50 Years Ago Science & Society

50 years ago, UFO sightings in the United States went bust

Excerpt from the June 26, 1971 issue of Science News

a screen capture from a declassified video of an unidentified object

In 2020, the Pentagon declassified video of an unidentified object (shown) taken by a military plane five years prior. A surge in the number of reported UFO sightings in the U.S. coincided with news of the video as well as the start of pandemic-related lockdowns.

U.S. Navy

By Lillian Steenblik Hwang

- More than 2 years ago

cover of June 26, 19761 issue

What happened to UFOs? — Science News, June 26, 1971

Since 1968 the number of UFO sightings has dropped off, along with public interest in them.…