photo from the National Archives Museum

By Eduardo Rodriguez

There are many theories of UFO existence. This following article discusses the story of the "mysterious lights" in Washington, DC that circled the White House. 

In July of 1952, citizens of Washington, DC reported seeing strange lights or “orbs” flying around the White House.

These incidents were reported globally. All over the media and newspapers were photos of gigantic, disc-shaped orbs flying around the White house. The orbs were seen flying around for a few weeks, from the 12th to the 29th. People took pictures and discussed the incident. 

It started when a pilot reported seven unknown aircrafts on his radar to the National Airport around midnight. The airport said they had also noticed unidentified aircrafts on their radar, and had seen “bright lights” in the sky, which flew with incredible speed. 

The objects moved over the White house and the United States Capitol. They were reported to an Air Force base, located 10 miles away from the National Airport. At this point, these unknown objects were on every nearby radar, but nobody could explain what they were, or what aircraft they belonged to. 

An airman soon reported to the base that he saw what appeared to be an orange ball of fire, trailing a tail. As personnel were being alerted, the strange object took off with “unbelievable speed.” A Capitol Airlines pilot was granted permission to take off into the sky to investigate. After spotting what he believed to be a meteor, he was told that the control tower's radar had detected unknown objects closing in on him. 

The pilot observed six objects, which he described as “white, tailless, fast-moving lights.” When the pilot stated that the light streaked off at a high speed, it disappeared from his scope. Some believed they were simple stars and meteors, and one person was able to prove this. 

However, a sergeant observed an orange-red light to the south. The light would appear to “stand still”, then make a quick change in altitude and direction. The sergeant said that it happened several times. Both the radars from National Airport and the Air Force base were tracking the hovering object over a radio beacon. Suddenly, the object vanished in all three radars at the exact same time.

At around 3 a.m., shortly before two US Air Force F-94 Starfire jets from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware arrived over Washington, all the objects vanished from the radar at National Airport. But, when the jets got low on fuel and left, the objects returned. It was reported that “The UFOs were monitoring radio traffic and behaving accordingly.” The objects were last detected by a radar at around 5:30 a.m. 

After these events, the sightings were in newspapers all over the nation, making headlines. The incident is now known as “The Invasion of Washington.” 🐾