Meet the American who reported the first sensational UFO encounters, Puritan leader John Winthrop

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Meet the American who reported the first sensational UFO encounters, Puritan leader John Winthrop

Unidentified flying objects soared into American popular culture with the dawn of the jet age in the 1940s.

The post-World War II flying saucer craze still rivets the imagination. It inspired movies, books and a subculture of UFO enthusiasts, and turned remote, dusty Roswell, New Mexico into a global destination of paranormal pilgrimage.

UFOs, it turns out, have mystified Americans since the earliest days of colonial settlement.

The first known UFO encounter in America was recorded in 1639 by Puritan leader and prolific journal-keeper John Winthrop — leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a foundational figure in the national pantheon.