A Data-Driven History of U.S. UFO Sightings: NUFORC Records, State Rankings, and Notable Cases

To the point

Unidentified flying object sightings have a long history across cultures; the term was coined in 1953, most reports are thought to be hoaxes or misidentifications with no proven aliens, NUFORC records about 90,000 sightings since 1974 (and back to 1400) with roughly 95% explained by terrestrial causes, sightings peak around 9–10 p.m., California leads the list followed by Florida, Washington, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania, and famous cases like Roswell and Kinross show how reports are collected, interpreted, and sometimes debunked.