I have been asked on, several occasions, for my opinion on the 10 biggest events in ufo history, so I decided that today was as good a day as any to list them. Not everyone will agree with me on the events that I picked and maybe most of you will disagree, but I picked the events that I thought had the biggest impact on the ufo scene. There are thousands of events that I could have chosen, such as one of those many airship sightings at the end of the 19th century, but I had to disregard them because I felt that maybe, just maybe, people were see blimps that some inventor of that time was testing out. I also had to disregard Tungusta because no one can really say what caused that explosion in Siberia and the chances of it being a ufo are slim to none. The event over Los Angeles during World War II, where thousands of shells were fired at a ufo was disregarded also, due to war time hysteria. The object that was shot at could have been anything, even a break away balloon. There were a lot of events that I avoided choosing for various reasons and the following list is what I felt was most pertinent. By the way, the list is NOT in the order of importance.

1941 - 1945 Foo fighters are seen by our pilots during World War II. Apparently these balls of light, that followed the planes, were thought by both sides to be a secret weapon of the other, when in truth they were some sort of ufo. Foo fighters actually still exist today, they are just not called by the same name. There are various photographs of these balls of light following commercial flights and even international ones.

June 24, 1947 - Kenneth Arnold was flying his private plane when he saw oddly shaped objects flying between two mountain peeks that were in the distance. Looking at them and knowing the distance between the peaks, he realized that they were doing in excess of 1,000 mph. He had described the objects as crescent shaped or flying wings, then he supposedly said they could have been saucer shaped. When the newspapers picked up on his sighting, they used the term flying saucer and it has been with us since. Arnold was flying around looking for a crashed Marine Corps plane, a reward of $5,000 was to be given to the person who found it. He had given up the search when he began to see flashes of light. He noticed that the flashes were coming from Mt. Rainier which was about 20 to 25 miles ahead of him. This is when he saw the ufos. He looked for an exhaust from them, but none was evident. When they passed in front of the mountain they made a shadow. Arnold stated that when they were on edge, they were so thin, as to be practically invisible. To me, this is one of the most important ufo sightings of all times. It was the first modern saucer sighting and of course the military was quick to label it a mirage.

July 2, 1947 - I would be remiss if I didn't cite the crash at Roswell. I know that everyone is sick of hearing about it, I know that I certainly am, but the reason it is so significant, even though nothing can be proved today, is that it brought ufos to the forefront. It didn't happen right away, it took quite a few years, but it is now probably the most recognizable name in the study of ufos. Not only that, but the original report given to the news media stated that a saucer had crashed and was only changed when a General got into the picture. Over the years there have been people that swear that the crash happened and strong denials by government employees. It has become a legend. Even the dirt has been sifted and resifted. As the years go by, the story of Roswell can only get more mysterious.

July 28, 1952 - The sky over the White House in Washington D.C. was filled with ufos. They purposely formed over the White House to show us that they exist and that we were incapable of doing anything about it. The ufos had been in the area for weeks and jets were called up, but there was no way they could compete with the speed or even reach the altitude, that the ufos would scamper to when they saw the planes coming. This one event, more than any other in ufo history, proves the existence of ufos. It is an event that you really don't hear much about, yet there is no way for the military to actually deny it. Well they could, but they would look pretty silly doing it. Initially the objects were spotted on radar and were traveling pretty low, about 1700 feet above the ground. Not only were they spotted by the air traffic controllers at Washington National Airport, but they were seen on other radar sets as well. Even when everyone in the area could see them, the military stated that they had no evidence that they were flying saucers. Man what had to happen here, did one have to land on someone's head? It is believed that this is the first time that ufos were picked up on radar and also visible to humans.

October 4, 1967 - Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia, Canada. This was another very significant sighting of a submerged ufo, or uso, as submerged ufos are called. It was seen crashing into the waters of the harbor and a strange foam then floated on the surface. Before it hit the water an explosion was heard. Ships were sent to the scene by the Canadian and U.S. Navies. When the object had hit, it was reported that it initially floated on the water, but many of its lights had gone out. By the time the police reached the area, only the yellow foam could be seen. A second craft dove into the water to assist the first one. Divers were sent down and were said to have observed the object for several days. As ships cruised the area, they were chasing the crafts, which were submerged. Finally, days later, the craft went out to deeper water and then both took off. Had this been a repair mission for a crashed ufo that went under water? Sounds like it, doesn't it? It led both navies on a chase for quite a time. What did we learn? We have never been told.

September 19, 1961 - The first major abduction case. Betty and Barney Hill were riding along in their car, when they saw a strange light following them. They were on vacation and Betty took the dog out to the side of the road. Barney took advantage of this time to look at the light behind them with binoculars. Barney got in and drove for awhile, but they stopped the car. He then walked toward a bright light in the woods. Betty yelled to stop, but he was under some strange control. He was heading toward a ufo. Both he and Betty were taken aboard and tests performed. Betty remembered a star map that was shown to her by an alien and was able to draw it. All these memories came about years later, after being subject to hypnosis. Before that, they only knew that they had lost time, a lot of it, and couldn't account for the reason why. The map was studied for years by astronomers, but no match was made until Marjorie Fish, an amateur astronomer, was able to match the map with a portion of a star system, known as Zeta Reticuli. Could Betty have dreamed up this map? Carl Sagan called the map a little more than a random alignment of chance points, but others agreed with Fish. The Hills claimed that their abduction haunted them for the rest of their lives.

April 24, 1964 - Police Officer Zamora sees a ufo land in an isolated area. Lonnie Zamora was a policeman in New Mexico. The incident occurred in Socorro. Zamora was chasing a speeding car when he heard a loud roar and then a bluish, orange flame was seen rising into the air. He stopped chasing the speeding car and headed toward the noise and light. He thought that a dynamite shack, that was in that direction, had exploded. To his surprise the shack was fine, but there was something shinning in the distance. He drove toward it and discovered a saucer shaped object on the ground. It had no windows or even a door. It was small, about car size and had a marking on the side. The marking was in red. As he was looking over the object he saw two beings that were dressed in white overalls, that were childlike. One jumped with fright upon seeing him. Zamora radioed the Sheriff's office about the incident. He decided to go back to the unknown vehicle to examine it better, but as he neared it, it suddenly took off. To this day, no one denies that he saw this object. About the only rebuttal I have seen and it, is not aimed at Zamora. Someone said that the vehicle was a test bed from NASA. This is a very important sighting because of the caliber of the witness, a policeman who is trained to notice things and one who was able to remain calm.

March 16, 1967 - A U.S. missile base has some of its missiles taken off line by a ufo. Malmstrom Air Force base had an incredible thing happen to it. A ufo was spotted over one of the missile silos, by guards patrolling the base. They weren't taken very seriously until the first missile went non operational. It just so happened that a couple of maintenance crews were on the premises and at first it was thought that they had taken the missile down without telling anyone, but this wasn't the case. Other missiles began to go off line. After about 10 seconds, the complete flight of 10 missiles became non operational. The guidance and control system for each missile had caused a fault. A team was sent to the base and they also saw ufos over the base. It took an entire day to get the missiles back on line. Did ufos try and send us a message that we shouldn't be aiming missiles at each other? I like to think that this was the case, anyway this was a demonstration that ufos, if they wanted to, could stop us from making war and could overpower our technology.

Exact date in dispute, but about December 25 and 26, 1980. The most famous ufo case in England occurred near the Rendlesham Forest/Bentwaters RAF base. This case involved many U.S. airmen, that were stationed at the base. Another base known as the RAF Woodbridge base was nearby. That was also being used by Americans. A resident of a nearby village reported seeing a strange object above the village. Another was seen by servicemen at the Woodbridge base. They went into the forest to look for it, since it had landed, but saw many bright lights instead. The lights were moving. Some airmen saw a metal cylinder shaped object that had triangular landing gear. As they moved toward it, it moved away from them. They chased it and were found later in a shaken and dazed state. They were forced to sign non disclosure documents. A few days later, they went into the woods again, this time with radiation detectors. The deputy base commander went with them and made tape recordings. Some say that these men met aliens and were able to communicate with them through sign language. The incident remained a secret for about three years before it was blown wide open by News of the World, a tabloid. Could all these military men have been wrong? What more reliable witnesses could one have? Statements from Colonel Halt indicate that he saw strange lights coming from above the trees. In the center of the light, he says that he saw a red blinking light and a mostly steady blue light. He said that he heard strange sounds that seemed like a woman was screaming, but this has been discounted as noise made by wild animals in the area. Another witness states that he actually saw a mechanical object that was giving off the light. Indeed this is a very important sighting.

March 13, 1997 - Thousands see lights over Arizona and hundreds observe a triangular craft over Phoenix. This sighting is known as the Phoenix Lights. At least five cities in the area have witnessed such lights. The lights appeared over the Superstition mountains. They were said to move in unison across the sky. A formation of lights, which appeared to be the same one, was then seen over the Gila River. When the military was asked about these lights, they poo pooed them as being flares. UFO and photographic experts have stated that they examined some of the photos taken and they were not flares. Some say that a mother ship was in the sky, surrounded by other ships of different shapes. The lights had slowed down when they reached Arizona. Then there was the triangular ship. It was spotted in Mesa. The family that saw it said it was enormous. It was said to have lights at three corners and a large light in the center. There were grid like panels on the bottom of the craft. A group of real estate agents claimed to have gotten a good look at the mother ship. They stated it was a gigantic disc. Their estimate of its size was two miles in diameter. They said it had rows of lights and windows and that they could see the silhouettes of people looking out those windows. A different family got a real good look at the discs and said that the color of the craft was a bluish black. Two former pilots saw the craft at different times and concurred with the size estimate. It is said that one of the pilots had made a video tape, but it was taken away from him. I think that these sightings are very notable because of the amount of people that saw them. Can thousands of people be wrong about what they saw?

Well these are the ten sightings that I think are the most important and the reasons for my opinion. Let's hope that there are even better ones in the future. Maybe, someday, we will see an actual alien and he, or she, will appear to so many people that no one will be able to deny the existence of extraterrestrials anymore.