HISTORICAL UFO'S 1896 - 1907

• USA, Michigan, Williamston: At least a dozen farmers saw an object maneuver in the sky for an hour before it landed. A strange man near 3 m tall, almost naked and suffering from the heat, was the pilot of the craft. "His talk, while musical, seemed to be a repetition of bellowing." One farmer went near him and received a blow that broke his hip.

• USA, Missouri, Kansas City: 10,000 residents saw a large black ship hover over head, flash green-blue and white lights, then moved straight up into space rapidly. Many other UFO sightings were reported, describing cigar-shaped, metallic craft with either wings, propellers, fins, or search lights. Bright lights were seen during the night.

• USA, Iowa, Sioux City: Approximate date. Robert Hibbard was caught by an anchor dropped from an unknown flying machine 22 km north of the town. He was dragged over 10 m and fell as his clothes were torn.

• USA, Missouri, Perry Springs: A passenger train on the Wabash line, going toward Quincy, was followed by a low-flying object for 15 min between Perry Springs and Hersman. All the passengers saw the craft, which had a red and white light. After Hersman it flew ahead of the train and disappeared rapidly.

• USA, Nebraska, Hastings: A flying object was seen the morning of Sunday, January 24, 1897. It circled for a few minutes and then zoomed away to the north. The Nebraska Bee, February 2, 1897 and The Kansas Semi-Weekly Capital of March 31.

• USA, Nebraska, Omaha: On March 28, the majority of the population observed an object arriving from the southeast. It looked like a huge light, flew northwestward slowly, came to low altitude.

• USA, Ohio, Cleveland: Joseph Singler, captain of the "Sea Wing," was fishing with S. H. Davis, of Detroit, when they saw on the lake what they thought was a ship, about 13 m long, with a canopy. A man, about 25 years old, wearing a hunting jacket and a cap, was fishing from the deck of the object. Near him were a woman and a 10-year old child. When the "Sea Wing" came close to the craft, a large, colored balloon rose from the object, which flew up with it to an altitude of about 150 m and circled "like a hawk" before flying away.

• USA, South Dakota, Howard-Artesian: A flying object coming closer and closer to the ground followed a train, as reported by the engineer, Joe Wright.

• USA, Texas, Aurora: From the April 19, Dallas Morning News'About 6 o'clock this morning the early risers of were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship, which has been sailing around the country. It was traveling due north and much nearer the earth than before. Evidently some of the machinery was out of order, for it was making a speed of only ten or twelve miles an hour, and gradually settling toward the earth. It sailed over the public square and when it reached the north part of town it collided with the tower of Judge Proctor's windmill and went into pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground, wrecking the windmill and water tank and destroying the judge's flower garden. The pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only one aboard and, while his remains were badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world. Mr. T.J. Weems, the U.S. Army Signal Service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy gives it as his opinion that the pilot was a native of the planet Mars. Papers found on his person, evidently the records of his travels -- are written in some unknown hieroglyphics and cannot be deciphered. This ship was too badly wrecked to form any conclusion as to its construction or motive power. It was built of an unknown metal, resembling somewhat a mixture of aluminum and silver, and it must have weighed several tons. The town is today full of people who are viewing the wreckage and gathering specimens of strange metal from the debris. The pilot's funeral will take place tomorrow.' From UPI, 1973, “A grave in a small north Aurora, Texas cemetery contains the body of an 1897 astronaut who "was not an inhabitant of this world," according to the International UFO Bureau. The group, which investigates unidentified flying objects, has already initiated legal proceedings to exhume the body. "After checking the grave with metal detectors and gathering facts for three months, we are certain as we can be at this point [that] he was the pilot of a UFO which reportedly exploded atop a well on Judge J.S. Proctor's place, April 19, 1897," Hewes said. He was not an inhabitant of this world." A few days later, another UPI account datelined Aurora quoted a ninety-one-year-old who had been a girl of fifteen in Aurora at the time of the reported incident. She said she "had all but forgotten the incident until it appeared in the newspapers recently." She said her parents had gone to the sight of the crash, but had refused to take her along. She recalled that the remains of the pilot, "a small man," had been buried in the Aurora cemetery. Not to be outdone, the Associated Press, in a story datelined Denton, Texas, reported "a North Texas State University professor had found some metal fragments near the Oates gas station (former Proctor farm). One fragment was said to be 'most intriguing' because it consisted of primarily of iron which did not seem to exhibit magnetic properties." The professor also said he was puzzled because the fragment was "shiny and malleable instead of dull and brittle like iron." The Aurora Cemetery Association was successful in blocking the attempts to dig up the grounds in search of the "Martian pilot."

• USA, Texas, Hillsboro: A lawyer was surprised to see a lighted object fly over. His horse was scared and nearly toppled the carriage. When the main light was turned off, a number of smaller lights became visible on the underside of the dark object, which supported an elongated canopy. It went down toward a hill to the south. When the witness was on his way back one hour later he saw the object rising. It reached the altitude of the cloud ceiling and flew to the northeast at a fantastic speed with periodic flashes of light.

• USA, Texas, Josserand: Frank Nichols, a respected citizen, was awakened by a machine noise. Looking outside, he saw a heavy, lighted object land in his wheat field. He walked toward it, was stopped by two men who asked permission to draw water from his well. He then had a discussion with a half-dozen men, the crew of the strange machine. He was told how it worked but could not follow the explanation.

• USA, Texas, Merkel: People returning from church observed a heavy object being dragged along the ground by a rope attached to a flying craft. The rope got caught in a railroad track. The craft was too high for its structure to be visible but protrusions and a light could be distinguished. After about 10 min a man came down along the rope cut the end free, and went back aboard the craft, which flew away toward the northeast. The man was small and dressed in a light-blue uniform

• USA, Texas, Rockland:. John M. Barclay saw a flying object circling 5 m above ground. Elongated with protrusions and blinding lights, it went dark when it landed. Barclay was met by a man who told him his purpose was peaceful and requested some common hardware items to repair the craft.

1898 France, Lille: An astronomer saw through his telescope a rectangular object with a violet colored band on one side, the rest being striped red and black. It was not in the position of any known planet. It remained stationary for 10 minutes, then 'cast out sparks and disappeared.'

1899

• France, Dourite, Dordogne: November 1An object 'like an enormous star' was seen from 7:00 pm, 'at times white, then red, and sometimes blue... moving like a kite' in the southerly sky.

• France, Luzarches: M.A. Garry observed a round luminous object rise above the horizon and shrink in size as it moved into the distance over 15 minutes.

• South Africa: After alerting its telegraph offices to be on the lookout for invading British aircraft, the Transvaal government was inundated with sighting reports. Phantom airships, often equipped with powerful searchlights, mysteriously appeared in the skies around. Of course, neither aircraft nor airplanes were known to exist in Africa at this time.

• USA, Arizona, Prescott: Dr. Warren E. Day observed a luminous object that 'traveled with the Moon all day' until 2:00 pm. A similar object had been observed the day before from Tonto, Arizona.

• USA, Texas, El Paso: A luminous object was seen in daylight from 10:00am to 4:00pm; Venus was two months past its secondary phase of maximum brilliance.

1902

• England, Devon: A Colonel Marwick reported a sighting of numerous 'highly colored objects like little suns or toy balloons.

• Gulf of Guinea: Three persons aboard the "Fort Salisbury," including Second Officer A. H. Raymer, saw a huge, dark object bearing lights in the sea ahead. It was observed sinking slowly. Estimated length: 200 m.

• South Africa: Unusual sky booms heard over Boschof, Oranjevrystaat, South Africa.

1903

• France, Argenteuil: At 11:00 pm, M. Desmoulins and four others saw a red object travel over 4 miles in 20 minutes. Seen through field glasses, the object did not appear to be a balloon.

• USA, Kansas, Iola: Large alien seven feet tall with long hair, horns and huge bulging eyes appears and is chased away by coal miners.

1904

• Korea: “Three objects appeared beneath the clouds, their color a rather bright red. As they approached the ship they appeared to soar, passing above the broken clouds. After rising above the clouds they appeared to be moving directly away from the earth. The largest had an apparent area of about six suns. It was egg-shaped, the larger end forward. The second was about twice the size of the sun, and the third, about the size of the sun. Their near approach to the surface appeared to be most remarkable. That they did come below the clouds and soar instead of continuing their southeasterly course is also curious. The lights were in sight for over two minutes and were carefully observed by three people whose accounts agree as to the details." A sighting by the U.S.S. Supply off of the eastern coast of Korea, as reported by then Lt. Frank H. Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.

• USA, Indiana, Rolling Prairie: Tom Darby, with his brother and mother, saw two whitish-blue objects about 400 m away, from a point situated 3 km north of Rolling Prairie. The objects hovered 2 or 3 m above ground, flew toward a barn, came closer to each other, and were hidden from view by a hill.

1905

• Africa, Tunis: At midnight on April 9th a similar object was seen for several minutes over Tunis, North Africa.

• France, Cherbourg: First sighting of an oval, reddish colored object that hung in the sky over this northern French port until April 11th. It was not in the position of the planet Venus, and was not reported from other towns.

• Rumania, Bucovina: During the evening a retired doctor saw a brightly glowing elongated, saucer-shaped object bigger than the moon traveling steadily westwards.

• USA, California, Silshee: At 1:30 am, J.A. Jackson noticed a bright light heading toward him in the sky. The lights was also seen by the postmaster at the nearby town of Imperial. As the light neared him, Jackson made out the form of an 'airship' (although it had no gas balloon), showing several lights and apparently propelled by flapping wings.

• USA, Oregon, Portland: A buzzing UFO descends from heavy overcast and flies over Oregon.

• Wales, Llangollen: Several witnesses saw a dark object in the sky that, observed through binoculars, had short wings and legs, and moved 'casually inclining sideways.' It reminded some witnesses of 'a huge winged pig, with webbed feet.'

1906

• Canada: In the North Atlantic, NE of Newfoundland, deck of the ship St Andrew. "I saw three meteors fall into the water dead ahead of the ship one after another at a distance of about five miles. Although it was daylight, they left a red streak in the air from zenith to the horizon. Simultaneously the third engineer shouted to me. I then saw a huge meteor on the port beam falling in a zigzag manner less than a mile away to the southward. We could distinctly hear the hissing of water as it touched. It fell with a rocking motion leaving a broad red streak in its wake. The meteor must have weighed several tons, and appeared to be 10 to 15 feet in diameter. It was saucer shaped which probably accounted for the peculiar rocking motion. When the mass of metal struck the water the spray and steam rose to a height of at least 40 feet, and for a few moments looked like the mouth of a crater. If it had been night, the meteor would have illuminated the sea for 50 or 60 miles."

• China Sea: Giant luminous wheels were seen by a British steamer.

• USA, New York, Syracuse: "Mystery meteor" performs weird aerial maneuvers.

1907 USA, Vermont, Burlington: A torpedo-shaped UFO explodes over downtown Burlington, Vermont. Seen by Bishop John S. Michaud, former governor Alexander Woodbury, A.A. Buell and others.