UFOs in the 19th Century
The 19th century brought a startling array of inventions and technical wonders, among them the telephone and filament lamp; the steam turbine and the automobile; radio and the cinematograph—even the electric chair. Powered flight was yet to come, but aviation science was growing, nevertheless.
Beginning around 1880, Thomas Edison conducted nighttime wireless experiments involving illuminated balloons. Not surprisingly, people on the ground sighted his “electric balloons” many times, particularly during 1885 near the inventor’s Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory. Most of the witnesses knew that the illuminated shapes belonged to Edison, but partly because of the technological innovations mentioned above, and increasingly sophisticated aviation, citizens were predisposed to the idea of other peculiar flying craft, and in fact continued to report airborne lights—sometimes called “electric stars”— long after Edison abandoned his balloon experiments. No matter: because of the new science created by Edison and others, the idea of flying lights acquired plausibility.
Eyes Only: Selected UFO Sightings of the 19th Century
April 5, 1800: A brilliant crimson object, described by witnesses as the size of a medium-size building, radiates heat onto observers, and passes low overhead at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Shortly after the object disappears from view, witnesses hear the sound of an explosion.
September 7, 1820: “Strange objects moving in straight lines” cross the skies above Embrun, France. The objects are evenly spaced, and show what witnesses called a “military precision.” April 1, 1826: Gray, cigar-shaped objects are observed above the English Channel.
July 1836: People in Szeged, Csongrad, Hungary, have a close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupants.
March 19, 1847: “Spherical craft” rise into clouds above London.
June 1, 1853: For thirty minutes, a pair of luminous objects appear over the campus of Tennessee’s Burritt College; students and faculty observe that the larger object is a shape-shifter, changing from a globe to a cylinder. The smaller object disappears and then reappears, waxing and waning in size.
August 11, 1855: At Sussex, England, luminous circular craft “with spokes like a wheel” move across the sky, remaining visible for an hour.
April 6, 1856: A black or gray “aerial torpedo” seen above Colmar, France, traverses the sky while emitting a low-pitched hum.
August 8, 1863: A peculiar nocturnal light precedes a witness’s close encounter with “inhuman beings” and the disappearance of mules, at Yale, British Columbia, Canada.
October 1, 1863: While seated with friends on his porch, a Lewisburg, West Virginia, man named Moses Dwyer observes odd, greenish clouds that touch the ground to disgorge “thousands and thousands” of marching men, carrying no weapons and dressed in identical white trousers and shirts. They march through a valley and finally disappear over a steep hill. The men are silent, and do not strike Dwyer as being either Union or Confederate soldiers. Note: Some sources date this incident to September 1, 1863. A similar sighting was made by Confederate troops at nearby Bunger’s Mill (often incorrectly cited as Runger’s Mill), West Virginia, on October 14, 1863.
Mid-September 1865: James Lumley, a trapper active near Cadotte Pass, Montana, witnesses a “bright, luminous body” streak across the sky and break up into “particles” shortly before a loud explosion fills the air with the scent of sulfur. The following day, Lumley comes upon a tree line split and broken by the apparent passage of a very large object. Beyond the trees, the tops of hills appear to have been “shaved off.” Lumley subsequently discovers an “immense” stone carrying mysterious glyphs.
July 1868: Residents of Copiapo, Atacama, Chile, observe a flying craft with lights and engine noise; some witnesses describe the object as a scaly “giant bird.” Note: A magical flying creature called the Chonchon, and a flying (sometimes feathered) serpent called the Peuchen, are staples of Chilean folklore.
July 6, 1873: An enormous object some three hundred feet across hovers over Bonham, Texas, startling residents and spooking animals. Note: This daytime sighting may be alcohol related. The date is sometimes given as summer, June, and November 20.
Mid-1878: Three German prospectors camping near Yuma, California, witness a flying “sailing ship” at sundown. One of the men is abducted, and turns up naked in the desert eight days later, dead of thirst. Note: Not clear whether this report originated in Yuma, Arizona, or nearby Fort Yuma, California. Other than a so- named neighborhood in California City, California, there is no Yuma in California.
July 29, 1878: A railroad crew working at Edwardsville, Kansas, observes an approaching train, with light and whistle, leave the track and disappear into nearby woods.
May 15, 1879: While sailing the Persian Gulf, crew aboard the HMS Vulture watch as a pair of large spinning wheels moves across the sky at an estimated forty-five knots (about fifty mph). Each wheel is approximately 130 feet in diameter. They slow and then land on the water; total time of the encounter is thirty-five minutes. 1880: Two military sentries at Aldershot, England, fire on a humanoid, wearing tight-fitting clothes and a helmet, as it flies over their heads.
November 17, 1882: England’s Greenwich Observatory observes a “vast,” mottled green disc, which is also sighted on the Continent. 1883: Cowhand Robert Reed Ellison observes mysterious flickering lights while driving cattle near Mitchell Flat, Texas, near Marfa. Note: The phenomenon has been regularly reported ever since, becoming known as the “Marfa Lights.” Latter-day explanations include natural gases called “fool’s fire”’: electric charges generated by rock beneath Mitchell Flat; light viewed at a distance through hot and cooler layers of air (a “superior mirage”); and, since about 1932, automobile headlights from nearby U.S. 67.
October 24, 1886: A family of nine is awakened in Maracaibo, Venezuela, by a loud hum and a brilliant light. Note: Within days, the people suffered vomiting, blackened skin, and hair loss. A week after that, nearby trees began to wither.
September 5, 1891: Two deliverymen and a minister see a swirling white apparition in the sky—for hours—near Crawfordsville, Indiana.
May 25, 1893: While cruising the Sea of Japan, the HMS Carolina observes an orderly formation of flying discs.
April 1897: In the countryside outside Baltimore, a whirring, hissing object descends from the sky, startling a witness and spooking a horse. The witness notes lights at each end of the craft, and two humanoid occupants, too. The occupants attempt to communicate with the witness, who does not recognize their language.
Early April, 1897: A farmer from Bethany, Missouri, tells a newspaper he witnessed a strange flying craft crash into a flagpole and leave two mangled corpses.
April 1, 1897: A witness in Galesburg, Michigan, is approached by the humanoid occupant of an unidentified craft, and senses that the creature wishes to communicate.
April 9–13, 1897: Unidentified airships and nocturnal lights figure in more than 150 reports from across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Manitoba, Canada. The sightings continue, with slightly decreasing regularity, into August 1897. Note: These sightings kicked off the so-called airship craze that produced hundreds of sightings in Europe and the USA between 1897 and the first few years of the 20th century. Explainable craft included gas and hot-air balloons, steam-and gasoline-powered dirigibles and zeppelins, and (after 1903 and the Wright Brothers) fixed-wing aircraft.
Mid–April 1897: A man in the hills outside Springfield, Missouri, witnesses the landing of an airship carrying two occupants. One of them is a woman, described as having “long golden hair” and a laughing voice “like silvery bells.” She occupies herself by picking flowers. Note: Whether or not this witness saw precisely what he thought he did, he almost certainly was in love.
April 17, 1897: Three men walk into a diner in Conroe, Texas, order dinner, and announce their intention to fly to Cuba. Bright lights and a mysterious airship are seen over the town an hour later.
April 18, 1897: People living near Aurora, Texas, witness an unidentified airship collide with a local windmill.
