June 29, 1947
Harold Dahl is gathering logs with his son and the family dog on a conservation mission on the Puget Sound, near Maury Island, Washington. Looking up he sees six donut-shaped obstacles hovering about half a mile above his boat.
One of them falls around 1,500 feet and rains metallic debris down on him. A piece hits his son in the arm, and another unfortunately kills the family dog. Dahl manages to capture a few pictures with his camera, and shows them to his supervisor named Fred Crisman. Crisman is skeptical, and heads back to the area to see for himself. He also spots a strange aircraft in the sky.
The next morning, Dahl hears a knock on his front door, and opens it to a strange man in a black suit. They travel to a local diner, and the man describes in impossible detail the events of the night before. He tells Dahl, "What I have said is proof to you that I know a great deal more about this experience of yours than you will want to believe." He went on to tell Dahl not to speak of the incident, and that bad things would happen if he did.
Dahl's story was featured in a 1956 book written by a UFO writer named Gray Barker titled They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. The "man in the black suit" would evolve into a large part of UFO culture, and sparked a comic-book series and very successful movie trilogy.