![UFO Flying Low Over Trees UFO Flying Low Over Trees in Los Angeles, 1963](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-06.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
After confusion swept Los Angeles early on Feb. 25, 1942, the report from Western Defense Command was vague: “Unidentified aircraft were reported in the Los Angeles area.”
What was experienced on the ground on that day 74 years ago, however, was very specific. As TIME reported the following week, “Los Angeles citizens crawled out of beds and goggled at the moon. The city had been blacked out. Suddenly, from dozens of Army anti-aircraft posts, searchlights lanced the dark. Orange bursts blossomed in the sky. The city shook with the concussion of ack-ack guns. For almost two hours, except for one 15-minute interval of scary silence, batteries coughed steadily, spewed 1,430 rounds of ammunition into the night.”
For residents for whom the memory of Pearl Harbor was fresh, the possibility of an attack—later dubbed the “Battle of Los Angeles”—seemed very real. But the shot-down plane that the L.A. Times reported on was never found, and the Secretary of the Navy announced that the whole thing had been a false alarm, though Army officials maintained that enemy planes had in fact been sighted in the area.
Whatever did cause the air raid procedure to be launched, it’s no wonder that the Battle of Los Angeles is also a favorite event for UFO conspiracy theorists.
Read more: This Is Why People Think UFOs Look Like ‘Flying Saucers’
In fact, it wasn’t until years later, in 1947, that the common flying saucer image of a UFO would begin to sweep through American popular culture. But, in the years that followed, the reports poured in. Here are a few of the early images that captured the imaginations of those who wished—or feared—to discover that we Earthlings might not be alone.
![Claimed To Be The First Sensational Picture Of The Mysterious Objects Popularly Known As Flying Saucers, This Photograph Is Reproduced From The Issue Teenage Times In Dublin. The Photograph Is Accompagnied By A News Story Which States That The Flying Sauc Claimed To Be The First Sensational Picture Of The Mysterious Objects Popularly Known As Flying Saucers, This Photograph Is Reproduced From The Issue Teenage Times In Dublin. The Photograph Is Accompagnied By A News Story Which States That The Flying Sauc](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-01.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Flying Saucer Flying over Farm Flying Saucer Flying over Farm](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-02.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UFO over Mountain Above Skyline UFO over Mountain Above Skyline in Riverside, California in 1951.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-03.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Salem, Massachusetts, USA. 3rd August, 1952. This picture, taken through the window of a laboratory by a 21 year old U.S. coastguard, shows four unidentified flying objects as bright lights in the sky. Many American's believe them to be flying saucers. Salem, Massachusetts, USA. 3rd August, 1952. This picture, taken through the window of a laboratory by a 21 year old U.S. coastguard, shows four unidentified flying objects as bright lights in the sky. Many American's believe them to be flying saucers.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-04.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UFO Flying Over New Mexico UFO Flying Over New Mexico 1967](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-05.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UFO Flying Low Over Trees UFO Flying Low Over Trees in Los Angeles, 1963](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-06.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UFO Flying over Windmill UFO Flying over Windmill in Hillside, MI in 1966.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-07.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UFO Flying Between Rocks In New Mexico UFO Flying Between Rocks In New Mexico 1967](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-08.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![UFO California 1967 UFO sighting in California, 1967](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-09.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Ufo Over Barn In Snow Covered Field UFO Over Barn In Snow Covered Field, 1966 Colorado](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/150222-ufo-sightings-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com