Incident or event · event

Invasion of Washington (1952)

Name: Invasion of Washington (1952)
Start: 1952-07-19
End: 1952-07-29

1952-07-19 – 1952-07-29what this date marks is not recorded

A series of radar and visual UFO sightings over Washington, D.C. - including over the White House and Capitol - in July 1952, the most publicized UFO wave in U.S. history at the time. The Air Force attributed the sightings to temperature inversions; a 74-year-old MIT Lincoln Laboratory recording tied to the event was flagged in Rep. Eric Burlison's 2026 records request.

In the UAP recordRuled into the unidentified-phenomena thread on 2 September 2026 from this entity's own name and role text, which contain: "ufo". An editorial classification of what thread this entity belongs to; it rests on no page and does not claim to. Neighbours were not used - see apply-subjects-2026-09-02.mjs for why.

2 of 4 connections resolve to a document you can open. 2 carry no citation at all.

1 note on how this record was made

Documents2 behind these connections

Documents behind these connections

4 connections

ColourGovernmentFFRDCs

← Gen. John A. Samford

held the Pentagon press conference addressing it

No title recorded war-gov-65-hs1-834228961-62-hq-83894-sub-a-pdf
PDF p. 55 checked against the page
→ Project Blue Book

the official explanation attributed it to a low-level temperature inversion

Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects
printed p. 71 · PDF p. 77 checked against the page
→ MIT Lincoln Laboratory nothing behind it

a 74-year-old recording tied to it was flagged in Burlison's 2026 request
→ Curtis LeMay nothing behind it

occurred during his era as a senior Air Force commander

1 correction to this record

Generated from the record, not written by hand. Every change keeps what the map used to say, because a correction nobody can see is indistinguishable from never having been wrong.

Invasion of Washington (1952) → Project Blue Book

investigated it and attributed it to temperature inversions

the official explanation attributed it to a low-level temperature inversion

Printed 71 names the inversion explicitly but attributes it to "the official explanation" and "the official suggestion". It never says Blue Book. The edge still connects the event to Blue Book; the relation no longer claims the page said so.

Notes on this record

The incident

The July 1952 radar-visual sightings over Washington, D.C.