Inside the First Major UFO Sighting in American History

Today, UFO sightings are—if not yet run-of-the-mill—actually relatively common topics of discussion, at least among certain circles.

You more likely than not have seen videos and photos of UFOs. It also sometimes seems like new reports about UFOs are revealed by the U.S. government (or people who were formerly part of it) fairly consistently, though of course, much still remains obscured.

Maybe you yourself have even seen strange lights in the skies, moving at speeds far faster than ordinary aircraft ever should. Yet all of this can technically be traced back to one man named Kenneth Arnold, who saw a series of peculiar objects in the sky on a clear day in 1947.

Arnold was not the first person to have this type of experience, however. In fact, people have mentioned inexplicable luminous phenomena in the sky since ancient times.

In the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel describes a vision of a divine chariot flying through the sky that contained four angelic beings. Many ancient Hindu epics mention holy, airborne chariots as well. And in 218 BCE, Roman historian Livy wrote that, during the winter of 218 BCE, “a phantom navy was seen shining in the sky.”

John Winthrop reports strange lights in colonial Massachusetts

In 1639, John Winthrop, who was then the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote in his diary that three men had been rowing down a river when they spotted a huge light above them.

“When it stood still, it flamed up, and was about three yards square,” Winthrop reported. “When it ran, it was contracted into the figure of a swine.” He noted that the light had been seen floating around for two or three hours after. 

“Diverse other credible persons saw the same light, after, about the same place,” he added, writing that the three men who initially saw the light were shocked to find themselves a mile upstream after it had faded. Winthrop mentioned several other mysterious celestial sightings in his diary over the years, including a “light like the moon” that rose over Boston and “shot out flames and sometimes sparkles.”

Winthrop’s reports are far from the earliest recorded UFO sightings in American history, however. Intriguingly, Native American nations also have many stories and records of encounters with extraterrestrial beings that stretch back to ancient history and continue to this day.

The term UFO would not come into use until the early 1950s, when it replaced "flying saucer." That term originated in 1947 with what is generally credited as the first major recorded UFO sighting on American soil—one that kicked off a UFO craze that remains alive and well.

Kenneth Arnold sees the lights: The first major UFO sighting in America

It was June 24, 1947, and the skies were cloudless and bright. Businessman and civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying his plane above Washington’s Mount Rainier at around 3 p.m.

Then came the inexplicable sight that wound change Arnold's life forever: nine objects, each flashing bright blue-white light, flying above the Cascade Range in a V formation. 

He reported that the objects moved from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams, about 50 miles, in around 1 minute and 42 seconds. This means they would have had to be moving around 1,700 miles per hour, according to some estimates—far faster than any aircraft at the time could. 

In reports, Arnold added that their flight paths resembled “a saucer if you skip it across water.” The objects he had seen were thin and flat when seen from the side, he said, but crescent-shaped when they turned. 

Afterwards, Arnold immediately flew to Yakima and told airport staff what he had seen. Reports quickly made the news, with many papers running with Arnold’s use of the word “saucer.”

This ultimately led to the rise of the term “flying saucer,” a misquote that may have inadvertently shaped narratives about UFOs that persist to this day.

Arnold's story sparks a major UFO investigation

Arnold’s story gained traction for a number of reasons. First off, he gave off the impression of a rather trustworthy figure. He operated the Great Western Fire Control Supply Company and was also a Red Cross volunteer, Eagle Scout, family man, politician, and active and respected member of his community. 

"It is the present opinion of the interviewer that Mr. Arnold actually saw what he stated he saw," concluded Lt. Frank Brown and Capt. William Davidson, who first investigated Arnold's claims in July of that year. "It is difficult to believe that a man of [his] character and apparent integrity would state that he saw objects and write up a report to the extent that he did if he did not see them."

His claims gained further credibility when other people in the area reported seeing a similar sight, and after the U.S. military confirmed that they had not been flying any planes in the area at the time. 

His tale sparked a wave of intense interest in UFOs across America, and a large number of similar sightings followed. It also caught the attention of the military, which began its formal UFO investigation with Project Sign in 1947. That later morphed into Project Grudge and the famous Project Blue Book. 

Arnold, meanwhile, became a topic of national fascination. He was interviewed hundreds of times, but also never wavered on the details of his story.

“Since my first observations and report of the so-called ‘flying disks’ I have spent a great deal of money and time thoroughly investigating the subject…” he told The Saturday Evening Post. “There is no doubt in my mind but what these objects are aircraft of a strange design, and material that is unknown to the civilization of this earth.”

His sighting came at a time of transformation and new prospects in America. The U.S. had dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki just two years prior, an event that forced many people to grapple with the existential meaning of the existence of such a previously unfathomable technology, and America was adjusting to the reality of postwar life.

Speculation about the cosmos was also rampant at the time. “At that time there was still some thought that Mars or perhaps Venus might have a habitable surface,” author Robert Sheaffer told Life's Little Mysteries, per NBC News. “People thought these UFOs were Martians who had come to keep an eye on us now that we had nuclear weapons.”

What did Kenneth Arnold actually see?

Many different theories exist regarding what Arnold may have seen in the sky that day. Some propose it was an atmospheric phenomenon, possibly the result of light glinting off snow-capped mountains. Others have blamed clouds, meteors, birds, or top-secret government drones or jets.

However, many more have linked Arnold’s experience to extraterrestrial visitors or technology from another world. Certainly, what he saw marked a turning point and the start of a massive spike in UFO sightings across America.

Just a week later, on July 2, a rancher named W.W. “Mac” Brazel discovered debris in Roswell, New Mexico that led to reports that remnants of a “flying disc” had been found there. This ignited a wave of extraterrestrial fever that continues to this day, despite the U.S. government’s 1994 revelation that the debris had been from a balloon that was part of a top-secret U.S. effort to detect Soviet nuclear bomb tests. 

UFOs have gone on to inspire everything from religions and ongoing Pentagon, NASA, and CIA investigations to, naturally, endless films, books, and TV episodes. But in many ways, it all began on a clear day in June of 1947.