HISTORICAL UFO'S 1882 - 1896

1882 England: A huge UFO, the first such phenomenon which was characteristically saucer-shaped in Europe, was plainly observed by numerous people in England and other parts of Europe during the night. It was seen to travel in the sky at an approximate altitude of 130 miles in an east-west direction. A number of eminent scientists witnessed the object, among them being Dr E Walter Maunder, Greenwich astronomer; English spectroscopist, J Rand Capron; Dutch astronomers Audemans and Zeeman. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich published a report of the conclusions reached by scientists, following the appearance of what had been termed, "The Great Saucer". The report had this to say: "It appeared to be well defined in body and the inference drawn was that it was a meteor, not in the old vague sense of some object high in the Earth's atmosphere, but in the sense of a solid cosmological substance, disc-like in appearance, the orbit of which brought it within the terrestrial atmosphere. But nothing could be more unlike the rush of a great meteor or fireball, with intense radiance and fiery train. The advance of this object, though swift, appeared to be orderly and controlled. There was no sign of the compression of the atmosphere before it, no hint that the matter composing its front part, was in anyway more strongly heated than the rest of its substance, if substance, indeed it possessed."

1883

• Germany, Segeberg: A teacher and children at a school all saw two fiery balls in a clear sky one day. The size of two full moons, the objects traveled slowly together from north to south.

• Mexico, Zacatecas: An astronomer at the Zacatecas Observatory saw 143 circular objects cross in front of the sun. The astronomer, Professor Jose' Bonilla, managed to take a photograph of one of the objects. He wrote up his finding, which were sent to the French journal L'Astronomie.

1884 USA, Dundy County, Nebraska: Four cowboys heard a whirring noise overhead then saw a cylindrical object crash into the ground. Researcher Kevin Randle believes this case to have been a hoax.

1885 Turkey, Constantinople: From ‘L’Astronomie’: M. Mavrogordato, calls our attention to the following strange observations which have been communicated to him. "On November 1, at 9:30pm, there was seen, west of Adrianople, an elongated object giving off a strong luminosity. It seemed to float in the air and its apparent disk was four or five times larger than the full moon. It traveled slowly and cast light on the whole camp behind the station with a brightness about ten times greater than a large electric bulb. In the morning, at dawn, a very luminous flame, first bluish, then greenish, and moving at a height of five to six meters, made a series of turns around the ferryboat pier at Scutari. Its blinding luminosity lighted the street and flooded the inside of the houses with light."

1886 Venezuela: During the night of the 24th of October last, which was rainy and tempestuous, a family of nine persons, sleeping in a hut a few leagues from Maracaibo, were awakened by a loud humming noise and a vivid, dazzling light, which brilliantly illuminated the interior of the house. The occupants completely terror stricken, and believing, as they relate, that the end of the world had come, threw themselves on their knees and commenced to pray, but their devotions were almost immediately interrupted by violent vomiting, and extensive swellings commenced to appear in the upper part of their bodies, this being particularly noticeable about the face and lips. It is to be noted that the brilliant lights was not accompanied by a sensation of heat, although there was a smoky appearance and a peculiar smell. The next morning, the swellings had subsided, leaving upon the face and body large black blotches. No trace of lightning could afterward by observed in any part of the building, and all the sufferers unite in saying that there was no detonation, but only the loud humming already mentioned. Another curious attendant circumstance is that the trees around the house showed no signs of injury until the ninth day, when they suddenly withered. From Warner Cowgill, U. S. Consulate, Maracaibo, Venezuela in a letter posted in Scientific American, Dec 18.

1887 Nova Scotia, Cape Race: From L’Astronomie, "On November 12, 1887, at midnight, near, a huge ball of fire appeared, slowly emerging from the ocean to an altitude of sixteen to seventeen meters. This sphere started moving against the wind and stopped close to the ship from which it was observed. Then it rushed away in the sky and disappeared in the southeast. The whole observation had lasted five minutes."

1888 Italy, Ragusa: From the ‘Memoirs’ of the Minor Brothers, “Luminous bodies were seen flying through the sky in lines for one hour.”

1891 USA, Indiana, Crawfordsville: As reported in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper on September 10, 1891, two icemen were working outside in Crawfordsville at about 2:00am five nights previously, when a bizarre object sailed overhead. The icemen described the UFO as a 'seemingly headless monster', although there is no reason to believe that it was an animal of any kind. It was about 20ft long, and 8ft wide, moving in the sky toward the two men, and 'seemingly propelled by fin like attachments.' The men moved, and the UFO flew off. The noise awoke Methodist pastor G.W. Swittze, who saw it circling in the sky.

1892

• Netherlands: An astronomer called Muller was observing the moon through his telescope when a black disk moved across his field of view.

• Poland: A phantom airship scare began appearing. As in later 'flaps' of this sort, the craft often appeared at night and were usually equipped with powerful searchlights.

1893 China, North China Sea: The ship, H.M.S. Carolina was sailing in the North China Sea, when a report from an officer of unusual light activity in the sky came to the attention of Captain J.N. Norcross. The officer told Captain Norcross that the lights appeared sometimes in a huge mass, others spread out in unusual patterns. He said that they resembled Chinese lanterns set between the masts of a ship. The next night these strange lights reappeared but with a reddish glow and emanating small amounts of smoke.

1895 England, Oxford: A disk was seen rising above some trees and disappearing into the east

1896

• USA, California, Sacramento: On November 25, a mysterious light was seen moving rapidly from the Northeast and heading in a southwesterly direction. As it neared the southern boundary of the city of Sacramento it turned directly toward the west and after passing the city went south, being distinctly visible for upward of 20 minutes.

• USA, California, Lorin: On November 26, an airship that looked like a great black cigar with a fishlike tail neared Lorin tremendous speed. It turned quickly and disappeared in the direction of San Francisco. The body was at least 100 feet long and attached to it was a triangular tail, one apex being attached to the main body. The surface of the airship looked as if it were made of aluminum, which exposure to wind and weather had turned dark. At half past 8 we saw it again, when it took about the same direction and disappeared." From the Oakland Tribune, Dec 1.

• USA, California, San Francisco: The great Airship Flap of 1897 actually started in late 1896 in San Francisco. Hundreds saw a large, cigar-shaped object, shining brilliant beams of light, and moving northwest passing over Oakland. Later reports came from other northern

• USA, California, San Francisco: A light was observed by many prominent individuals including Deputy Secretary of State George A. McCalvy, District Attorney Frank D. Ryan, and E. D. McCabe, the governor's personal secretary. From the San Francisco Call, Nov 26.

• Switzerland, Arolla: Author Aleister Crowley was walking in the mountains when he suddenly saw two little men. He made a gesture to them, but they did not seem to pay attention and disappeared among the rocks.

• Canada, British Columbia: Two Canadian fishermen in saw a pear-shaped craft flying south –wards

• Canada, Winnipeg: A mysterious airship flew over Winnipeg, the capital of Canada's Manitoba province, in full view of many citizens for a full fifteen minutes." "The strange visitor" approached from the west, following the Assiniboine River. After passing over St. Boniface Hospital, the UFO veered sharply to the north and "was lost from view" as it flew toward the town of Stony Mountain. From the Vancouver, B.C. News-Advertiser, Saturday May 1.

• USA, Arkansas, Homan: Capt. James Hooton was hunting in the vicinity of Homan when he heard the noise of a steam engine and found an object in a clearing. It looked like a cylinder with pointed ends, lateral wheels, and horizontal blade over it. Hooton spoke with a man who wore dark glasses and walked behind the craft. There were three or four occupants. The witness was told this was indeed "The Airship" and that it used compressed air for propulsion. Hooton saw the wheels spin as the craft rose and flew away.

• USA, Arkansas, Hot Springs: Two policemen, Sumpter and McLenore, were riding northwest of Hot Springs when they saw a bright light in the sky. About 7 km farther they saw the light again coming down to the ground. One km farther the horses refused to walk. Two men were seen carrying lights. The lawmen took their rifles, called the strangers, and were told that they crossed the country with a flying craft. The silhouette of the machine, about 2O m long, could be seen in the clearing. There was a woman with an umbrella nearby. It was raining, and the younger of the men was filling a large container with water. The elder man had a beard and suggested that the policemen fly with them "to a place where it does not rain." The same witness went back through the same spot 40 min later and found nothing.

• USA, Arkansas, McKinney Bayou: Judge Lawrence A.Byrne of Texarkana, Arkansas, was surveying a tract of land when he saw a peculiar object anchored on the ground. "It was manned by three men who spoke a foreign language, but judging from their looks one would take them to be Japs."

• USA, Kansas, Everest: On April 1, the whole town saw an object fly under the cloud ceiling. It came down slowly, then flew away very fast to the southeast. When directly over the town it swept the ground with a powerful light. It was seen to rise up at fantastic speed until barely discernible, then to come down again and sweep low over the witnesses. At one point it remained stationary for 5 minutes at the edge of a low cloud, which it illuminated. All could clearly see the silhouette of the craft.

• USA, Kansas, LeRoy: From a sworn statement dated 21 April, a prosperous and prominent farmer named Alexander Hamilton told of an attack upon his cattle at about 10:30 PM the previous Monday. He, his son, and his tenant grabbed axes and ran some 700 feet from the house to the cow lot where a great cigar-shaped ship about 300 feet long floated some 30 feet above his cattle. It had a carriage underneath which was brightly lighted within (dirigible and gondola?) and which had numerous windows. Inside were six strange looking beings jabbering in a foreign language. These beings suddenly became aware of Hamilton and the others. They immediately turned a searchlight on the farmer, and also turned on some power, which sped up a turbine wheel (about 30 ft diameter) located under the craft. The ship rose, taking with it a two-year old heifer, which was roped about the neck by a cable of one-half inch thick, red material. The next day a neighbor, Link Thomas, found the animal's hide, legs and head in his field. He was mystified at how the remains got to where they were because of the lack of tracks in the soft soil. Alexander Hamilton's sworn statement was accompanied by an affidavit as to his veracity. The affidavit was signed by ten of the local leading citizens.

• USA, Indiana, Gas City: An object landed south of Gas City on the property of John Roush, terrifying the farmers and causing the horses and cattle to stampede. Six occupants of the ship came out and seemed to make some repairs. Before the crowd could approach the object, it rose rapidly and flew toward the east.

• USA, Illinois, Downs Township: While working in his field, Haney Savidge saw an aerial craft land near him. Six people emerged from it and spoke to him for a few minutes before leaving again.

• USA, Illinois, Girard: On April 12, a large crowd of miners saw an unknown object land. The night operator of the Chicago-and-Alton Railroad, Paul Mc- Cramer, stated that he came sufficiently close to the craft to see a man emerge from it to repair the machinery. Traces were found over a large area. The object itself was elongated like a ship with a roof and a double canopy. It left toward the north.

• USA, Illinois, Nilwood: On the property of Z. Thacker, 19 km north of Carlinville, an unknown object landed on Apr. 12. Before the three witnesses could reach it, the craft, which was shaped like a cigar with a dome, rose slowly and left majestically toward the north. Witnesses: Edward Teeples, William Street and Franklin Metcalf.

• USA, Iowa, Linn Grove:. A large object was seen to fly slowly toward the north. It seemed ready to land and five men who found the craft on the ground, but it, "spread its four giant wings and rose towards the North." Two strange figures aboard the craft made efforts to conceal themselves. Witnesses were surprised at the length of their hair. Most residents of Linn Grove saw the craft in flight.

• USA, Iowa, Waterloo: An airship, or a large vessel designed to leave the impression that it is a flying machine, was first observed here at dawn yesterday. The stranger in charge says it is a flying machine and he landed here to make some repairs and that he will resume his voyage in the air today. He keeps all people at a distance of several hundred yards from the machine and therefore many do not credit his story, but think it is a fake designed to create a sensation. The structure is about 40 feet long, constructed like a giant cigar, with wing-like attachments on the sides and a steering apparatus in the rear. The whole is surmounted by a cupola, or lookout cabin, on the roof. The queer craft appears to be built of canvas and to be heavily varnished."