There has been many UFO sightings throughout the years with some more credible than others, but some sightings are just too interesting to ignore. Below is a list of 7 famous UFO sightings that happened in the 1950’s, which are really interesting to say the least.
The Prescott, Arizona UFO Sightings Of 1953
1953 is remembered by many as a time of stabilization and of change. The war was over, and life back in the United States had finally returned to working normalcy as troops came home and families reunited. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and there was hope in the air. But those in Del Rio Springs Creek, which is 20 miles north of Prescott, Arizona, caught more than they bargained for in a strange string of UFO sightings.
So many locals reported these strange flying saucers that the newspaper did a front-page spread of the occurrence. And because it was such an odd event, it was a local “expert” that tried to explain it to those who sought answers. George Williamson was the expert, an academic achiever who studied anthropology.
When asked what Williamson had to say about the sightings he went on to detail an account where on February 3rd, he and his wife saw the flying saucers as they were about to enter their home near White Spar and Copper Basin Roads. Williamson also included affidavits and proof of contact with the saucers inhabitants that others have accounted for.
Williamson met with George Adamski, a professor in California who had evidence of an encounter. Adamski stated that he snapped a photo of the saucer, and was able to speak with the lead occupant, which stated that there was some alarm in the universe due to atom bomb activity on earth.
Williamson claims he was able to collect prints of the occupant’s sandal markings, which showed a hieroglyphic pattern. More sightings occurred in May of the same year, adding extra reports in the same area. The reports have never been officially substantiated, though what evidence there was, such as photographs and accounts, remain to this day.
RAF Tangmere UFO Sighting 1950
One of the most intriguing and well known Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings of the last century was that made at RAF Tangmere in 1950. In fact it was not just any old sighting, but one of the very first to be reported in the UK that became known to the general public.
On June 1st, 1950, a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer flying a Gloster Meteor out of the base at RAF Tangmere reported that he had seen a strange object, shaped like a disc, revolving in the air and lit up on all sides. The Flying Saucer, as it came to be known, was spotted at around 20,000ft at 14.30.
The object was also noticed by eagle eyed radar operators scanning the skies over RAF Wartling, in the southern coastal county of Sussex. The object appeared to be hovering over Portsmouth, which was then and is now, a major British naval base.
People had been seeing weird objects in the sky for centuries, but when a highly trained RAF pilot reported seeing an actual saucer shaped object flying in UK airspace, even the very skeptical had to take notice.
This sighting was regarded as so significant and plausible that the government set up the Flying Saucer Working Party. With a host of distinguished members, and headed up by Sir Henry Tizard, who was then the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Ministry of Defence, the working party acknowledged that a more systematic and scientific approach to so called Flying Saucer sightings needed to be undertaken.
A year later the group’s report was published, but it was not made available to the public until 2001. It’s general conclusion was that UFO sightings were hoaxes, natural phenomena such as weather, hot air balloons, birds, or the product of a fevered and slightly cranky imagination. This is one of the most famous UFO sightings in English history.
The Levelland UFO Incident of 1957
This is one of the most famous UFO sightings, because unlike many other sightings which were reported by just a few individuals, it involved several unrelated witnesses across Levelland.
During the evening of 2nd November 1957, Joe Salaz and Pedro Saucedo were driving to the farm when a bluish rocket-like object rose on the horizon and made for their direction.
The sound was great, there was a lot of heat, and the car engine suddenly cut out. Scared, they dived out of the car and felt an enormous wind rush. The next time they looked up in the sky, just a few seconds after landing in the dirt, they saw a brilliant blue light come speeding past them. They got back in the car and realized the engine was back to normal. Saucedo went to the police station and reported the incident.
About an hour later, the police desk received another report, this time from Jim Fowler. He reported an egg-shaped object hurtling over his home to the east, leaving his home without lights.
At around 10:00 PM, a married couple driving to the north of Levelland reported seeing a powerful flash of light across the sky, which left the car radio and headlights powerless. Several more people reported similar encounters the same day.
The RB-47 UFO Incident of 1957
The RB-47 had the most intricate ELINT (electronic intelligence) gear available at the time, and the plane could see anything. At dawn, 17th July 1957, in the skies of southern Texas, the aircraft sighted something the pilots didn’t anticipate.
First, one of the three officers responsible for operating the ECM (electronic countermeasures) equipment captured a strange signal; a blip crossed the radar screen and was interpreted to have passed a short distance in front of the plane and then over the Mississippi.
He was surprised but shrugged it off. Minutes later, at about 4:10 AM, an intense blue light bore down on the plane and shook both pilots. The light changed its course dramatically to the right. The plane’s radar picked a strong signal around the same spot where the light disappeared.
Barely seconds later, pilots observed another prominent light attached to a bigger object that was partially obscured by the darkness.
The pilots abandoned their course and turned towards the UFO’s location. At that point, the pilots were certain they were dealing with two UFOs at the same location because a streak of light shot away leaving behind the partially obscured object.
They alerted the Air Force’s ground radar station at Duncanville, Texas, which led spirited surveillance of the object and found that it had momentarily stopped as the RB-47 flew below it.
In 2 minutes or so, the entire thing had disappeared entirely from the radar before it could even be examined. No one knows where it went or why it showed up in the first place.
This intriguing incident is considered to be one of the most famous UFO sightings.
The Mariana UFO Incident
It’s quite hard not to believe in UFOs when you’ve seen them first hand. Such was the case on August 15th, 1950, for baseball coach Nick Mariana and his secretary Virginia Raunig.
The day started out as a normal day at the ballpark for Mr. Mariana, as he was checking the field prior to a baseball game when he saw two shining, silver objects rushing over the skies of Great Falls.
Stunned, Mr. Mariana ran to his car to grab his 16mm camera, where he began to film a 16-second color video of the strange occurrence.
The community instantly became interested in both the video and the claims made by Mr. Mariana, which were corroborated by Raunig.
This interest caused such a stir that The Great Falls Tribune would run a story, later alerting Air Force officials to the odd sighting of apparent UFO activity.
The Air Force reached out to Mr. Mariana to interview him, as well as obtain his footage. The film landed in the hands of Captain John Brynildsen of the Malmstrom Air Force Base.
A meeting between Captain Brynildsen, Mr. Mariana, and Raunig was arranged, during which, the pair divulged that two military jets were seen in the sky after the UFO sighting.
This piece of information and the fact that planes were scheduled to be in the area during that day caused the Air Force to classify the sighting as “possible aircraft” which would later be changed to just “aircraft.”
The case would be re-examined multiple times over the next few decades, with no definitive conclusions able to be met. However, Mariana would go on to claim that there was a whopping 35 missing frames of footage when the Air Force returned his film.
Air Force officials would claim that only one frame was removed due to damage. Locals who viewed the film corroborated Mariana’s claims of the missing footage, which has never been disproven or proven.
To this day, nobody has been able to provide a concrete answer to exactly what was seen and filmed on that day in 1950, but it has become one of the most famous UFO sightings.
The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter
Perhaps the only thing more shocking than seeing a UFO is meeting the inhabitants of the craft. Such was said to happen by the Sutton family on the evening of August 21st, 1955 in the town of Kelly, Kentucky.
On this evening, five adults and seven children arrived at the Hopkinsville Police Station to report that for “at least four hours” they held off “12 to 15” little green men. They also reported that they had seen blue flashes of falling light in the sky and that the creatures were no more than four feet tall, with wide eyes and large mouths.
The inhabitants of the farmhouse convinced the police department to inspect the farmhouse and grounds, though no evidence of any creatures was ever found, though bullet holes were present throughout the property.
The encounter was said to have begun earlier in the night when “Lucky” Sutton and visiting Pennsylvanian Billy Ray Taylor were approached at the front of the home by a small greenish creature with its hands raised in surrender. Frightened by the appearance of said creature, the men began to shoot. However, the creature is said to have done a flip and ran off frightened into the woods.
Later, another was seen peeking in the windows of the farmhouse, causing the inhabitants to begin shooting yet again.
The men and other inhabitants would continue to be taunted by the creatures outside, as they looked in windows, reached through ceilings and otherwise terrorized the Sutton family and their guests.
After hours of terror, the inhabitants of the farmhouse made a break for the police station.
Neighbors were able to state that gunshots were heard, and “lights in the sky” were observed. The creatures were said to return after 3:30 AM, causing the inhabitants to flee, according to what some neighbors would later tell the police.
Though no proof of a hoax has been brought forward, this case has gone on to be used as an example of pseudoscience. Others believed the family and visitors were drunk, and that what they viewed were simply Great Horned Owls. The truth has never been discovered.
Ellsworth UFO sighting
The Ellsworth UFO Sighting took place in August 1953. At around 8pm on the evening of 5 August 1953, a strange glowing object was spotted in the sky in the town of Blackdown, South Dakota by a member of the Ground Observation Corp named Mrs. Kellian.
As this was around the time of the Cold War, she had been trained to report anything suspicious to the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base, which she did. They confirmed that they had picked the unknown craft up on their radar.
The object was emitting a bright red light. It was stationary for some time but then shot straight up into the air. At one point it seemed to be heading straight for the base, and this is the point when jets were scrambled to try and investigate further.
The jets could not get close enough to the object to determine exactly what it was. It soon became apparent that it could travel much faster than they could and that it moved in ways that they were not able to. The pilots noticed that while the lights it emitted were sometimes red, they also turned green and white on occasion.
To this day no one knows exactly what it was that so many people saw in the sky that day. The official report stated that all the witnesses were mistaken and that the pilots were just chasing stars. However, for the people concerned there is no doubt in their minds that they saw a solid object in the sky on that day.
These 7 famous UFO Sightings are still widely researched today.
