[cgbg]

Correct—three earlier incidents in the 1940s:

Cape Girardeau—1941

https://www.amazon.com/Cape-Girardeau-1941-UFO-Incident/dp/1506034616

The Battle of LA—1942:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles

Trinity—1945:

https://www.amazon.com/TRINITY-Best-Kept-Jacques-F-Vall%C3%A9e/dp/B094ZQ1GW5

[zeugma]

3 earlier well known ones. There is a cemetary fairly local to me that local lore indicates once held the body of an alien. Whatever was there was disinterred by our feral government in the 40s, though the body had been buried sometime around 1900 or so IIRC.

I wonder how many similar stories you might find that were something only locals knew of across the country.