UFO Timeline

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1908

  • June 30, 1908 (~7:14 AM): The Tunguska Event (Explosion) in the Tunguska Region of Siberia, Russia

    Around 7:14 AM on June 30, 1908, an enormous explosion was heard from the isolated forests of Siberia, particularly the Tunguska region, which left considerable radioactivity. At an altitude of 5–10 km (15,000–30,000 feet), flattening some 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) and charring more than 100 square km of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia (60°55′ N 101°57′ E), Russia.

    The energy of the explosion is estimated to have been equivalent to the explosive force of as much as 15 megatons of TNT—a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. After the blast, 1287 square kilometres of forest were flattened, with 80,000,000 trees felled – clearing an area larger than London. The trees fell away from the blast centre, lying in a radial position.

    Subsequent investigation revealed that there had been a great many hunters and fishermen in the area who had seen an object travelling through the sky. It was described as more brilliant than the sun and heading towards the site of the explosion. So great was the impact that even 800 kilometres away one train driver stopped his train in the belief that his own cargo had exploded. There were shock waves over a great distance, and the event was recorded all round the world including London, England. In the 1920s an expedition to the region discovered that there had apparently been something like an airborne explosion, rather than the meteorite impact that the team had expected to find. The debris in the forest was very similar to the debris at Hiroshima following the airborne explosion of an atomic bomb in 1945. In other words, there was total devastation radiating out from one central point, but at the point of ‘ground zero’ the destroyed trees were still standing while the others radiating out from that central point were felled. A meteorite would not have caused such devastation, and of course in 1908 there could not have been atomic blasts, leaving the speculation that the Tunguska explosion was due to an extraterrestrial nuclear-powered craft exploding in the air.

    Soviet physicist Mikhail Agrest interpreted this explosion as that of an interplanetary vehicle. Dr Felix Zigel of the Moscow Institute of Aviation apparently supported this by suggesting that the object had made manoeuvres before crashing. However, there may be other more natural explanations which have not yet been fully understood by science, i.e. some particularly destructive form of ball lightning or plasma energy.

1950

  • 1950: The Robertson Panel Report and the Durant Report are released.
    During the early 1950s the CIA is believed to have arranged a meeting of scientists and Air Force representatives at the Pentagon to study the confidential data collected on UFO phenomena. Colonel William A. Adams of Wright Patterson Air Force Base was one of the Air Force representatives. Although the meetings were held between 14 and 17 January 1953 the report was not completely declassified until 1975 and there are those who maintain that some information has never been declassified to this date. These meetings have been known variously as the Robertson Panel Report and the Durant Report.
    Major Donald E. Keyhoe also notes that Colonel Adams was one of several Air Force personnel invited to review classified UFO film material in 1952, and authorised considerable analysis of some film.

1952

  • 1952: The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) was founded.
    The world’s oldest surviving UFO group founded in 1952 (Tucson, Arizona) by Jim and Coral Lorenzen.
    The CIA‘s Robertson Panel Report singled out this organisation for monitoring and it is therefore assumed they were subject to CIA surveillance.
  • March, 1952: Project Grudge became Project Blue Book.
    For a short time between the cessation of Project Grudge and the commencement of Project Blue Book the project carried the designation ‘Aerial Phenomena Group’ though in fact its only existence appears to be one sole reference in the Condon Report.

1954

  • September 14, 1954:

1961

  • 1961: Congressman Hugh J. Addonizio publicly condems secrecy over UFOs after studying NICAP reports.
    In 1961 Congressman Addonizio was one of many legislators who publicly condemned secrecy over UFOs after studying NICAP reports on the subject of the UFO phenomenon.

1966

  • 1966: An Ad Hoc Committee of the Scientific Advisory Board recommended the official investigation of certain sightings partly based on a review of Project Blue Book.
    In the opening months of 1966 an Ad Hoc Committee of the Scientific Advisory Board, instigated by Major General E. B. LeBailey, the United States Air Force Director of Information, and chaired by physicist Dr Brian O’Brien, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), recommended the official investigation of certain sightings, partly based on a review of Project Blue Book. On 5 April 1966 the House Armed Services Committee agreed that these recommendations should be implemented.

1969

  • December, 1969: John Acuff becomes the Director of NICAP.
    In December 1969 John Acuff became Director of NICAP. Acuff was held to have links with the CIA and indeed it has been stated that he obtained the position when his predecessor, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, was ousted by a NICAP faction led by Colonel Joseph Bryan III, who was a former chief of the CIA psychological warfare staff. Acuff was later to be succeeded by Alan Hall, a retired CIA employee.
    The involvement of agencies like the CIA in UFO research is very apparent, despite official denials.

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