[
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "1561-04-14",
    "source_publication_date": "1561",
    "evidence_class": "contemporaneous historical document",
    "account": "Hans Glaser’s Nuremberg broadsheet records a reported celestial event in its period’s religious and cultural setting. The surviving document is evidence of the report, not authentication of a modern spacecraft interpretation.",
    "source_url": "https://www.e-manuscripta.ch/zuzneb/content/titleinfo/2723858",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "1912-10-14",
    "source_publication_date": "1912-11-27",
    "evidence_class": "contemporaneous official discussion",
    "account": "Hansard records Churchill’s account of an inquiry into an unknown aircraft heard at Sheerness. Its nationality was not established. Government uncertainty in this record does not establish extraterrestrial contact.",
    "source_url": "https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1912/nov/27/airships",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "Alleged 1933 event",
    "source_publication_date": "Papers emerged 1996",
    "evidence_class": "retrospective disputed allegation",
    "account": "An archival critique distinguishes authentic suspicious-aircraft records from anonymous papers offered decades later as evidence of an Italian recovery. Insufficient provenance is not proof of either a recovery or a forgery. The alleged event date must not be presented as the document’s verified date.",
    "source_url": "https://www.cisu.org/fascist-ufo-files-a-professional-archivists-opinion/",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "1947-09-18",
    "source_publication_date": "Archival agency history",
    "evidence_class": "documented institution",
    "account": "The CIA was established in 1947. Assigning it a role in prewar events would be anachronistic. Earlier institutions require their own names and evidence.",
    "source_url": "https://www.archives.gov/research/intelligence/cia",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "1953-01",
    "source_publication_date": "Later CIA historical account",
    "evidence_class": "institutional retrospective",
    "account": "A CIA-authored history describes the Robertson Panel and concealed sponsorship. It documents the agency’s account of investigation and information management; it is not a final explanation of every reported sighting.",
    "source_url": "https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/cia-role-study-UFOs.pdf",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "1955-08-01",
    "source_publication_date": "Later CIA historical account",
    "evidence_class": "documented classified development",
    "account": "The CIA’s U-2 history describes classified government-private aircraft development and the first accidental liftoff at Groom Lake. Real secrecy and advanced engineering do not establish extraterrestrial technology.",
    "source_url": "https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/area-51-and-the-accidental-test-flight/",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "id": "ellis-cesg-report-3006-1970-01",
    "event_or_claimed_date": "1970-01",
    "date_precision": "month",
    "title": "Ellis records non-secret encryption as a theoretical possibility",
    "author": "J. H. Ellis",
    "report_number": "CESG 3006",
    "event_kind": "internal research report approval",
    "source_publication_date": "Internal approval: January 1970; exact public release date not established",
    "evidence_class": "contemporaneous research report, now publicly accessible",
    "account": "Ellis’s CESG report considers digital encryption without an initially shared secret between the communicators. It presents a theoretical model while explicitly leaving practical implementation unestablished. This is a research record, not evidence of deployment or influence on later independent researchers.",
    "source_url": "https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/3035765/Document-02.pdf",
    "catalog_url": "https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/21971-document-02",
    "source_title": "The Possibility of Secure Non-Secret Digital Encryption",
    "locator": "Title-page summary and approval month (PDF page 2); introduction paragraph 2 (PDF page 4 / printed page 3)",
    "provenance": "Public scan hosted by the National Security Archive at George Washington University; its catalog names FVEYdocs.org as the source. Full custody and formal declassification history were not independently reconstructed.",
    "date_note": "The catalog supplies January 1; the inspected title page supplies January only. Approval, public disclosure and access dates are different events.",
    "rights_status": "Metadata and original commentary only; republication permission for the scan not verified. Source PDF linked, not mirrored.",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "Claims about earlier events",
    "source_publication_date": "2001-04; event 2001-05-09",
    "evidence_class": "organizer claims and testimony",
    "account": "Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project materials present claims about visitation, compartmentalized programs, and oversight. They establish what the organizer and witnesses claimed. The executive summary and public event are not independent corroboration of the claims. April 2001 is a publication anchor, not a verified first-ever claim date.",
    "source_url": "https://drstevengreer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ExecutiveSummary-LRdocs.pdf",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "2021 presentation",
    "source_publication_date": "2021",
    "evidence_class": "author interpretation",
    "account": "Richard Thieme’s DEF CON 29 slides document his presentation of UFO and government history. His book’s stated scope begins in WWII. The presentation is relevant to hacker conference discourse and evidence standards, but does not establish prewar contact.",
    "source_url": "https://thiemeworks.com/uploads/Thieme-DefCon-29-UFOs-slides.pdf",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  },
  {
    "event_or_claimed_date": "Historical program claims",
    "source_publication_date": "2024-03-08",
    "evidence_class": "institutional assessment",
    "account": "AARO’s historical review reports no empirical evidence that government or private companies reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology. That is AARO’s assessment within the review’s scope; it does not identify the cause of every unresolved observation.",
    "source_url": "https://www.aaro.mil/Portals/136/PDFs/AARO_Historical_Record_Report_Vol_1_2024.pdf",
    "checked": "2026-10-16"
  }
]