Unidentified Flying Objects: 20 Facts, History & Sightings

The Canadian National Research has a record of about 750 sightings of UFOs. The only other official and most complete records of UFO sightings are under Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book was a UFO research agency, whose headquarters were based at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Project Blue Book has over 12,000 reports of UFO sightings and events, with 6% documented incidents remaining unsolved.

Winston Churchill reported seeing a strange airship, or UFO in Kent, England. It was sighted on October 14, 1912.

Cereology is the study of crop circles. Many believe UFOs create crop circles, or “flying saucer nests” and use them as landing pads. The first crop circle to be recorded appeared in 1965 in Queensland, Australia. Note that the only thing that has been proven to cause crop circles is humans: people who have admitted they made them as a hoax. This doesn’t mean all crop circles have been explained–they haven’t, but in every instance where a crop circle formation has been explained, it has been a hoax.

A poll taken by Roper in 1991 gave a startling result. Almost 4 million people believe they have been abducted by aliens at some point in their life.

Astronomer Jose Bonilla was credited with taking the first photographs of a UFO, in 1883, in Zacatecas, Mexico.

A papyrus containing notes of Pharaoh Thutmose III detailed a UFO sighting around 1480 BC. A circle of fire was seen in the sky, and the scribes reported their sighting to the pharaoh. Days following, more UFOs showed up. The pharaoh decided to burn incense and have his scribes mark the day as important.

Even the legendary Alexander the Great had an encounter with a UFO. In 329 BC, as Alexander and his army were crossing a river, some silver shields encircled with fire began diving at his men and scaring their war elephants. The war party had to wait until morning arrived before they could cross safely without interference.

The first documented account of a UFO sighting in America dates back to the year 1639. John Winthrop, the colony governor of Massachusetts, noted an incident where three men observed a luminous object flying around the Muddy River, near the same area of the Charleston for a period of 2 to 3 hours.

Some say the book of Ezekiel proves that UFOs have been around a lot longer than we may have thought. The prophet Ezekiel is noted for recounting his observation of a “great cloud with fire enfolding itself, a wheel in the middle of a wheel that descended and fired lightning bolts into the earth.”

Strange objects spotted in the skies were referred to as “flying saucers” since 1947. In 1952, the term UFO, for Unidentified Flying Object became more in vogue. UFO was used by US Air Force officer Edward Ruppelt.