The report Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena was submitted to Congress on June 25th 2021. This is not the first report of its kind and probably won’t be the last. How did we get here?
The FBI and the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena
Government interest in UFOs gates back to at least 1947 when the FBI was collecting information on the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena. NICAP was an organization that pushed for congressional investigations of UFOs. They published reports including The UFO evidence, by Richard H. Hall, 1964 which stated “This report is an attempt to clarify the reliable evidence of UFOs, and to remove the fog mysticism and crackpotism which has helped obscure the real issues.” - National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena.
Their efforts paid off with members of congress taking up the issue:
“Again and again officials pooh- pooh the sightings or the stories. Yet the National Investigating Committee on Aerial Phenomena -NICAP- has accumulated a book of sightings going back more than a decade reporting many instances of dual pilot corroboration by radar and otherwise. The most recent reported instance of UFO's was that in Colorado last week in connection with the carcass of a horse from which the brain cavity had reportedly been emptied.” Investigation of Unidentified Flying Objects- 1967 Con. Rec. 10/16/1967, 28949
The FBI Vault has newspaper clippings, letters, memos and other documents related to the NICAP.
National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP)- FBI Vault.
National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) Part 1 of 3
National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) Part 2 of 3
National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) Part 3 of 3
The FBI Vault also has a 16 part series of documents on UFO sightings from 1947-1954.