The UFO Phenomenon

World UFO Day is celebrated as renewed interest in UAPs continues

By T.K. Randall
July 4, 2026

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Intended to help raise awareness of "the undoubted existence of UFOs", World UFO Day is a special event for UFO enthusiasts and researchers as well as for disclosure advocates who are attempting to encourage world governments to reveal what they know about UFOs.

The precise date of World UFO Day hovers between June 24th and July 2nd (yes, we're slightly late in posting this!), with the former being the anniversary of Kenneth Arnold's flying saucer sighting and the latter being the date of the Roswell incident.

Many, however, attribute Arnold's sighting as being the true beginning of the modern UFO phenomenon.

Arnold had been flying his plane (a CallAir A-2) from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington on June 24, 1947 when he decided to make a quick detour in an attempt to track down the wreckage of a missing military plane which had crashed somewhere near Mount Rainier.

Failing to locate it, he had resumed his flight eastward when he witnessed what appeared to be a formation of nine highly reflective objects flying in the sky. The mysterious aircraft were stretched out across an area of around five miles in what he described as "a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation".

He quickly realized that he was not looking at any conventional aircraft. Assuming them to be some type of prototypes being tested by the military, Arnold estimated that they were traveling at speeds of up to 1,700mph, far faster than any known aircraft of the time.

Upon landing, he told some of his pilot friends about what he had seen and by the next day he was being interviewed by reporters.

His description of the objects would lead to the coining of the term "flying saucer".

Exactly what it was he had seen that day continues to remain a topic of intrigue and debate.

As things stand, it is unlikely that we will ever know for sure what really happened.



Tags: UFO