1956: January UFO & Alien Sightings Archive
This archive documents a series of high-profile unidentified aerial phenomena and close encounters from January 1956. Highlights include a remarkable contactee case in Brazil where a law professor was allegedly invited aboard a disk-shaped craft at Sao Sebastiao, as well as an entity sighting in Hesperia, California, involving a small, bald humanoid. The month also features significant military and radar-visual cases, such as an F-89D radar lock at Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, and a 90-minute observation of a glowing object near Pusan, Korea. These reports provide a detailed look at the global “wave” of activity during the early months of 1956.
Date: January 1, 1956
Location: Sao Sebastiao
Time:
Summary: One warm night in the summer of 1956, a wealthy, respected professor of Roman Law, Joao de Freitas Guimareaes, was out for a walk on the beach at Sao Sebastiao when a huge disk-shaped craft–about 60 FT in diameter–landed on the beach. The disk was about 18 FT high and rested on a pawnshop-type landing gear of three balls. Two 6-FT tall men got out of the disk, and Guimareaes tried to communicate in English, French, Spanish, and Italian without success. Then the two visitors communicated with him through telepathy and invited him aboard. The two men had blond hair, green eyes, and were wearing yellow shoes. The professor entered the disk, which immediately took off. An hour later, the disk landed back on the beach, and the professor departed from the spacecraft.
Source:
Date: January 1956
Location: Near Hesperia California
Time: night
Summary: The witness woke up to see a small big eyed baldheaded man looking at her through the back picture window of her bedroom. She woke up her husband and he went out back to check and found no footprints in the snow.
Source: Patricia Lee, Shadowmag
Date: Jan. 11, 1956 BBU
Location: Wurtsmith AFB, MI
Time: 5:40 p.m. (MST)
Summary: F-89D locks onto object with radar after control tower spots UFO. Culpepper and Complaer.
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index; BBU Files
Date: January 15, 1956
Location: Pusan, Korea
Time: 2000
Summary: Just a week later another incident occurred about 1,000 miles west of Komatsu. This one is unique in U.F.O. sightings for two reasons.
One: it was seen by a large number of witnesses including civilian and American personnel.
Two: the object was under direct and relatively close observation for about 90 minutes!
The incident began about 8 p.m. at Pusan, Korea, on January 15. The object was described to military authorities as being “about the size of a large washtub and emitting a blue-gray glow. It was seen falling into the water about 50 yards off-shore near Heunde.” It was early enough in the evening to attract the attention of a large number of Korean townsfolk. They reported that the glow continued for about an hour and a half before the object “apparently sank into the sea.” By this time Korean National Police arrived at the scene and they, in turn, alerted U.S. Military Police. Cpl. Ben Elliot, an M.P. on patrol duty that night, was on the scene quickly enough to observe the object floating in the water for almost an hour. He described its glow as being similar to the flames from burning alcohol or benzine. The glow, he said, appeared to be about the size of a large washtub but the object itself could not be seen on the surface of the water. None of the witnesses expressed any desire to row out to the object for a closer look. As a result, it eventually sank out of sight into the sea’s depths without being inspected. At this writing, no further reports concerning the object have been made. It was thought that Pusan University staff members might arrange for divers to attempt to recover remains of the object. If they did, their findings remain as much a mystery as the object itself.
Source: Fate Magazine, June 1956, pp.22-24. Article title “Recent UFOs Over Japan”, by Samuel Norman.
Date: Jan. 17, 1956
Location: Orangeville, Canada
Time:
Summary: Disc-shaped UFO seen at close range; rings of light visible on bottom.
Source: UFOE, XII
Date: Jan. 18, 1956 BBU
Location: Itazuke AFB, Japan
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Summary: Air crew sighting of white round balloon-shaped object traveling at high speed, no trail.
Source: Project 1947; FUFOR Index; BBU Files
Date: Jan. 22, 1956
Location: Gulf of Mexico, nr. New Orleans
Time:
Summary: Pan American Airways flight engineer saw a large elongated object, emitting yellow flame or light, pass aircraft from horizon to behind a weather front.
Source: UFOE, V
Date: Jan. 24, 1956 BBU
Location: Wheelus AFB, Tripoli, Libya
Time: 2:52 p.m. local time
Summary: An unidentified object was picked up on radar at 99 degrees azimuth at 75 miles range. The object was tracking at 330 degrees at 75 knots at 1000 feet altitude. The target was tracked for 12 minutes at which time the object faded from the radar.
Source: McDonald list; FUFOR Index; BBU Files
Date: January 1956
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