1947 flying disc craze

In 1947, from June to July, a rash of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the United States were widely publicized by the news media. The craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's story of witnessing disc-shaped objects which headline writers dubbed "Flying Saucers". Such reports quickly spread throughout the United States; historians would later chronicle at least 800 "copycat" reports in subsequent weeks, while other sources estimate the reports may have numbered in the thousands.