1947: January UFO & Alien Sightings Archive
While 1947 is forever etched in history for the Roswell crash and the Kenneth Arnold sighting that sparked the “flying saucer” era, the month of January served as a significant, yet often overlooked, prelude to the coming storm. During these early weeks of the year, a series of 1947 UFO sightings across the globe—from the harbors of Yokohama to the rural landscapes of Oregon—indicated that anomalous aerial activity was already intensifying. These reports, often involving sophisticated radar-visual encounters and metallic, high-speed craft, suggest that the phenomenon was well-established in our skies months before it captured the global headlines.
This January 1947 archive catalogs these early incidents, highlighting the diverse nature of the craft and entities reported. From the “egg-shaped” craft and humanoid beings discovered in New Mexico to the “ghost planes” that vexed RAF radar stations in the UK, these cases provide a crucial look at the pre-craze era. By documenting these “pre-wave” events, we gain a deeper understanding of the global pattern of historical alien encounters and the technological sophistication that has defined the phenomenon from the very beginning of the modern age.
Date: January 1947
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Time: Evening
Summary: A witness named Massinger reported a close-range observation of a metallic, disc-shaped object that appeared to follow his vehicle for several miles before accelerating vertically at a high rate of speed.
Source: UFOs Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980 ISBN:0-313-21337-2
Date: January 1947
Location: Little Rock, Arkansas
Time: Night
Summary: Witnesses reported strange “blue lights” performing erratic maneuvers over the city. These early sightings in Arkansas predated the massive summer wave but contributed to the growing sense of aerial anomalies that year.
Source: UFO Sightings in Arkansas.
Date: January 1947
Location: Pendleton, Oregon & La Grande, Oregon
Time:
Summary: Residents in the Pendleton and La Grande areas reported several “pre-craze” sightings of silver, disc-like objects performing sharp maneuvers. These early sightings are significant because they occurred in the same region where Kenneth Arnold would later have his famous encounter in June 1947. Witnesses described silver, disc-like objects performing maneuvers that conventional aircraft of the time simply could not achieve.
Source:
Date: January 1947
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Time: Morning
Summary: Although the massive “flying saucer” wave occurred in the summer, sightings of silvery discs began as early as April 1947 in Virginia. A U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist and his staff tracked a large, flat-bottomed ellipsoid as it shot from east to west over Richmond.
Source: U.S. Weather Bureau Reports / HowStuffWorks.
Date: January 1947
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Time:
Summary: This sighting is often linked to the early Cold War tension and the proximity of military bases like Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base (then Tarrant Field). The silent, formation-based movement of the lights suggested an intelligence behind the flight path that local military authorities could not account for at the time.
Source:
Date: January 1947 BBU
Location: England
Time: Midnight
Summary: This case is significant as it represents one of the first major post-WWII radar-visual cases in the UK. The object’s ability to “zoom” at 400 mph—faster than most contemporary fighter jets—and its repeated appearances led to the first permanent radar watch for unidentified targets by the RAF.
Source: UFOs A History 1947 SN Jan-Jun 6
Date: January 7, 1947
Location: Rural New Mexico
Time: unknown
Summary:This “pre-Roswell” report, often cited by researcher H.E. Puthoff, involves a Texas man who stumbled upon an egg-shaped craft in a remote arroyo. The description of the three small, large-headed beings inside mirrors the iconic “Grey” alien archetype that would become world-famous later that summer.
Source: H E Puthoff
Date: January 12, 1947
Location: Chicago, Illinois (In a trance/meditative state).
Time: evening
Summary: While in an out of body state, William Ferguson felt himself traveling at the speed of light. He then found himself on the planet Mars, where he met “Khauga;” a Martian with red hair, red complexion, and broad features, that had the ability to float in mid-air.
Source: Jerome Clark, Extraordinary Encounters
Date: January 15, 1947: Yokohama Japan Sighting
Date: Jan. 16, 1947 BBU 54
Location: the North Sea, 50 miles from Holland
Time: 10:30 p.m. (GMT).
Summary: RAF pilot of Mosquito pursued unidentified radar target showing efficient controlled evasive action at 22,000 ft speed equal or greater than Mosquito, headed W? towards Norfolk, Eng. (FOIA) This was five months before the Kenneth Arnold sighting and the beginning of the Wave of 1947, followed by the crash at Roswell in early July. The incident was also linked to another “X raid” tracked by radar earlier that same day. An FBI document from July of 1947 quoted the Air Ministry case summary stating that: “no explanation has been forthcoming, nor has it been repeated.” This information was not entirely accurate, because a very similar incident had occurred just 24 hours after the North Sea incident. As a direct result, Fighter Command immediately extended its night radar watch.
Source: FOIA
Date: Jan. 17, 1947
Location: North Sea
Time: afternoon
Summary: In the afternoon, two Chain Home Low stations in Lincolnshire (Skendleby and Humberstone) tracked what they described as “an exceptionally good track” (U294) at 10,000 feet above the North Sea. With Eastern Sector on alert, Meteor jets from 245 Squadron were placed on standby to scramble if Charlie came within range, but the plot faded from their screens. At 1945 hours the radar station at Humberstone, near Grimsby again tracked an unidentified target over the sea for a period of 30 minutes at a speed of more than 200 mph. Update: This track was designated U294 by Chain Home Low stations in Lincolnshire (Skendleby and Humberstone). The “exceptionally good track” moved at 10,000 feet and was tracked for 30 minutes at speeds exceeding 200 mph, prompting Meteor jets from 245 Squadron to be placed on scramble standby.
Source: RAF Intelligence / FOIA Documents.
Date: January 22 1947 (Note: This is often cited in 1947 archives as a historical “precedent” for the saucer shape).
Location: Denison, Texas.
Time: Morning
Summary: Farmer John Martin noted the swift passage through the southern sky of a “large saucer-like” object. Contemporary newspapers described Martin as a gentleman of “undoubted veracity” and urged scientific attention to the strange occurrence.
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Date: January 1947
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