1952 Washington DC UFO Incident — Complete Timeline July 12-29 1952

1952 Washington DC UFO Incident — Complete Timeline July 12-29 1952

Incident Name:	1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident
Incident Date:	July 19–20 July 26–27, 1952
Location:	Washington National Airport
State/Provence:	Washington, D.C.
Country :	USA
Case Files :	1952 Washington, D.C. UFO Incident Case Files

1952 Washington DC UFO Incident — Complete Timeline July 12-29 1952

Date/Time	Event	Location	Status
July 12–18, 1952	Preliminary UFO sightings in the Washington area; several radar contacts and visual reports precede the main events	Washington area	Documented — part of the broader 1952 wave
July 19, 1952, 11:40 PM	Edward Nugent detects 7 unidentified objects on ARTC radar — 15 miles south-southwest of Washington; no known aircraft in area; not on established flight paths	Washington National Airport	Primary account; documented in multiple sources
July 19, 1952, ~11:45 PM	Harry Barnes, senior controller, confirms targets on Nugent's radarscope; writes "their movements were completely radical compared to those of ordinary aircraft"	Washington National Airport — ARTC	Barnes's documented account
July 19, 1952, ~11:50 PM	Tower Central (National Airport's second radar) independently begins tracking the same unknowns	Washington National Airport — Tower Central	Multi-radar corroboration
July 19, ~midnight	Barnes contacts Andrews AFB; Andrews radar confirms it is tracking the same objects — bright orange objects circling, stopping abruptly, streaking away	Andrews Air Force Base	Multi-facility corroboration
July 19–20 (night)	Howard Cocklin confirms objects on radar AND visually out the tower window — radar-visual corroboration	Washington National Airport tower	Documented; reaffirmed in 2002 Washington Post interview
July 19–20 (night)	Charles Davenport observes orange-red light making abrupt changes in direction and altitude	Washington National Airport	Documented account
July 19–20 (night)	Both radar centers at National Airport and Andrews radar simultaneously track an object hovering over a radio beacon; object vanishes from all three simultaneously	All three radar facilities	Documented; simultaneous disappearance is key anomaly
July 19–20 (night)	Capital Airlines Flight 610 and other airline crews report glowing objects corresponding to radar returns	Airborne near Washington	Documented — airborne visual corroboration
July 20, 1952, ~3:00 AM	All objects vanish from National Airport radar at the exact moment two F-94 Starfires from New Castle AFB, Delaware are approaching Washington	Washington National Airport radar	Documented; Barnes's account; the "monitoring radio traffic" incident
July 20, 1952, ~3:00–5:00 AM	F-94s search the area; find nothing; exhaust fuel and depart; objects return to radar when jets leave	Washington airspace	Documented; confirmed by multiple controllers
July 20, 1952, ~3:00–5:00 AM	Second scramble: one pilot sees nothing; a second pilot sees a white light that vanishes as he approaches	Washington airspace	Documented
July 20, 1952, 5:30 AM	Last radar detection of unknown objects for the first weekend	Washington National Airport radar	Documented
July 20, 1952, ~sunrise	E.W. Chambers observes "five huge disks circling in a loose formation" that "tilted upward and left on a steep ascent"	Washington DC suburbs	Chambers's documented account
July 21, 1952	Ruppelt reads about the July 19–20 sightings in a Washington newspaper — his first awareness of the events	Ruppelt's location (Washington area)	Ruppelt's documented account
July 21–22, 1952	Ruppelt attempts to obtain a staff car for investigation; refused; told to rent a taxi with his own money; leaves Washington without conducting investigation	Pentagon / Washington	Ruppelt's documented account
July 22, 1952	Front-page headlines in newspapers across the nation about the July 19–20 sightings; New York Times reports "Flying Objects Near Washington Spotted by Both Pilots and Radar"	National media	Documented — archived newspaper records
July 22–25, 1952	Continuing sightings and radar contacts throughout the week; an Air Force weather observer reports objects "performing extraordinary gyrations and reversals" at more than 900 mph	Washington area	Documented — continuing activity week
July 26, 1952, 8:15 PM	A National Airlines pilot and stewardess observe strange objects above their aircraft approaching Washington	Airborne near Washington	Documented — the second weekend's opening sighting
July 26, 1952, ~8:20 PM	Both radar centers at Washington National Airport begin tracking more than a dozen unidentified targets across a 100-mile area; Andrews AFB radar confirms the same targets	All three radar facilities	Multi-system corroboration; second weekend begins
July 26, 1952, evening	Maj. Dewey Fournet (Pentagon/Blue Book liaison) and Lt. John Holcomb (Navy radar specialist) rush to the Washington National Airport radar room	Washington National Airport	Documented — on-site investigators
July 26, 1952, evening	Holcomb assesses the temperature inversion and concludes it is "not nearly strong enough to explain the 'good and solid' returns"	Washington National Airport radar room	Holcomb's documented assessment
July 26, 1952, late evening	Lt. William Patterson ("Shirley Red 1") and Capt. John McHugo ("Shirley Red 2") scrambled from their base; fly F-94s toward Washington	142nd Fighter Interceptor Squadron base	Documented — intercept mission
July 26–27, 1952, ~midnight	Patterson arrives in Washington area at 20,000 feet; controllers guide him toward cluster of blips near Andrews AFB	Washington airspace	Patterson's documented account
July 26–27, 1952, ~midnight	Patterson visually confirms four bright, steady lights at radar-indicated positions; lights do not blink or drift	Washington airspace — Patterson's cockpit	Patterson's documented account
July 26–27, 1952, ~midnight	Objects turn and surround Patterson's aircraft; Patterson radios Andrews to ask whether to open fire; receives "stunned silence"; objects then pull away	Washington airspace	Albert M. Chop's documented account; Patterson's account
July 26–27 (night)	Fournet relays that all present in the radar room "were convinced that the targets were most likely caused by solid metallic objects"	Washington National Airport radar room	Fournet's documented conclusion
July 27, 1952 (morning)	Second weekend's sightings and radar contacts end at or near dawn	Washington area	Documented
July 27, 1952	Front-page headlines across the nation; President Truman personally contacts his Air Force aide for an explanation	National media; White House	Documented — Truman's personal involvement
July 27, 1952	Truman's aide calls Capt. Ruppelt at Blue Book headquarters in Dayton; Truman listens on separate phone line; Ruppelt offers the temperature inversion explanation without having investigated	Washington / Dayton	Documented — Ruppelt's account
July 29, 1952	The Pentagon hosts the largest Air Force press conference since World War II; Maj. Gen. Samford leads; the temperature inversion explanation is presented as the official Air Force position; Samford acknowledges "about a 50/50" probability	The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia	Documented — transcripts and accounts exist
Late 1952	Project Blue Book formally classifies the Washington sightings as "unidentified" — unable to account for them with any conventional explanation	Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio	Blue Book records
January 1953	The Robertson Panel is convened by the CIA at the Pentagon; the panel reviews UFO evidence and recommends systematic debunking of reports; a direct consequence of the alarm created by the Washington sightings and the broader 1952 wave	The Pentagon	Documented — CIA records; declassified Robertson Panel report