1977 in UFO history
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 📅 Year
Contents 5
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| Year | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Events | 4 |
| Decade | 1970s |
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| Timeline | 1977 on the UAP Timeline |
1977 in UFO history — the UAP Timeline records 4 events in 1977, mostly about crashes & retrievals and secrecy & cover-up. People named in these events include Jimmy Carter, Leonard Stringfield, Daniel Sheehan, Marcia Smith, Mario Woods.
Overview
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1977 was the year of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. J. Allen Hynek, who pioneered the "close encounter" classification, appeared in a cameo. The French scientist played by François Truffaut was inspired by Jacques Vallée.[1] Vallée, whom Spielberg consulted, argued against the final scene in which aliens emerge from their ship as too prescriptive. The film nevertheless outsold Star Wars at the box office.[2] Days earlier, in late 1977, witnesses in Council Bluffs, Iowa, had reported a reddish object dropping a mass of molten metal in a park. Decades later Vallée and Stanford's Garry Nolan analysed a sample and found ordinary isotopes, atypically mixed.[2]
Official interest grew elsewhere. From 1977 France ran a UFO study office within its space agency CNES, now GEIPAN, and the Brazilian Air Force carried out Operação Prato (Operation Saucer).[3]
The timeline's 1977 entries are claims. Attorney Daniel Sheehan said that, at the request of Congressional Research Service researcher Marcia Smith, he viewed classified Project Blue Book material at the Library of Congress, including photos of a disc embedded in snow.[4] An Air Force sergeant said a general at Wright-Patterson told him of a 1957 crash with four burned bodies.[5] In November security airman Mario Woods at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, said an object responded to his spotlight signals.[5] On 13 December NASA's chief of ground operations safety wrote to the NASA Administrator that "what could be a piece of a UFO" had been examined for over two months at Los Alamos.[5]
Events
- Sgt. M.S. and the Wright-Patterson general (1977) — An Air Force sergeant says a general at Wright-Patterson told him about recovered material.
- Daniel Sheehan and the Blue Book photos (1977) — Attorney Daniel Sheehan says he was shown classified Blue Book material at the Library of Congress.
- Mario Woods incident at Ellsworth AFB (1977) (November 1977) — An Ellsworth AFB security airman says a UAP answered his spotlight signals.
- Carter request and NASA's UFO decision (1977) (13 December 1977) — A NASA safety chief writes that a possible UFO fragment was studied at Los Alamos.
People
- Jimmy Carter — 39th U.S. president, who reported a UFO sighting and asked NASA about UFO research.
- Leonard Stringfield — Former Air Force intelligence officer and NICAP researcher who collected anonymous crash-retrieval accounts from 1978 to 1994.
- Daniel Sheehan — Constitutional lawyer who said he saw classified Blue Book photos and later represented Luis Elizondo.
- Marcia Smith — Congressional Research Service analyst who prepared UFO reports in the 1970s.
- Mario Woods — Air Force security policeman who described a 1977 encounter at an Ellsworth AFB missile site.
- Robert Hastings — Researcher who has collected accounts of UFOs at nuclear weapons sites, author of UFOs and Nukes.
- Frank Press — President Carter's science adviser.
- Robert Frosch — NASA administrator who declined to start a UFO program in 1977.
Nearby years
1976 in UFO history · 1978 in UFO history
References
- Interdimensional hypothesis — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Chris Tattoli, "Jacques Vallée Still Doesn't Know What UFOs Are", Wired · wired.com
- Unidentified flying object — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony, entry for 1977 (Daniel Sheehan) · oversight.house.gov
- UAP timeline (Shellenberger testimony), entries for 1977 to 13 December 1977 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Interdimensional hypothesis”, “Unidentified flying object”, 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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