A pilot's 'flying saucers' sparked the modern UFO era
On this day · 24 June 1947
Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting near Mount Rainier handed the world a phrase he never actually meant to coin.
On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying near Mount Rainier, Washington, when, shortly before 3 p.m., he saw nine shiny objects racing along the crest of the Cascades. He clocked them at roughly 1,200 miles per hour, far faster than any aircraft of the day, and watched the formation for about two minutes.
Arnold described the objects’ motion as like a saucer skipped across water. Reporters at Oregon’s East Oregonian seized on the image, and the Associated Press soon carried the phrase “nine bright saucer-like objects” across the country.
The term “flying saucer” stuck, even though Arnold insisted the wording described how the objects moved, not their shape.
Arnold spent years complaining about the “misquotes and misinformation” his account inspired.
His report drew nationwide coverage and triggered a wave of copycat sightings, making it the spark of the modern UFO phenomenon.
Sources & references
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