An up-to-date timeline of events

---Updated August 14, 2023---

Courtesy of Reddit user /u/PhoenixDioramas

After the congressional hearing on July 26, 2023 I have seen an influx of skeptics and believers alike. I thought it would be nice to put together a simple, easy to follow timeline of recent events based purely on what has been officially reported on and is relevant up to and beyond the hearing with sources. I have also included links to some of the best UAP footage I have found as well as documentary recommendations. If you are still a skeptic, please peruse this at your leisure with an open mind. If you are new to the community and want to catch up- welcome!

Timeline:

November 14, 2004 Commander David Fravor, a US Navy pilot and commander witnessed along with six others the famous tic tac UFO.
2014 to 2015, Lieut. Ryan Graves, Navy fighter pilot, claims that UFO sightings were a regular occurence during training.
2014 NASA granted 1.1 million to Princeton University’s Centre of Theological Inquiry (CTI) in New Jersey to assess how the world’s major religions would react to the existence of life beyond earth and how such a discovery could potentially impact the concept of God and creation.
December 16, 2017, the New York Times famously publishes, "Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious UFO Programs". This is the beginning of a paradigm shift of de-stigmatizing the topic as evident of other major news outlets covering it after that. It revealed the existence of AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) having existed since 2007.
April of 2020 the Pentagon officially releases three UFO videos.
August 14th, 2020 the Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force (UAPTF), thus rebranding the term from "UFO" (unidentified flying object) to "UAP" (unidentified aerial phenomenon).
June 25, 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence releases their Preliminary Assessment of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. Page 5 is particularly interesting stating: "And a Handful of UAP Appear to Demonstrate Advanced Technology. In 18 incidents, described in 21 reports, observers reported unusual UAP movement patterns or flight characteristics. Some UAP appeared to remain stationary in winds aloft, move against the wind, maneuver abruptly, or move at considerable speed, without discernible means of propulsion. In a small number of cases, military aircraft systems processed radio frequency (RF) energy associated with UAP sightings."
October 19, 2021 NASA Chief Bill Nelson talks UAPs.
May 17, 2022, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security along with the Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence swear under oath that the United States government has detected and confirmed UAPs of unknown origin that are physical and that we have detected active energies along with them. On page 30 Deputy Director Bray says, "Right. From some of the returns, I mean, it is clear that the majority -- well, it is clear that many of the observations we have are physical objects from the sensor data that we have."
July 15th, 2022, the DoD announces the establishments of AARO, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. (It's worth noting that "all-domain" was chosen as a moniker because UAPs have been reported in space, the sky, and entering the sea) Recently AARO has been accused of being "Project Blue Book 2.0" with the purpose of dismissing and obfuscating the phenomenon.
October 21, 2022, NASA Announces Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Study Team Members. This study would focus on unclassified data.
December 23, 2022, President Biden signed the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. Baked into this act were specific protections for UAP whistleblowers (thank you, u/joeyisnotmyname for compiling those pages). I will say that one more time: baked into the NDAA for 2023 were whistleblower protections SPECIFICALLY in regards to UAPs.
June 1, 2023, NASA reveals UFO sightings in Middle East in first ever public meeting on UAP sightings.
June 6, 2023, just six months after Biden signed the 2023 NDAA into law, United States Air Force officer and former intelligence official David Grusch becomes a UAP whistleblower, claiming that the United States has a top secret UAP crash retrieval program.
June 9, 2023, Thomas A. Monheim, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, deemed Grusch's claims to be "urgent and credible", paving the way towards a congressional hearing.
July 14, 2023, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer adds his newly written UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 as an amendment to the NDAA. The NDAA was passed later that day. I highly recommend reading as much of the UAP Disclosure Act as you have time for, the language is very precise and very compelling.
July 18th, 2023, National Security Council Coordinator and spokesman John Kirby admitted that UFOs and UAPs are beginning to cause problems for the U.S. Air Force.
July 26, 2023, just a month and a half after Grusch blows the whistle, there is a bipartisan congressional hearing on UAPs. Congress is given a 177 page timeline that starts in 1947. This hearing sees the testimony of whistleblower David Grusch, David Fravor, and Ryan Graves. They are questioned for nearly two hours on their personal experiences, evidence they may have, as well as their opinions on how to handle it moving forward. Because of the official whistleblower protection channels Grusch goes through, he is not able to disclose intelligence that is still confidential, but offers names of both hostile and cooperative witnesses, as well as the specific locations of said retrieved craft if done through proper channels in closed session i.e. a S.C.I.F. Unfortunately the hearing didn't have time for closing statements, but you can read Grusch's closing statement here (as well as his opening statement). The quotes from his closing statement that stand out to me are, "Indeed, the future of our civilization and our comprehension of humanity’s place on earth and in the cosmos depends on the success of this very process." and, "As we move forward on this path, we might be poised to enable extraordinary technological progress in a future where our civilization surpasses the current state-of-the-art in propulsion, material science, energy production and storage."
July 27, 2023, the Senate passed MULTIPLE UAP measures including presumption of immediate disclosure, further whistleblower protections, and others.
August 9, 2023, Ken Klippenstein attempts to write a smear article on Grusch called, "UFO Whistleblower Kept Security Clearance After Psychiatric Detention". This article is majorly rejected by mainstream media and it's revealed that Ken received "vague tips" from people on Grusch. Ken is interviewed on Breaking Points and is called out for his one-sided reporting. Ken also admits on X, "I'm a national security reporter so I know people that do the UAP stuff and there is UAP retrieval." It only gets deeper when it is discovered that Ken's father, Stephen J. Klippenstein, is a Chemist and Mathematician that works for Argonne National Laboratory, a federally funded laboratory that works under the Department of Energy. Stephen's research at Argonne includes, "Developing theoretical methods for predicting the kinetics and dynamics of gas phase reactions and applying them to interesting problems in combustion, interstellar*, and atmospheric chemistry."* It is worth mentioning that The Intercept has a poor history with whistleblowers, leading to the arrest of one, while claiming they are a safe haven for whistleblowers.

Additional Resources:

Possible UAP Footage:

The following are links to the most convincing UAP footage I have seen. I am by no means claiming that this is evidence of aliens or spaceships, they are simply the ones that are the clearest and most convincing. Keep in mind that UAP stands for UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENON. Watch and decide for yourself.

Glowing cube UAP in Belgrade, Serbia. Matt Gaetz described seeing classified footage of something similar during the hearing.
Jerusalem UAP from four different angles. CBS reported on this in 2011.
Possible UAP at night that changes direction rapidly.
Multiple UAPs caught on video in Fairfield, CT.
Incredibly clear UAP caught on film in personal airplane cockpit.
Triangle UAP in Shanghai, China.
Insanely clear footage of a tic tac UAP in Hungary.
Pilot spots cube/sphere like UAP similar to the one in footage released by NASA.
Triangle UAP at night.

Documentaries:

For those interested in learning more, these are the documentaries I suggest you watch in the order that I have listed them. Why this order? I believe it to be the best pacing for dissemination of information if you are new to the topic or a skeptic with an open mind.

UFOs: Investigating the Unknown. This is a documentary first released in January of 2023 by National Geographic that is the most up-to-date in terms of the timeline of recent events (sans the hearing) and will paint a broader picture of what is happening. You can watch it through the link I provided or find it on Disney+, Hulu, or anywhere else you get Nat Geo. It's only five episodes, each being around 42 minutes. It is not sensationalized in the slightest and has some fantastic witnesses, data, and history on the subject. Watch this one first.
The Phenomenon. This 2020 documentary comes highly recommended by people in the community.
Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers. This documentary centers around Bob Lazar, a whistleblower who first came out in the 1980s claiming to have worked at Area 51in a UFO reverse engineering program. Skeptics of Bob Lazar don't take him seriously, but there are a few things of note: first, he hasn't changed his story in thirty years. Second, he hasn't made a dime off of his claims (he wasn't paid for the documentary). Third, he claimed the craft he was reverse engineering used element 115, a synthetic element that did not exist in the 80s or 90s when he made the claims. However, in 2003, American and Russian scientists successfully synthesized it. Watch this documentary with an open mind because it is worth watching considering Grusch's claims and the recent congressional hearing on UAP crash retrieval, as well as the language put forth in the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023. Here you can see everything related to Bob Lazar thanks to u/Rude_Conclusion_5907. I don't make the claim that Bob Lazar is legit, only that his accounts are worth a second look given recent events. Take this one with a massive grain of salt and make your own decision.
Moment of Contact. This documentary covers the Varginha, Brazil incident of 1996. It is, in my opinion, one of the most compelling mass sighting and UAP cover-up stories there is. There are tons of witness testimony of well to do townsfolk who claim this event caused far more harm to them than good. One of the reasons I feel this is such a strong story given the congressional hearing is that it details a crashed craft that was swiftly retrieved by the United States Air Force.

Conclusion:

I hope this post was elucidating to skeptics and knowers alike. I decided it best to keep the information here streamlined as not to overwhelm. If you deep dive into this post, and you like what you see, I recommend you stick around. Sorting in r/UFOs or r/Aliens by top posts of all time will net some interesting results. See for yourself and make your own decision. I will leave you with this: “For decades, many Americans have been fascinated by objects mysterious and unexplained and it’s long past time they get some answers. The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena. We are not only working to declassify what the government has previously learned about these phenomena but to create a pipeline for future research to be made public. I am honored to carry on the legacy of my mentor and dear friend, Harry Reid and fight for the transparency that the public has long demanded surround these unexplained phenomena.” -Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer