-shaped craft hovering above Broad Haven. He says the ship was only visible for a few seconds before disappearing behind a set of trees.
A few months later, the same craft was seen again by a local hotel owner, who claimed that she saw two humanoid creatures inside. In her report, the woman said that she could feel immense heat coming off the craft, and when she later examined the area beneath where the craft had been floating, much of the ground was charred.
That Time Half Of New Jersey Saw A UFO
On January 11, 1966, about 6:30 P.M., everything was fine in the Pompton Lakes area of New Jersey. That's when Wanaque patrolman Joseph Cisco got one of the weirdest calls of his life. The dispatcher told him that people were reporting a glowing light in his area that was likely a fire. Then another call came from dispatch reporting that people all over Jersey were reporting the same vision of a flying saucer over the Wanaque Reservoir. Before Cisco could find out what was happening, his radio went haywire, and then the thing was gone.
Another Sighting From New Jersey's Year Of The UFO, 1966
On the night of January 12, 1966 Sgt. David Sisco observed a classic, noiseless UFO floating directly above his car. He noted that it moved faster than a jet as it glided across Stonetown. Rather than fly away towards the horizon, Sisco noted that it went straight into the sky. His report was corroborated by multiple locals who claimed that the ship rocked back and forth in the sky for a few minutes before shooting into space without a moment’s hesitation.
Why Were UFOs So Interested In New Jersey's Wanaque Reservoir?
There must be something about the water in the Wanaque Resevoir in New Jersey because it’s a hot bed for extra terrestrial activity. On October 10, 1966, ten months after a widely-reported UFO sighting over the reservoir, a saucer-like object the size of a car was spotted zig-zagging through a residential neighborhood on its way to the reservoir. A few different people in the neighborhood called the police, but one cop was already in pursuit.
Sgt. Ben Thompson was on a night patrol when he caught a glimpse of the craft streaking through the sky. He later described the craft as being bright white, and although he followed it for a ways, it soon disappeared out of sight.
Eight Years Later, A UFO Returns To Pompton Lakes, New Jersey
In January 1974, a sailor on leave from the Navy was heading to his home near Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, which had seen a rash of UFO activity in 1966. He saw lights in the sky above Townsend Road -- and knew immediately that these weren’t just any old flood lights. They were arranged in a strange pattern: one large light in the center, with a smaller light on either side.
The anonymous soldier said that he couldn’t make out the shape of the craft, but that it had a blue-white glow similar to the back end of an F-4 Phantom.
1965: A Mass UFO Sighting Captivates Sherman, Texas
The small town of Sherman, TX, became a destination for UFO fanatics in 1965 when two Highway Patrolman caught a UFO on their radar. Because they discussed the UFO over CB, everyone who was listening into their channel caught wind of the craft and started looking to the skies. The craft was seen over Highway 82, just hanging in the sky, and multiple photographers snapped photos of the ship -- but no reasonable explanation was ever given for the sighting.
Are UFOs Trolling US? That Time A Strange Craft Buzzed The Texas Highway Patrol
On September 3, 1965 two Highway Patrolman caught sight of a purple light glowing about five miles away from where they were patrolling outside of Damon, TX. Initially, they believed it to be an oil field fire, but when they came closer to the light, a lighter blue object came out of the first light and hovered above their car.
The two lights became intensely bright, and the patrolmen realized that they were under a much larger craft. Frightened of what could happen, the patrolmen sped away. They later reported the craft to the Air Force and even spoke to Project Blue Book about the ship.
The Driver Thought He Could Outrun The UFO. He Was Wrong
Vicksburg, MI played host to a visitor from the unknown on March 31, 1966 when Hungarian refugee, Jeno Udvardy, spotted what can only be described as a UFO. While driving home from work in the wee hours of the morning, Udvardy spotted a collection of lights on the highway, at first he thought it was a group of emergency vehicles, but he quickly realized that the lights were coming from a disc-shaped craft hovering about the road.
Udvardy reports hearing a sound like a large gust of wind before looking behind him to see that the craft had moved into position at the rear of his car. He jammed his foot on the gas pedal, but his car wouldn’t move, but then the UFO simply flew away. His claim was never fully investigated.
The Navy Spotted A UFO Over The Bermuda Triangle In 1971
If there’s anywhere you’d expect to see a UFO, it’s the Bermuda Triangle, and this craft wasn’t seen by a lone weirdo, but rather half the crew of the USS John F. Kennedy. In 1971, the ship was returning to Norfolk, Virginia after a readiness exercise when a great whooshing sound was heard coming from outside the ship.
Initially, the men in the communications room thought the sound was coming from their equipment, but when they looked out a porthole they saw a large, glowing sphere hovering above the ship. The craft looked to be a yellowish-orange, but as if the colors were diffused. The craft stayed in place for about 20 minutes and then it was gone.
Was My Stepmother An Alien -- Or Did She Just Have Alien Friends?
This sighting isn’t a first person account, but rather the account of someone finding strange proof of UFOs while cleaning out the family storage. In 2008 an anonymous woman claims she was tidying up her stepmother’s storage space in Oregon when she came across photos from the late '60s or early '70s that looked to show a UFO. She turned the photos over to UFO field investigator William Puckett for safekeeping.
Five Strange Aircraft Visited Winnipeg In 1974. What Did They Want?
America’s neighbors to the north had their fair share of UFO sightings in the '60s and '70s, but one sighting on Sept. 1, 1974, is still discussed in hushed tones throughout Winnipeg. At 10:30 am, a man was working in his field when he saw five saucer-shaped objects on the edge of a bog. He cautiously walked closer and saw that the objects were made of highly-polished steel and floating at least a foot off the ground.
The man was entranced, and for the next 15 minutes he watched the saucers spin. After a quarter of an hour they finally took off into the sky, making little sound as they flew away.
1975: A Fleet of UFOs Freaks Out A North Dakota Family
Nineteen-seventy-five was a weird year for North Dakota. Their proposed “Mount Rushmore But Better” fell through, and there were UFO sightings all over the place. On the morning of August 26, 1975, the Larson family was driving to Fargo when they found themselves in the middle of a small-time alien invasion.
First they saw a flash of light, then they heard a rumble. That’s when they saw it, a fleet of eight to ten glowing objects surrounded by smoke. There was obviously one leader ship that was larger, and the Larsons believe that the smaller ships came out of it like little UFO babies. The ships reportedly descended on the highway before changing course and hovering away.
What Was A UFO Looking For At The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base?
On Nov, 8, 1972 a triangular, fat, black, ship that shimmered with a brilliant white light swept over the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. At the time, the soldiers on base were alerted to ship first by its deep hum, but soon afterwards the ship became visible and filled the base with a bright white light. The light swept the area as if it were searching for something, and just as the alarm bells started going off across the base, the ship went away as quickly as it came.
A New Mexico State University student took this photo of what he said was a UFO, while photographing land formations for a geology class on Mar. 12, 1967
During the 1960s, New Mexico was a hotbed of UFO sightings, captivating the attention of locals and ufologists alike. Some of the most intriguing incidents include the Socorro UFO encounter in 1964, where a police officer reported seeing a glowing, egg-shaped craft on the ground with two small beings nearby, and the 1967 Falcon Lake incident, in which a Canadian man claimed he was burned by a flying saucer's exhaust while out prospecting in the New Mexico desert. Other notable sightings during this era include reports of strange, cigar-shaped objects hovering in the skies and performing unexplainable maneuvers. Despite numerous investigations and inquiries, the truth behind these sightings remains elusive, leaving room for speculation and debate amongst UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike.
Guy B. Marquand, Jr., who took this picture on Nov. 23, 951, in Riverside, CA said the object above the skyline was a "flying saucer."
The 1950s were a time of great fascination with unidentified flying objects, with numerous sightings and reports emerging across the United States. From the Washington D.C. UFO incident in 1952, where several unknown objects were detected on radar and observed by military personnel, to the Levelland UFO case in Texas in 1957, where multiple witnesses reported seeing a glowing, egg-shaped craft that caused their car engines to stall, the decade was rife with sightings that continue to captivate ufologists and enthusiasts to this day. Additionally, the era was marked by the emergence of prominent figures in the UFO community, including George Adamski and his claims of contact with extraterrestrial beings, and Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force initiative that investigated UFO reports. Despite ongoing debates about the veracity of these sightings, the 1950s remain a significant chapter in the history of UFO sightings and the search for extraterrestrial life.
This picture, taken through the window of a laboratory by a 21-year-old U.S. coastguard member, shows four unidentified flying objects as bright lights in the sky on Aug. 3, 1952, in Salem, MA
While these UFOs above Salem, Massachusetts can be dismissed as aberrations in the camera or a possible light leak, the thing that makes us think there's something extra to them is the fact that they're moving in formation. It's incredibly chilling.
Robert Rinker, a field technician at the mountain laboratory weather station on Chalk Mountain in Colorado, discovered this unidentified object on a March 22, 1966, negative after he processed it.
In March 1967, Robert Rinker of Twin Lakes captured a photograph of an unidentified object atop Chalk Mountain, sparking curiosity and speculation among those interested in extraterrestrial life. Rinker's photographs, taken on a clear and sunny day, were processed by him, revealing an unknown object in one of the negatives. The image shows a radar dome amidst buildings that measure 40 feet by 20 feet, with the unidentified object hovering above. The photograph was taken at an elevation of 12,000 feet, adding to the intrigue and mystery surrounding the incident. While the origins of the object remain unknown, Rinker's photograph continues to captivate UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike.
The Amalgamated Flying Saucer Club of America, which headquarters in Los Angeles, released this photo taken by a member reportedly showing a flying saucer on June 16, 1963
During the 1960s, reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) reached a fever pitch, with many individuals claiming to have seen and even photographed these mysterious objects in the sky. However, as technology advanced and more individuals gained access to cameras and editing software, questions have been raised about the authenticity of these photos. Some have suggested that hobbyists may have manipulated images to create the appearance of UFOs in their photographs, while others have argued that the sightings themselves may have been misidentified natural phenomena or man-made objects. Regardless of the origins of these sightings and photos, the fascination with UFOs continues to persist, with ongoing debates about the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the role of the government in investigating these incidents.
The Mar. 25, 1950, issue of Dublin's TeenAge Times claimed that these mysterious objects were flying saucer
The United Kingdom and Ireland have a long history of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). One of the most well-known cases occurred in 1980 at the Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, where U.S. military personnel claimed to have encountered a strange craft that left physical evidence behind. Another famous incident took place in 1993 in County Donegal, Ireland, when hundreds of witnesses reported seeing a triangular object with bright lights hovering in the sky. The region has also been the site of numerous UFO sightings by both military and civilian pilots, leading to debates about the possible origins and nature of these mysterious objects. Despite efforts to explain these sightings as natural phenomena or misidentified aircraft, the allure of UFOs and the possibility of extraterrestrial life continue to captivate and intrigue people in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
This light was photographed on Oct. 16, 1957, when it hovered for 15 minutes near Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico
This mysterious floating object discovered over Holloman Air Force Base has never been explained but the photo remains fascinating none the less. The weird thing about this is that if a passerby took this photo then someone on the military base must have also taken a picture of the UFO. Unfortunately no information has been released.
This March 1966 photo was released on May 16 of that year by William Van Horn, the civil defense director of Hillsdale County, Michigan
As part of a 24-page report challenging an Air Force conclusion that "swamp gas" caused supposed UFO sightings in the area. Van Horn said conditions at the time were too windy for swamp gas to form.
During the 1960s, a number of UFO sightings were attributed to "swamp gas," which occurs when organic matter decomposes in wetlands and produces gases that can ignite and create glowing balls of light. One of the most well-known incidents occurred in 1966 in Michigan, when numerous residents reported seeing strange lights in the sky. After investigating the sightings, the U.S. Air Force concluded that they were likely caused by swamp gas, sparking controversy and skepticism among UFO enthusiasts. While some continue to dismiss the swamp gas explanation as a government cover-up, others argue that misidentifications of natural phenomena and man-made objects are common in UFO sightings. The swamp gas theory remains a point of debate in the ongoing search for the truth about UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
