1964 in UFO history
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 📅 Year
Contents 5
| Year | 1964 |
|---|---|
| Events | 4 |
| Decade | 1960s |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Military encounters (topic), Ocean & underwater (topic) |
| Timeline | 1964 on the UAP Timeline |
1964 in UFO history — the UAP Timeline records 4 events in 1964, mostly about secrecy & cover-up and nuclear & missile sites. People named in these events include Philip Moore, Robert Hastings, Lonnie Zamora, Coral Lorenzen, Robert Jacobs.
Overview
The best-known UFO case of 1964 occurred on 24 April near Socorro, New Mexico. Police officer Lonnie Zamora said he saw two people beside a shiny object, which then rose into the air with a roaring blue and orange flame.[1] The case drew wide press attention, and Project Blue Book listed it as "unknown."[1] Conventional explanations include a lunar-lander test by White Sands Missile Range and a hoax by New Mexico Tech students.[1] Metal traces from the site were analysed by NASA.[2] See Socorro. The timeline also lists an alleged report six days later, on 30 April, of an egg-shaped object on the ground at nearby Holloman Air Force Base, and of a UFO under guard in a hangar there.[3]
The year's other major entry is the Big Sur UFO film. From August to November 1964 an Air Force team on a mountaintop near Big Sur, California, filmed Atlas missile launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.[4] Lieutenant Robert Jacobs, the site commander, later claimed the film showed an object disabling a dummy warhead with a beam. The timeline reports that Major Florenz Mansmann said he studied the film and the CIA confiscated it.[3][4] The project engineer, Kingston George, argued that the film showed the release of decoy warheads, a classified technology Jacobs was not cleared to know about.[4]
Other entries describe missile-site and base encounters collected by Robert Hastings and others. Late in 1964 Lieutenant Colonel Philip Moore, in an underground Atlas launch capsule near Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico, described reports of an object near a neighbouring site.[5] On 10 December a private on guard duty at Fort Riley, Kansas, said soldiers were marched toward a large round object lit by a helicopter searchlight.[3]
Events
- Philip Moore's Atlas missile site sighting (Late 1964) — An Atlas launch officer reports a UAP near his missile site in New Mexico.
- Holloman landing and hangar claim (1964) (30 April 1964) — A claimed UFO under guard at Holloman AFB; the same day a pilot reports an egg-shaped object.
- Big Sur UFO film (September 1964) — An officer says he studied film of a UAP downing a test warhead over the Pacific; the CIA took it.
- Fort Riley incident (1964) (10 December 1964) — A Fort Riley guard says soldiers were marched toward a large object lit by a helicopter.
People
- Philip Moore — Atlas launch officer at Walker AFB who described a UFO near his capsule.
- Robert Hastings — Researcher who has collected accounts of UFOs at nuclear weapons sites, author of UFOs and Nukes.
- Lonnie Zamora — Police officer who reported the 1964 Socorro landing.
- Coral Lorenzen — Co-founder of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).
- Robert Jacobs — Air Force officer who said he filmed a UFO intercepting a test warhead at Big Sur in 1964.
- Florenz Mansmann — Air Force major who confirmed parts of Robert Jacobs's Big Sur story.
- Kingston George — Engineer who argued the Big Sur film showed ordinary missile hardware.
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
Nearby years
1963 in UFO history · 1965 in UFO history
References
- Lonnie Zamora incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Unidentified flying object — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony, entries for 30 April to 10 December 1964 · oversight.house.gov
- Big Sur UFO — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- UAP timeline (Shellenberger testimony), entry for late 1964 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Lonnie Zamora incident”, “Unidentified flying object”, “Big Sur UFO”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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