When people think about unidentified flying objects (UFOs), they tend to think of flying discs piloted by gray beings with large heads and enormous eyes. They tend to think that these sightings only started relatively recently and that belief in UFOs is some sort of modern religion brought on, perhaps, by the very justifiable fears of a nuclear age. But a study of the phenomenon quickly reveals that humanity has been seeing UFOs since the beginning of recorded history and perhaps a lot longer than that.

Modern Ufology focuses on mysterious lights on Ceres or tales of alien abduction, but this wasn’t always the case, and looking at how the beliefs in the UFO phenomenon have changed or stayed the same can shed light on how culture and belief changes over time. One does not have to believe humans are actually being visited by aliens from another planet to recognize the importance of UFOs in human society. Any widespread belief that endures for centuries is worthy of study, and as always, cases exist that can’t be explained away simple superstition.

Most everyone in America is familiar with theories about UFOs, or “flying saucers” as they were often called then, but even this name dates back only to 1947. Before that time, they were called “ghost rockets” or “ghost airplanes” or “ghost airships.” Before the age of flight, the flying objects were called various things such as “flying chariots.” No matter what terminology is used, every generation has clearly had its own belief that mankind is not alone.

Even after the term flying saucer was replaced by the more scientific-sounding “unidentified flying object” (UFO), this feeling remained. It became so prevalent that almost anyone who claimed to have seen an unidentified object in the sky was reported as having observed an alien crafts. The whole subject of UFOs became polarized between those who believed not just that they were real but that they were extraterrestrials and those who thought it was simply silly. They also claimed, with some justification, that assuming the objects were from another world was not supported by the evidence.

The situation remained as such for the remainder of the 20th century. UFO believers claimed there was overwhelming evidence that we were being visited by extraterrestrials. They cited evidence they claimed would prove that governments on Earth (and particularly the government of the United States) knew about the origin of these crafts, had retrieved one or more crashed examples, and perhaps even made contact with the entities who controlled them. UFO skeptics claimed UFO believers were credulous idiots, and there was no evidence of the reality of any unknown objects in the sky, and certainly not those that might have an extraterrestrial origin.

Each side accused the other of ignoring vital evidence and/or of accepting it as real evidence lacking any objective reality. It would not be until the 21st century that these objects in the sky would receive their final designation as “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP), and almost for the first time, an official recognition that not everyone who reported seeing such things was deluded, mistaken, or lying.