1956

Dwight Eisenhower is re-elected President. Television campaign ads are used (significantly) for the first time.

U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, FL. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.

Hungary – Radio Free Europe incites Hungary to revolt by broadcasting Khruschev’s Secret Speech, in which he denounced Stalin. It also hints that American aid will help the Hungarians fight. This aid fails to materialize as Hungarians launch a doomed armed revolt, which only invites a major Soviet invasion. The conflict kills 7,000 Soviets and 30,000 Hungarians.

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt “Every time I get skeptical, I think of the other reports made by experienced pilots and radar operators, scientists, and other people who know what they are looking at. These reports were thoroughly investigated and they are still unknowns.”

“We have no aircraft on this earth that can at will so handily outdistance our latest jets… The pilots, radar specialists, generals, industrialists, scientists, and the man on the street who have told me, ‘I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it myself,’ knew what they were talking about. Maybe the Earth is being visited by interplanetary space ships.”

“When four college professors, a geologist, a chemist, a physicist, and a petroleum engineer report seeing the same UFOs on fourteen different occasions, the event can be classified as, at least, unusual. Add the fact that hundreds of other people saw these UFOs and that they were photographed, and the story gets even better. Add a few more facts, that these UFOs were picked up on radar and that a few people got a close look at one of them, and the story begins to convince even the most ardent skeptic.” Ruppelt,Chief of Project Blue Book, from his book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956.

United States, New York. Capt. Ryan and his first officer William Neff were flying from Albany to Syracuse. At a height of 6,000 feet, the two observed a brilliant white light like an approaching aircraft with landing lights on. Ryan estimated that the object was moving at approximately 1,000 miles per hour , faster than any object of the day. The UFO glowed orange in front of them. Ryan and Neff reported the encounter to Griffiss Air Force Base. The Base confirmed that they also could see an orange object nearby. This sighting lasted over twenty minutes and was also witnessed by the flight attendant, Phyllis Reynolds.

United States, San Bernardino, California. 15-year-old Michael Savage, son of a surgeon, took a picture of a mysterious flying object that he said hovered near his house for 30 seconds; those photos, too, made the paper. Just as the phenomenon was beginning to die out, Hollywood added its own inimitable touch to the UFO craze.

England, Suffolk. The RAF/USAF in Bentwaters / Lakenheath in made radar contact with a UFO using three ground-based radars. A confirmation on aerial radar by a Venom night fighter and visual sightings from the ground and the air make this case one of the most celebrated contacts of modern times. Radar indicated that objects were moving up at 4,000 miles per hour — higher speeds than any aircraft of the time could have achieved.

The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP)was founded by a core of Annapolis boys. NICAP challenged the Air Force on UFOs, unaware that the CIA was already on board.