Updated: Feb 12, 2020 Original: Mar 10, 2019
In 1952, 'Flying Saucers' Over Washington Sent the Press Into a Frenzy
UFO reports in the capital's air space set headlines blaring across the nation about 'disks' and 'whatzits' and mysterious lights.
Missy Sullivan
If 1952 marked the year that UFO fever spread across Cold War America, events in late July of that year spiked that mania to critical levels. That's when the grandfather of all "saucer" sightings took place in the skies above the nation's capital, causing a coast-to-coast collective jaw drop.
Over several weeks, up to a dozen unexplained objects repeatedly streaked across the skies over Washington, D.C.—spotted not just by crackpots, but by radar operators, professional pilots and other highly credible witnesses. The Air Force scrambled fighter jets, but the 'saucers' outran them. Around the U.S., sci-fi-like headlines blared, rumors flew and sightings soared.
When President Harry Truman quietly called for answers, a representative from the Air Force's secret UFO-investigation team, Project Blue Book, was summoned to D.C. But before anyone could fully probe the incidents, the Air Force hastily convened a press conference to quell the panic, blaming the whole thing on the weather . . .