In the 1972 book “The UFO Experience,” J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer from Northwestern University and former consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book, suggested a classification system for UFO sightings.
He introduced the concept of “close encounters of the third kind,” which refers to sightings where animated creatures are reported. Previously, these were referred to as “occupant reports” by ufologists.
The UFO phenomenon has been documented for over two centuries. In the early 1800s, there were sporadic reports of phenomena resembling UFOs, but they were not common until the late 19th century. During that time, American newspapers were filled with alleged sightings of mysterious “airships” between November 1896 and May 1897. While many of these reports were hoaxes, some claimed that the airships had landed. Some stories described the occupants as humans, while others described them as grotesque aliens. These tales were meant to entertain readers and were not taken seriously as hoaxes.
After 1947, when “flying saucers” and “unidentified flying objects” entered popular consciousness, people started coming forward with accounts of encounters they had experienced in previous years. Some even claimed to have seen UFOs as early as 1893. These early accounts varied, including one where an Australian man claimed to have seen a saucer-shaped craft land on his farm. When he approached, a strangely dressed man stepped out holding a device resembling a flashlight. The device emitted a light that struck the witness’s hand, causing him to lose consciousness. When he woke up, the object and the occupant were gone, and his hand was paralyzed.
Similar sightings were reported in other parts of the world. In 1909, New Zealand newspapers documented an airship sighting wave, and in 1916, workers in Wisconsin claimed to have seen a large machine with three men inside flying over Lake Superior. These early reports were not given much attention.
The term “flying saucers” was first used by a newspaper on June 26, 1947, following private pilot Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine discs maneuvering over the Cascade Mountains. This event…
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