What this is
An interactive, evidentially tiered timeline of the public UAP/UFO disclosure record from the V-2 era to the present. Each event is tagged with an evidentiary tier so you can see at a glance what's documented, what's contested, what's testimony-only, and what's part of the cultural narrative without strong evidence behind it.
The goal is honest calibration, not validation. A 🟢 entry is not an endorsement of any larger claim it gets cited toward; a 🔴 entry is not dismissal of a topic — it's a flag that the underlying evidence is thin. Tiers can and should evolve as evidence develops.
How to read the tiers
🟢 Documented — primary sources, official records, contemporaneous reporting. The event happened and the basic facts are not in dispute. (Interpretation may still be contested.)
🟡 Contested — real event, disputed interpretation. The Roswell debris is real; what it was is debated. The Phoenix Lights were observed by thousands; what produced the formation is disputed.
🔵 Testimony-only — credible witness or insider claims, no independent physical evidence yet. Often involves named individuals with verifiable credentials but unverified specifics.
🔴 Fringe / speculative — interesting but evidentially weak. Included because it's part of the cultural narrative around UAP, not because it's evidence of anything.
What the controls do
- Tier chips — toggle each tier on/off independently. Useful when you want to look at only documented events, or only the speculative layer.
- Search — live filter across event titles, summaries, and key figures. Matched cards auto-expand.
- Date range — narrow the timeline to a specific year window while keeping tier/search filters active.
- Map view — plots events with known geographic coordinates. Note that not all events have map locations; conceptual events (legislation, programs, books) don't. Some events may have approximate locations.
- Expand all / Collapse all — for scanning everything at once or resetting.
Editorial governance & review cadence
Who changes tiers: tiering and summaries are edited by the project maintainer, with source-driven revisions when better evidence appears.
When changes happen: routine review is monthly, with ad-hoc updates for major releases, hearings, declassifications, or material source corrections.
What triggers a re-tier: new primary documents, stronger provenance for existing claims, factual error reports, or clear source-quality re-evaluation.
What this is not
This is not a primary research document. Every tier flag and every summary is a synthesis — read the linked primary sources before drawing conclusions. The tier system is a heuristic, not a verdict.
It does not assert that any anomalous phenomenon is real or unreal. The most defensible reading of the documented record is that something is producing genuinely anomalous sensor returns and pilot reports, and that the U.S. government has historically suppressed information about its own investigation programs. That's a much weaker claim than "extraterrestrial visitation is occurring," which the public record does not establish.
It is not exhaustive. Deep-fringe material (channeled contactee accounts post-1960s, most YouTube-only claims, ongoing breaking-news items) is intentionally excluded. The cutoff is "would a reasonable researcher need to know this exists to understand the modern discourse?"
What about the Trump UAP Executive Order, the 2026 disclosure cycle, etc.?
Those entries appear in the timeline at their dates of occurrence and are tier-flagged like everything else. The timeline itself does not predict what 2026 will or won't bring; it documents what is known to have happened.
Sources & methodology
Tier assignments draw on primary government sources where available (CIA declassified studies, ODNI reports, AARO publications, Congressional testimony), plus major-paper journalism (NYT, Washington Post, Air & Space Forces Magazine), peer-reviewed scientific literature for astronomy-adjacent items, and Wikipedia for cross-referenced primary sourcing on individual events. Specific source types are listed on each card under "Sources."
Where a source has financial, ideological, or reputational stakes in the outcome (this applies to skeptics and proponents alike), the relevant card's tier reflects that bias. For example: claims foundational to a sales pipeline (TTSA-era materials, certain memoir-form allegations) are weighted more skeptically than claims with no commercial dependency.
Corrections policy (short version)
If you spot a factual error, source mismatch, or tier you believe is miscalibrated, use the contact form or open a repository issue with citations. Material factual corrections are typically triaged within 7 days; urgent attribution or quote errors are prioritized for faster review.
Substantive source/tier revisions are reflected in the live dataset. The footer "Last updated" stamp shows the latest recorded data addition date.
Built with Claude
This site was built collaboratively with Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant. The data, evidentiary tiers, and editorial judgments were directed by a human researcher; Claude handled the structure, code, and prose pass.
Feedback
Found an error? Disagree with a tier flag? Contact me. Tier flags are intended to evolve as evidence develops — corrections welcome.
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