ODDSEAMINDEPENDENT FIELD ARCHIVE

The timeline

Eighty years,
two records.

What was seen, and what was filed about it — 58 sightings against 59 things governments did, laid on one axis.

Open the timeline Read it era by era ↓
A worn stack of typed case papers on a dark desk

The two records

Sightings above. The files kept on them below.

Click any entry
to read its record.

Every mark is an entry: hover to name it, click to read it. Drag to move through time, Ctrl-scroll or pinch to zoom — the report ridge below follows.

Report counts are civilian submissions to NUFORC, not sightings. Before 1990 the ridge shows an annual average, not a monthly one — report dates from that era are reliable to the year but not the month. Reporting volume also changes with how easy reporting is; the solid line corrects for that, the faint one does not, and the corrected line starts in 2000 because earlier months have no baseline drawn from a single reporting era; the underlying NUFORC mirror runs through April 2014, and neither line counts anything reported after that month.

Read it era by era

Four eras the record
makes visible.

The eras are this archive's own reading, from its research pack: where the record changes character. The research names a fifth, 1883–1946, which falls before this timeline begins. Entries are filed under the era that was running in their year, so the few that fall between eras sit with the one before.

1947 – 1969

The state
investigates.

Everything is threat assessment: Project Sign, Grudge and Blue Book in the United States, Canada's Magnet and Second Storey, the United Kingdom's Flying Saucer Working Party.

AI illustration of the Zamora encounter at Socorro, New Mexico, 1964 — not an evidence photographThe Zamora encounter
Socorro · 1964
AI illustration · not an evidence photograph
Read the entries · 1947–1969

    1976 – 1991

    The instrumented
    decade.

    Tehran, Petrozavodsk, Colares, Kaikōura, Manises, Rendlesham, Trans-en-Provence, Brazil's Night of the UFOs, Belgium. Radar, interceptors and state laboratories enter the record — and Soviet Setka and the UK and US desks quietly close behind them.

    AI illustration of the Tehran intercept, 1976 — not an evidence photographThe Tehran intercept
    1976
    AI illustration · not an evidence photograph
    Read the entries · 1976–1991

      1994 – 2014

      The long
      gap.

      Events still happen — Ariel School, Varginha, Campeche, O’Hare, Chile 2014 — but the northern desks go dark: Canada in 1995, the United Kingdom in 2009. South America goes the other way, opening its own offices in Chile in 1997, Argentina in 2011 and Peru in 2013.

      AI illustration of the Ariel School sighting, Ruwa, Zimbabwe, 1994 — not an evidence photographAriel School
      Ruwa · 1994
      AI illustration · not an evidence photograph
      Read the entries · 1994–2014

        2017 – 2026

        Re-
        institution.

        AARO, Japan's parliamentary caucus, Chile and Uruguay's continuity, France never having stopped — and Pentagon file releases that now cite foreign cases by name.

        AI illustration of the San Diego swarm, 2019 — not an evidence photographThe San Diego swarm
        2019
        AI illustration · not an evidence photograph
        Read the entries · 2017–2026

          The story
          stays open.

          Every entry has a file.

          The timeline is the index. The archive holds the folders — and the findings, what they add up to.

          Explore the archive

          Date
          Location
          Evidence basis