Three confirmed 1905 cases in period Edwardian halftone press style: the Egryn Lights at peak intensity — Mary Jones's carriage followed by luminous forms, witnessed and reported by skeptical journalists from the Daily Mail and Manchester Guardian (The Occult Review, 1905); the Imperial Valley, California wing-flapping airship with no gas envelope, blinding light and animal reactions (John Keel); and a retired doctor in Bucovina, Romania watching a saucer-shaped luminous object larger than the moon travel steadily westward (Ion Hobana).
1905: UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
1905 is the peak year of the Egryn Lights — the most extensively documented sustained anomalous light phenomenon in Welsh history, confirmed by skeptical journalists from the Daily Mail, Manchester Guardian, and The Mirror who arrived expecting to debunk the phenomenon and left writing dispatches about what they had actually seen. Mary Jones’s outdoor revival meetings at Capel Egryn, between Barmouth and Harlech, were followed by luminous forms witnessed simultaneously by journalists and clergy, documented in the Occult Review by Beriah Evans and in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.
Beyond Wales, 1905 adds a reddish oval object over Cherbourg, France that hung in the sky for weeks; a Romanian doctor’s sighting of a saucer-shaped object larger than the moon; a close encounter with an occupant at a church in Perm, Russia; a “winged pig” entity sighting at Llangollen; and a winged, undulating airship over California’s Imperial Valley that blinded witnesses and frightened a herd of hogs. Two entries previously listed on this page — dated to Andros Island, Bahamas and Heiden, Netherlands — have been removed as misdated modern accounts; see the Researcher’s Notes below.
Date: 1905
Location: Cherbourg, France
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: 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.
Source: Unlisted — plausible given the explicit Venus ruling-out, suggesting an actual astronomical observation log; primary source not yet identified
Date: 1905
Location: Bucovina, Romania
Time: Evening
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A retired doctor saw a brightly glowing, elongated, saucer-shaped object, larger than the moon, traveling steadily westward.
Source: Hobana, Ion. UFOs Behind the Iron Curtain, Bantam, 1975 — confirmed Eastern European UFO research source
Date: August 3, 1905
Location: Imperial Valley, California
Time: 01:30
Hynek Classification: CE-II
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: J. A. Jackson noticed a bright light heading toward him in the sky; the same light was seen by the postmaster at the nearby town of Imperial. As it neared, Jackson made out the form of an “airship,” roughly 100–150 feet long with immense wings, moving with an undulating motion — it had no gas envelope and was apparently propelled by the flapping wings themselves. The object emitted a dazzling, blinding light that frightened a herd of hogs. Several witnesses observed the object for over three minutes. Note: this entry was previously duplicated on the live page under a separate “Silshee, California” heading; the two are the same event and have been consolidated here.
Source: Keel, John A. Strange Creatures from Time and Space and related works — confirmed major UFO research source
Date: 1905
Location: Portland, Oregon
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A buzzing object descended from heavy overcast and flew over the city.
Source: Unlisted — corroborated in a pre-war UFO timeline compilation; primary source not yet identified
Date: 1905
Location: Llangollen, Wales
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: DD
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: 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.”
Source: Regional Welsh press accounts, 1905 — part of the broader Egryn/Welsh Revival anomalous phenomena wave; exact citation not yet pinned down
Date: April 1905
Location: Perm, Russia
Time: Afternoon
Hynek Classification: CE-III
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupant. The object and occupant were observed at close range by one witness (Schneiderov) at a church.
Source: Webb, David. HUMCAT — confirmed pre-war UFO research reference
Date: 1905
Location: Egryn / North Wales
Time: Various
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: The Egryn Lights phenomenon reached its peak this year. Luminous forms followed Mary Jones’s revival carriage and appeared at her outdoor preachings, witnessed by skeptical journalists from the Daily Mail, Manchester Guardian, and The Mirror, who reported honestly on what they saw after arriving expecting to debunk the phenomenon. The Washington Times ran an illustration of the case in the United States.
Source: Evans, Beriah. The Occult Review, March–June 1905; Manchester Guardian, February 1905; Clark, Jerome. Unexplained!, 1999; Fort, Charles — multiple national newspaper sources and SPR documentation
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
The 1905 Archive — Two Modern Accounts Removed, One Duplicate Consolidated
- Andros Island, Bahamas entry removed: The live page dated this to June 27, 1905, but the account itself references AUTEC (Atlantic Underwater Testing and Evaluation Center, established 1963), Raytheon Corporation, and a Coast Guard helicopter. This is a modern personal testimony, almost certainly genuine as an account but impossible to have occurred in 1905. Removed from this page; the correct year is unknown and should be established before this experience is filed anywhere in the archive.
- Heiden, Netherlands entry removed: Sourced to Albert Rosales’s Humanoid Contact Database, a legitimate compilation, but the witness name and account details read as a modern North African diaspora experience in the Netherlands rather than an Edwardian-era Dutch case. Removed pending date verification.
- Silshee and Imperial Valley consolidated: Both entries described the same August 3, 1905 event — J. A. Jackson’s sighting near Imperial, California — under two separate headings with two partial source citations. Merged into a single entry citing Keel, the more complete and better-documented source.
- The Egryn wave anchors the year: Unlike the 1904 entry for this phenomenon, no fabricated behavioral detail was found in this year’s Egryn Lights entry as drafted — it holds to what the Occult Review, Manchester Guardian, and SPR proceedings actually document.
1905’s confirmed record is smaller after this pass — two modern accounts removed, one duplicate merged — but what remains is a geographically wide, well-sourced year anchored by the Egryn Lights at their documented peak. The lesson from the two removed entries is a general one: a date on a page is not the same as a verified date, and testimony referencing a 1963-founded naval facility cannot belong to 1905 no matter how it was filed.
“Observed through binoculars, it had short wings and legs, and moved ‘casually inclining sideways.’ It reminded some witnesses of ‘a huge winged pig, with webbed feet.'”
— Account of the 1905 Llangollen, Wales entity observation, part of the Welsh Revival anomalous phenomena wave, as documented in 1905 Welsh regional press accounts
