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EXACTLY 60 years ago, a light aircraft was flying over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State, at a height of around 3000m.
Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light illuminated the aircraft.
Visibility was good and as pilot Kenneth Arnold scanned the sky to find the source of the light, he saw a group of nine shiny metallic objects flying information.
He estimated their speed as being around 2600km/h - nearly three times faster than the top speed of any jet aircraft at the time.
Soon, similar reports began to come in from all over America.
This wasn't just the world's first UFO sighting, this was the birth of a phenomenon, one that still exercises an extraordinary fascination.
Military authorities issued a press release, which began: "The many rumours regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc."
The headlines screamed: "Flying Disc captured by Air Force".
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