Today in UFO History

June 26, 1947 – Chicago, Illinois, USA:

Birth of the "Flying Saucer"

 On June 26, 1947, the Chicago Sun ran a front-page story on Arnold's sighting of nine high-speed, metallic objects. In the coverage, the objects were referred to as "flying saucers"—a phrase coined by the press after Arnold described their erratic, saucer-like skipping motion across the sky.

PAGE 2  THE CHICAGO SUN, THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1947
In These United States
Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted by Idaho Pilot
Speed Estimated at 1,200 Miles an Hour When Seen 10,000 Feet Up Near Mt. Rainier
PENDLETON, Ore, June 25. — ([?]).
Nine [bright], saucer-like objects flying at "incredible" speed at 10,000 feet altitude were reported here today by Kenneth Arnold, [Boise] (Idaho) pilot, who said he could not hazard a guess as to what they were. Arnold, a U.S. Forest Service employee searching for a [missing] plane, said he sighted the mystery craft at 3 p.m. They were flying between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, in Washington state, he said, and appeared to weave in and out of formation. Arnold said he clocked them and estimated their speed at 1,200 miles an hour. Inquiries at Yakima last night brought only blank stares, he said, but he added he talked today with an unidentified man from [Ukiah], south of here, who said he had seen similar objects over the mountains near [Ukiah] yesterday. "It seems impossible," Arnold said, "but there it is."