14th April 1561: The Nuremberg celestial phenomenon sees a ‘dreadful apparition’ in the sky over the German city

Modern UFO enthusiasts have used the Nuremberg celestial phenomenon as evidence of extra-terrestrial life, although scientists have also put forward their own explanations of why hundreds of people saw what was described as an aerial battle raging in front of the sun.

24th June 1947: The first widely-reported UFO sighting was made by private pilot Kenneth Arnold

In what Kenneth Arnold later complained was an ‘historic misquote’, the press coined the now-ubiquitous phrase ‘flying saucers’ to describe the UFOs.