1870 – 1879: UFO & Alien Sightings

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Date: 1870
Location:  Warren, Pennsylvania
Time: 
Summary: An object was sighted that had an appearance and performance beyond the capability of known earthly aircraft. An object was observed at close range by a male witness (Hazeltine)
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980 ISBN:0-313-21337-2

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Date: March 22, 1870
Location. African Coast
Time: 6:30 P.M
Summary: On a very clear day, with the wind blowing from the north-northeast, Captain Frederick William Banner and his crew of the American bark “Lady of the Lake” observed an object at 6:30 P.M. in the south-southeast. The ship was located about halfway between Senegal and Natal, Brazil, at latitude 5.47 N and longitude 27.52 W. The object was described as “a circular cloud” light gray in color with a semicircle near the center and four arm-like appendages reaching from the center to the edge of the circle. Banner noted that “from the center to about 6 degrees beyond the circle was a fifth ray, broader and more distinct than the others, with a curved end.” The object moved to the northeast, much lower than the cloud cover. It was last seen at 7:20 P.M. about 30 degrees above the horizon.
Source: Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society, vol.1, new series, No. 6 (April 1873): 157

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Date: April 5, 1870
Location: Gand, Belgium
Time: 23:00
Summary: Ring-shaped object changes to wheel then changing to ovoid to fish shaped. Very bright, red, and moved fast.
Source: SOBEPS

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Date: Spring 1870
Location: Ålen, Sor-Trondelag, Norway
Time: 
Summary: The Norwegian ufologist indicates that in the Spring of 1870, in Alen, Lars Lillevold’s grandmother saw something she later described as a flying object and also stated that somebody in this object beckoned to her. The ufologist comments that this may be the first CE-3 incident in Norway.
Source: J. S. Krogh, The Hessdalen Report (CENAP Rept, 1985), 11.

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Date: August 15, 1870
Location. Dunbar, Scotland
Time:
Summary: About 8:45 P.M. a bright sparkling ball of light tinged with blue appeared about 45 degrees above the northern horizon. “From the head or ball there issued a tail of the same bright colour…pointing in a north-easterly direction. A remarkable circumstance was that it appeared quite motionless and stationary. By-and-by, however, a second tail seemed to branch off from about the middle of the first one, at an angle of 45 degrees, thus giving the tail of the figure a cleft or forked appearance. “This second tail seemed to come and go, being occasionally detached for a few seconds, sometimes being lost to sight altogether…The phenomenon lasted with little 238 variations for fully 20 minutes and then proceeded very slowly in a south-westerly direction. “No noise or explosion of any kind was heard during its passage. It attracted a great deal of attention, and was witnessed with a great deal of excitement by the inhabitants of the villages to the west.”
Source: The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 17 Aug. 1870, 2. Two days later the same paper added that the object had been seen by people on the Greenock Esplanade.

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Date: Winter 1870
Location. Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Time: 
Summary: First Picture in America of a UFO
Source:

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Date: August 29, 1871
Location.  France, Meudon Observatory.
Time: Noon
Summary: Astronomer Trouvelot noted a number of objects that resembled those witnessed at Nuremberg and Basel. Among the objects he saw was a circle that first seemed about to fall, then descended “like a disk falling through water.”
Source: Leslie, Desmond Flying Saucers Have Landed British Book Center, 1953

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Date: June 30, 1871
Location:  Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Time:
Summary: UFO Spotted
Source:

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Date: August 1, 1871
Location:   Marseilles, France
Time: 22:43
Summary: Magnificent red object moved slowly, changed direction, stationary twice, disappeared or fell behind the horizon. observed by one experienced male witness for over 15 minutes (Coggia).
Source:  Michel, Aime The Truth About Flying Saucers Pyramid T1647, New York, 1967

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Date: October 4, 1871
Location:  High Wycombe, England
Time: 03:20
Summary:  Nocturnal lights were reported.
Source: Hatch, Larry

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Date: October 10, 1871
Location:   Peshtigo, Wisconsin
Time: Night
Summary:  Traces found. One object was observed by one male witness (Griffin).
Source: Contact U.K.

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Date: August 31, 1872
Location:  Rome, Italy
Time:
Summary: French astronomer and author Camille Flammarion notes another observation of a slow-moving object that could not have been a meteor, given its trajectory.
Source: Flammarion, Bradytes, op. cit., 135.

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Date: November 10, 1872
Location. Peckham England
Time: Evening
Summary: Close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupants. An unidentified object at close range and its occupants were observed by three witnesses.
Source: Rogerson, Peter World-Wide Catalog of Type 1 Reports

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Date: Dec. 07, 1872
Location. Banbury England
Time: 0100 hour
Summary: At King’s Sutton an object 0100 hours resembling a haystack flew on an irregular course. Sometimes high, sometimes very low it was accompanied by fire and dense smoke. It produced the same effect as a tornado, felling trees and walls. It suddenly vanished.
Source: (Fort 189)

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Date: 1873
Location. South Australia
Time: 2230-2330 hrs
Summary: It concerns a bright light that followed a sailing ship for almost an hour. Captain Lebman, of the ship Adelheid, described the light as “milky-white”. He said it came over the ship in waves, with one wave every two seconds between 10.30 and 11.30 at night. “A shuddering feeling was experienced at the sight,” Captain Lebman said, “and the intense light made the eyes ache. During the whole time, the sea was illuminated, though not vividly. For a quarter of an hour after it was over flashes of light were perceptible in the water.”
Source: Robin Northover, Pos

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Date: Mid-1873
Location. Fort Scott, Kansas
Time:
Summary: Animal reactions to the object were reported. One object was observed by numerous male military witnesses at a military facility. Missing original source. One citation gives the location as Fort Riley rather than Fort Scott of on two occasions and in broad daylight. It then disappeared quickly to the east.
Source:  Keyhoe, Donald E. Flying Saucers Are Real Fawcett 107, New York, 1950

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Date: July 6, 1873
Location. Bonham, Texas
Time: Daytime
Summary: A huge cigar-shaped object swooped low over the town of on two occasions and in broad daylight. It then disappeared quickly to the east.
Source: Newspaper Clippings

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Date: August 30, 1873
Location. Brussels and Ste-Gudule, Belgium
Time: 8 P.M.
Summary: At 8 P.M. an object was seen rising above the horizon in a clear sky. It was starlike, mounted higher and higher for two minutes, and then disappeared suddenly.
Source: “Le meteore de Bruxelles,” Nature 2 (Paris, Sept. 13 1873): 239.

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Date: 1874
Location.  St. Mary’s, Iowa
Time:
Summary: Ghost Lights
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980 ISBN:0-313-21337-2

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Date: July 6, 1874
Location. Oaxaca, Mexico
Time:
Summary: Residents saw a huge, gently swaying, trumpet-shaped object estimated to be 425 feet long hovering in the sky for six minutes. In Oaxaca, Mexico a 130-meter long spiral-shaped “trumpet” and a 60-meter diameter bell hovered and floated in the sky for five minutes and then vanished.
Source:

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Date: April 24, 1874
Location. Prague, Czechoslovakia
Time:
Summary: Professor Schafarick saw “an object of such strange nature that I do not know what to say about it. It was of a blinding white and crossed slowly the face of the moon. It remained visible afterward.”
Source: Leslie, Desmond Flying Saucers Have Landed British Book Center, 1953

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Date: February 17, 1875
Location: Pwllheli, Caernarvonshire, Wales
Time:
Summary: A reader of the Field newspaper reports that eight lights were seen at once, at an estimated distance of 8 miles, moving in “horizontal, perpendicular and zigzag directions. Sometimes they were a light blue color, then like the bright light of a carriage lamp, then almost like an electric light, and going out altogether, in a few minutes [they] would appear dimly again, and come up as before.”
Source: Notes and Queries, 17 April 1875. London Times of 5 October 1877 gives the name of the witness as Mr. Picton Jones.

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Date: April 7, 1875
Location: Oostacker, Belgium
Time:
Summary: Healing effects were reported. An inhuman creature that interacted with the witness was reported by one male witness on a farm (De Rudder). Instantaneous healing of broken leg missing one inch of bone, injury 8 years old, at Lady of Lourdes shrine. Autopsy performed in 1899.
Source:  Vallee, Jacques The Invisible College E. P. Dutton, New York, 1975

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Date: January 12, 1876
Location: Sheridan, Pennsylvania
Time:
Summary: A man who was riding home on horseback at night had trouble controlling his terrified horse when they were faced with a bright light on the bank of a creek. Very bright at first, the light decreased in intensity, appearing to recede in the process. Urging the animal to move forward, the witness saw the light again in a field, borne by what appeared to be a human figure clothed in white that glided along the ground. When it came within 100 yards the horse dashed forward, almost unseating the witness.
Source: Reading Eagle (Pennsylvania), quoted in the St. Louis Democrat (Missouri), 17 January 1876.

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Date:  1877
Location:  England
Time:
Summary: Three meteor-like objects moving together with “remarkable slowness” flew across the sky, visible about three minutes, “moving with the same velocity and grade of regularity. [as] a flock of wild geese.”
Source: Charles Fort, from Report of the British Association, 1877-152

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Date: March 17, 1877
Location: Gunnersbury, England
Time: 8:55 P.M.
Summary: A large red “star” was witnessed in the sky about 8:55 P.M. in the constellation of Serpens. It seemed to be brighter than Arcturus. After no less than 10 minutes it began to “increase and diminish in magnitude two or three times,” giving the impression that it was flashing, after which it disappeared.
Source: Nature 15 (March 1877): 451

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Date: March 23, 1877
Location. Venice, France????????????????
Time:
Summary: A number of lights appeared in the sky, described as balls of fire of dazzling brightness. They emerged from a cloud about a degree in diameter and moved relatively slowly. They were visible more than an hour, moving northward.
Source: “Eclairs en boule observes a Vence, en Provence” in Annee Scientifique et Industrielle 21 (1877): 45-6.

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Date: March – April 1877
Location. Aldershot, England
Time: 
Summary: In these latter cases, the army gazette explained that this man had his fun with the sentinels, approaching their sentry boxes stealthily, climbing on them, and scaring the sentries by slapping them on the face, then fleeing with agility, benefiting from the effect of surprise. The Gazette explained that this was a dangerous game since the prankster was likely to be shot down by those sentries who would not remain awestruck long enough to forget to aim their guns at him and shoot after the usual warnings; indeed, rifles were soon loaded blank in order to avoid such a dramatic ending. Ancients of the Army indicated thereafter that one of their own officers was actually suspected to have been the prankster. Trashy tabloids, of course, exaggerated the story and “Spring Heeled Jack” appears on front pages drawn like a terrifying ghost. Decades later, authors of articles on mysterious event and sensationalist careless ufologists grabbed such old stories and completely deteriorated them. A ufologist of the Flying Saucer Review crew invented that the “creature” had a luminous helmet, pointed ears, the faculty to fly in the airs, a paralyzing ray – suggested by distorting the mentions of the time that sentinels had been paralyzed by fear – and presented these stories as those of witnesses of an extraterrestrial creature having had a flying saucer crash or failure. In spite of the absence of UFO, absence of landing, absence of extraterrestrial being, the distorted version was included in a catalog of UFO landings that had much success, like that of a mysterious creature in a tight-fitting suit and spitting a paralyzing blue light, flying in the airs, and resistant to gunshots.
Source:  Vallee, Jacques A Century of Landings 

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Date: 1877
Location. England
Time:
Summary: Three meteor-like objects moving together with “remarkable slowness” flew across the sky, visible about three minutes, “moving with the same velocity and grade of regularity. [as] a flock of wild geese.”
Source: [Credit: Charles Fort, from Report of the British Association, 1877-152]

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Date: September 1877
Location.  Aldershot, England
Time: Night
Summary: Close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupants. One object was observed by several males experienced military witnesses. One being, wearing a coverall and helmet, was seen
Source:  Newspaper Clippings

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Date: September 7, 1877
Location: Bloomington, Indiana
Time:
Summary: Mr. John Graham “had his attention arrested by a sudden light in the heavens, and upon looking up he saw a stationary meteor between Aquila and Anser et Vulpecula, about right ascension 295°, declination 15°N. It increased in brightness for a second or more and disappeared within less than half a degree east of the point in which it was first seen. Immediately after the extinction of the first, three others, separated by intervals of three or four seconds, appeared and vanished in the same place; with the exception that one disappeared about as much west of the radiant as the first did to the east of it. Mr. Graham’s curiosity was excited and he continued to watch till, after an interval of a few minutes, a fifth meteor, corresponding in appearance to the preceding, was seen in the same place. The meteors resembled stars of the first magnitude.”
Source: Scientific American, 29 Sept. 1877, New Series, 37: 193.

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Date: January 25, 1878: Denison, Texas Daylight UFO

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Date: February 1, 1878
Location: Osceola Township, Iowa
Time:
Summary: A newspaper reported that a strange phenomenon had occurred in Osceola Township, Iowa, one evening the week before. A young man “well known in the community” was crossing the fields when his attention was attracted by light moving along the road some way ahead. It was “much larger than a lantern,” and it came nearer: “When the light reached a point in the road nearly opposite him it stopped and came directly toward him with great velocity until it was within a few feet of him when it stopped. The observer describes it as about the size of a half bushel and of intense brightness. It then rose in the air a distance of several rods and then began to descend where the gentleman stood. He says that he is not usually easily frightened, but he could not account for the strange sight and he retraced his steps to the house he had just left.” The light followed him up to his neighbor’s house, where the witness told of what he had seen. Two men there offered to accompany him home. They started out but the light had apparently disappeared. Then, suddenly, “it again made its appearance and was distinctly seen by all three.” This time it did not approach as closely as before, but would disappear and reappear in an entirely different direction and at a distance from where it was last seen. The article finishes with the statement that the light was also seen by others in the neighborhood, none of whom could explain the strange occurrence.
Source: “Strange Phenomenon,” Ackley Enterprise, Iowa, February 8, 1878. The report was originally published in the Hampton Chronicle

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Date: Mid 1878
Location: Yuma, California
Time:
Summary: Three German prospectors were camping at sundown when the huge sailing ship approached in air. one prospector carried away, found dead of thirst, naked in the desert 8 days later.
Source:  Bullard, Thomas E. UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery. Volume 1: Comparative Study of Abduction Reports FUFOR, Bloomington, 1987

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Date: June 17, 1878
Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin
Time: 23:00
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported at a lake.
Source: Rath, Jay The W-Files: True Reports of Wisconsin’s Unexplained Phenomena Trails Books, Madison, 1997 ISBN:0-915024-59-4

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Date: June | July 1878
Location: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Time: about 7 P.M.
Summary: What a West Virginia Farmer Saw – An optical illusion or mirage was seen by three or four farmers a few miles from this city a few days since, the appearance of which no one is able philosophically to account for. The facts are these: A gentleman, while plowing in a field with several others, about 7 P.M., happened to glance toward the sky, which was cloudless, and saw apparently, about half a mile off in a westerly direction, an opaque substance, resembling a white horse, with head, neck, limbs, and tail clearly defined, swimming in the clear atmosphere. It appeared to be moving its limbs as if engaged in swimming, moving its head from side to side, always ascending at an angle of about 45°.

He rubbed his eyes to convince himself that he was not dreaming, and looked again; but there it still was, still apparently swimming and ascending in ether. He called to the men, about 100 yards off, and told them to look up, and tell him what they saw. They declared they saw a white horse swimming in the sky and were badly frightened. Our informant, neither superstitious nor nervous, sat down and watched the phantasm, (if we may so call it,) until it disappeared in space, always going in the same direction, and moving in the same manner. No one can account for the mirage, or illusion, except upon the uneven state of the atmosphere. Illusions of a different appearance have been seen at different times, in the same vicinity, frightening the superstitious and laughed at by the skeptical.
Source: New York Times, July 8, 1878, Found by http://www.ghosttheory.com

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Date: July 29, 1878
Location: The University of Michigan Observatory at Michigan
Time: Daytime
Summary: Flying discs were observed. Multiple independent witnesses. Two discs were observed by two experienced male witnesses at an observatory
Source: Flying Saucers

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Date: July 29 or 30, 1878
Location: Edwardsville, Kansas
Time: 13:00
Summary: Mr. Timmons, “one of the most substantial farmers and reliable men in Wyancotte county,” reports that “the section men on the K. P. road, on my farm, seeing the storm coming up very fast, got their hand-car on the track and started full speed for Edwardsville. They had run but a little way when the entire crowd, at the same time, saw coming around the curve of Edwardsville what they supposed to be a locomotive at full speed. “They jumped down and took their car off the track as fast as possible when they saw it was not a locomotive. Whatever it was coming down the track giving off a volume of dense smoke with occasional flashes resembling a headlight in the center of smoke. It came three-fourths of a mile from where they first saw it, then turned off the track at a pile of cordwood, went around it once, then went off in a southwesterly direction, through a thick wood. The section men came running to my house evidently much frightened and bewildered by what they saw.”
Source: Atchison Globe (Kansas), 7 August 1878.

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Date: January 21, 1879
Location. Near Woodseaves, Shropshire, England
Time:  10:00 p.m
Summary:  A man was driving his horse cart across a bridge when a horrible black humanoid with huge shining eyes jumped out of the trees and landed on the horse’s back. He tried to push the creature off but it would not budge and the whip seemed to go through it. The horse panicked and went into a gallop with the creature clinging to it. The creature eventually disappeared and the man arrived at his home in a state of shock.
Source:  Graham J. McEwan, ‘Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland’

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Date: May. 15, 1879
Location: Persian Gulf
Time: 21:40
Summary: Two very large “wheels” were seen 2140 spinning in the air and slowly coming to the surface of the sea. Estimated diameter: 40 m. Distance between the objects: 150 m. Speed: 80 km/h/ Duration: 35 min. Witnesses aboard the ship “Vultur”
Source: (Round up 17; Anatomy 12)

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Date: May. 15, 1879
Location. Iran
Time: 21:40
Summary: Two very large “wheels” were seen 2140 spinning in the air and slowly coming to the surface of the sea. Estimated diameter: 40 m. Distance between the objects: 150 m. Speed: 80 km/h/ Duration: 35 min. Witnesses aboard the ship “Vultur”
Source: (Round up 17; Anatomy 12)

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Date: August 21, 1879
Location: Knock, Ireland
Time: Around 2100
Summary: An unidentified object at close range and its occupants were observed by 14 witnesses for five hours.
Source:  Vallee, Jacques Passport to Magonia Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1969

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Date: October 10, 1879
Location: Dubuque, Iowa
Time:
Summary: “People who were up at a very early hour this morning were astonished at seeing what appeared to be a large balloon going over the city. It was seen by quite a number of persons in different parts of the city, and was visible for an hour.” The object disappeared on the horizon, moving in a southwesterly direction. It is noteworthy that an employee of the Times named Thomas Lloyd saw this balloon as it was very high in the southeast and traveled south slowly, rising and falling in its course. A real balloon (the “Pathfinder”) piloted by professor John Wise had taken off from the town of Louisiana, Missouri in this period, but it had fallen into Lake Michigan some ten days before, and could not have been the cause of the sighting. It is noteworthy that the last eight sightings in the Chronology come from the United States, and that the last one is a report of an unknown “airship” flying slowly over a city. But that, as journalists of the nineteenth century liked to say, “is another story.”
Source: The Inner Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), 11 October 1879.

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