June 13 Unable to cope with personal and professional problems, Dr. James E. McDonald succeeds in committing suicide on his second attempt.

September 4 An automatic camera on a mapping aircraft snaps a picture of a UFO over Lago de Cote in Costa Rica.

November 2 The Delphos Ring incident occurs near Delphos, Kansas.

1972 - 1973

Robert Emenegger and Allan Sandler invited to the Pentagon and then to Norton AFB to discuss UFOs with the brass.

1973

October 11 Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claim to have been abducted and taken aboard a UFO while fishing on the Singing River at Pascagoula, Mississippi.

October 18 Four Army reservists in a helicopter confront a UFO near Mansfield, Ohio. See Confontation Over Mansfield

December 13 French journalist Claude Vorilhon purpotedly meets an extraterrestrial in the south of France. He later forms the Raellian movement.

1975

Larry Kusche publishes The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved, which debunks the "Bermuda Triangle" myth. See The Bermuda Triangle

October 27 A series of UFO sightings at Loring AFB in Maine begins.

October 30 UFO incident at Wurtsmith AFB in Michigan. See Security Alert

October The story of Betty and Barney Hill's abduction by aliens appears on TV as an NBC movie titled The UFO Incident starring Estelle Parsons as Betty Hill and James Earl Jones as Barney.

November 8 UFO incident at Malmstrom AFB in Montana.

November 5 Just two weeks after The UFO Incident is broadcast, Travis Walton is purportedly abducted by a UFO near Snowflake, Arizona. This will later be made into a movie titled Fire in the Sky with James Garner.

1976

August 26 Four men are abducted in 1976 while fishing on the Allagash waterway in Maine.

September 19 Tehran, Iran sightings.

1977

Have Blue Stealth fighter testing begins at Area 51.

Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind released.

June 20 Alternative 3 is broadcast on Anglia Television in the UK.

November 16 Purported alien landing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota.

1978

October 21 Frederick Valentich, flying a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania, reports that he is being followed by a huge, unknown aircraft. No trace of him or his plane is ever found again.

1979

Two technicians computer enhance pictures of a face-like structure on Mars that was found in Viking photos. See Face on Mars

Stories of UFO sightings by astronauts become widespread.

1979 - 1980

Paul Bennewitz begins filming UFOs over Manzano Test Range, Kirtland AFB, near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1980

The Roswell Incident by Charles Berlitz and William Moore is published.

Demise of NICAP.

May A Strange Harvest, the documentary on cattle mutilations by Linda Moulton Howe, is first broadcast.

August Coyote Canyon/Manzano/Sandia/Kirtland sightings. See Kirtland AFB Sightings, Part 2

December 27 A UFO "landing event" occurs at Bentwaters/Woodbridge joint USAF/RAF air base at Rendlesham Forest, England.

December 29 Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Colby Landrum happen upon a UFO being escorted by Chinook helicopters near Huffman, Texas.See Diamond in the Sky.

1981

February William Moore receives the Project Aquarius Document.

1982

The Hudson Valley sightings in New York and Connecticut begin. 1983

William Moore is shown an "executive briefing paper" by one of his "contacts."

February Linda Moulton Howe reportedly meets with an AFOSI agent at Kirtland AFB and is shown a "presidential briefing paper."

August 12 The destruction of the "Montauk Project".

1984

Producer Jaime Shandera receives the MJ-12 Documents on an undeveloped roll of 35mm film.

January 16 Kenneth Arnold dies