On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that he estimated to be at least 1,200 miles per hour (1,900 km/h). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold’s description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs. On June 24, 1947, Arnold was flying from Chehalis, Washington, to Yakima, Washington, in a Call Air A-2 on a business trip. He made a brief detour after learning of a $5,000 reward (equivalent to $70,000 today) for the discovery of a U.S. Marine Corps C-46 transport airplane that had crashed near Mount Rainier.[1] The skies were completely clear and there was a mild wind. A few minutes before 3:00 p.m. (15:00) at about 9,200 feet (2,800 m) in altitude and near Mineral, Washington, Arnold had given up his search for the downed airplane and began heading eastward towards Yakima, when he noticed a bright flashing light, like sunlight reflecting from a mirror. Worried that he might be dangerously close to another aircraft, Arnold scanned the skies around him but all he could detect was a DC-4 to his left and behind him, about 15 miles (24 km) away, with the assistance of ground radar. We celebrate this first documented occurrence with an AI generated image of a flying saucer over Mt. Rainer …