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50 Years Ago: Government Stops Investigating UFOs - National Archives Foundation About Contact Membership Donate Home Visit Exhibits WWII Featured Records Kids and Families Archives in DC Presidential Libraries Archives Nationwide Learn Archives Experience Civics Education Women’s History Rights & Justice Featured Records Online Initiatives Publications Research Boeing Learning Center Support Donate Membership Circles Membership Women’s History Fund Rights & Justice Fund Corporate Council Sponsors Planned Giving Events Events Calendar Upcoming Exhibit – All American: The Power of Sports Host an Event Past Virtual Programs News Shop Become A Member About About The Foundation Mission Staff Board of Directors Annual Reports/990s About The Archives Contact Home Visit Exhibits WWII Featured Records Kids and Families Featured Document Archives in DC Presidential Libraries Archives Nationwide Directions & Parking Learn Archives Experience Black History Boeing Learning Center Civics Education Cokie Roberts Fellowship Online Programs Publications Research Rights & Justice Women’s History Support Donate Membership Circles Membership Cokie Roberts Research Fund Rightfully Hers Fund Rights & Justice Fund Corporate Council Sponsors Planned Giving Events Event Calendar 2022 Records of Achievement Award & Gala Host an Event Past Virtual Programs News Shop 50 Years Ago: Government Stops Investigating UFOs 50 Years Ago: Government Stops Investigating UFOs To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of Project Blue Book, the National Archives will display records from the Air Force’s unidentified flying objects (UFOs)  investigations. Report of a “flying saucer” over U.S. airspace in 1947 caused a wave of “UFO hysteria” and sparked Federal investigation of unidentified flying objects. For more than 20 years, the U.S. Air Force analyzed UFO sightings and any security threat they posed; most notably through Project Blue Book, which launched in 1952. After investigations found no evidence of any UFO that was extraterrestrial in nature or that threatened national security, the Air Force announced Project Blue Book’s termination on December 17, 1969. Of the 12,618 UFO sightings reported between 1947 and 1969, 701 remained “unidentified.” Project Blue Book concluded its investigation 50 years ago, but American fascination with UFOs endures. Project Blue Book’s duration coincided with a tumultuous period in American history. Domestic unrest during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests had spurred growing American distrust of the government. Aware of this mounting skepticism, the Air Force quickly declassified and transferred its UFO investigation records to the National Archives, where they are available for public examination. The records on display come from those files. East Rotunda Gallery, December 5, 2019 through January 8, 2020. > Learn more about Project Blue Book Past Featured Records Featured Document Display: Remembering the Hollywood 10: Screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. Thursday, September 8, 2022 – Wednesday, November 2, 2022 East Rotunda Gallery Early in the Cold War, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated allegations of Communist activity in the film industry. The committee’s mandate was... Read more Black Wall Street: 100 Years Since the Tulsa Race Massacre Thursday, April 1, 2021 – Thursday, June 17, 2021 Online “— were dead. Figures are omitted [because] NO ONE KNOWS.” —Red Cross Report On Memorial Day 1921, a Black shoe shiner named Dick Rowland rode in an elevator with white operator Sarah Page. The next day,... Read more Victory in Japan: 75th Anniversary of the End of WWII Japan Surrenders World War II, the bloodiest conflict in history, came to an end in a 27-minute ceremony on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, six years and one day after the war erupted in Europe. On that September morning in 1945, Japanese officials signed a... Read more National Inventors’ Day To celebrate National Inventors’ Day, learn about Marjorie S. Joyner and her groundbreaking permanent wave machine, an innovation that revolutionized the time-intensive task of curling or straightening women’s hair. Over her 50-year career, Joyner trained thousands of students and helped write the first cosmetology laws in... Read more Featured Document Display: Never Forget: Remembering the Holocaust Seventy-five years ago on January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in German-occupied Poland. Russian soldiers discovered thousands of sick, dying, and dead prisoners when they entered the complex of concentration camps, forced labor camps, and a killing center abandoned by the... Read more Learn Archives Experience Featured Records Online Initiatives Publications Educators & Students Research Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote Boeing Learning Center National Archives Foundation700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20408-0001202-357-5946 Home Visit Learn Support Events News Shop About Jobs Archives.gov About Contact Membership Donate © 2023 National Archives Foundation