Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting (1947)

On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold saw what he described as a string of nine shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that he estimated to be at least 1,200 miles per hour (1,900 km/h). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs. This case remains a notable entry in historical unexplained-event archives and is included here as a curated historical report.

Source Title

Wikipedia: Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting

Source URL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting

Source Notes

Imported from Wikipedia REST, MediaWiki, and Wikidata sources on 2026-07-06. Review article citations and edit details before saving. Wikimedia image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Chicago_Sun_1947-06-26-2_Flying_Saucer_headline-th.jpg. Coordinates inferred from location context using OpenStreetMap Nominatim query: Mount Rainier, United States.

1. Occurred Jun 24, 1947 12:00 AM UTC
2. Submitted Jul 6, 2026 10:13 PM Historical Archive created
3. Approved Jul 6, 2026 10:13 PM Moderator reviewed
4. Media Uploaded Jul 6, 2026 10:15 PM 2 media files