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‘Jeopardy!’ Drops Interesting Fact About UFOs Making an ‘Appearance’ On This Day

UFOs have been a hot topic for decades. That heat has increased over the past few years. In fact, the Pentagon has been openly talking about them since last year sometime. However, they don’t call them “Unidentified Flying Objects,” anymore. Instead, they are calling them “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.”

Whatever you call them, UFOs have captured the minds and imaginations of people around the globe for quite some time now. It isn’t hard to find someone who claims to have seen one. In fact, several celebrities have come out to say that they have witnessed something strange in the skies in the past year. Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield as well as retired NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal are in that camp.

The official Jeopardy! Instagram account is even talking about UFOs now. Earlier today, they shared a post that says that the first reported flying saucer sighting in the United States happened on this day in 1947. So, Americans have been watching the skies for seventy-four years today.

They went on to ask if any of their followers had spotted an alien craft in the sky. At the time of writing, one commenter chimed in to say that they did see one when they were younger. That isn’t surprising at all. In fact, an ABC News report states that 6,000 North Americans reported seeing UFOs in 2019 alone. That figure comes from the National UFO Reporting Center which compiles reports from the United States and Canada. Keep in mind that it is only one of many organizations of its kind. At the same time, it doesn’t include reports from Mexico in its numbers.

Kenneth Arnold Spots the First UFOs 74 Years Ago Today

Many people reported strange sightings in the sky before 1947. For instance, Allied pilots in WWII reported balls of light trailing their planes. However, they didn’t call these UFOs. Instead, they called them “foo fighters.” Kenneth Arnold, a civilian pilot and Washington state resident reported the first “flying saucers,” in the United States.

On this day in 1947, Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in a tight V formation over Mount Rainier in Washington. Each of the crafts was glowing a bright blue-white. The experienced pilot estimated the UFOs’ speed at about 1700 mph, according to History. However, he didn’t say they looked like saucers. He said that they moved like saucers skipped across water.

Arnold originally believed that he had witnessed a test flight of experimental military aircraft. However, military personnel confirmed that there were no test flights in that area at the time. A prospector hunting for gold on Mount Rainier also reported seeing the UFOs around the same time. This corroboration bolstered Arnold’s claim.

A month later, the infamous incident in Roswell, New Mexico took place. These two events led to widespread belief in and fear of unidentified flying objects.