Source: Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences (1684), 419.
299.
9 July 1686, Leipzig, Germany
Unknown astronomical object
About 1:20 A.M. a brilliant object, half the apparent size of the Moon, was observed hovering for a full 15 minutes. The observer was “the late Mr. Gottfried Kirch, for many years a diligent observer of the heavens, perfectly well instructed in astronomical matters,” according to Rev. Edward Polehamton, who notes:
“A fire ball with a tail was observed, in 8 ½ quarter degrees of Aquarius and 4 degrees north, which continued immoveable for half a quarter of an hour, having a diameter equal to half the moon’s diameter. At first, the light was so great that we could see to read by it; after which, it gradually vanished in its place. This phenomenon was observed at the same time in several other places; especially at Schmitza, a town distant from Dantzig eleven German miles, towards the south, its altitude being about 6 degrees above the southern horizon…. Whence, by easy calculus, it will be found, that the same was not less than sixteen German miles distant in a right line from Leipsic, and above 6 ½ such miles perpendicular above the horizon, that is at least thirty English miles high in the air. And though the observer says of it, immotus perstitit per semi-quandrantem horae, it is not to be understood that it keeps its place like a fixed star, all the time of its appearance; but that it had no very remarkable progressive motion. For he himself has, at the end of the said Ephemerides, given a figure of it, whence it appears that it darted obliquely to the right-hand, and where it ended, left two globules or nodes, not visible but by an optic tube.”
Source: Gotfried Kirch, Ephemerides (contained as an appendix to the ephemeride for the year 1688). Quoted by E. Polehamton in The Gallery of Nature and Art, or a Tour through Creation and Science (1815).
300.
28 August 1686, Paris Observatory, France
Mystery planetoid near Venus
A second observation by Cassini of the supposed satellite of Venus, which would later be named “Neith.” Venus was a morning “star” at the time, with heliocentric longitude 59° and elongation 38°. The object was estimated to be ¼ the diameter of Venus and it showed the same phase as Venus. Cassini then revealed his two sightings.
Source: “The Problematical Satellite of Venus,” in The Observatory 7 (1884): 222-226.
301.
Circa June 1688, Yunan Province, China
Flying umbrella
A large yellow “umbrella-like” object rose from the ridge and came down again, with many lights:
“In the year 27 under the reign of emperor Kangxi of the Qing dynasty, my brother-in-law Bixilin went to his home in the mountains, 20 kilometers from the city of Kunmin. While staying there, he saw every day at noon, when the weather was clear, a large yellow cover like an umbrella that rose slowly above a ridge. This object threw such brilliant lights that he dared not look at it directly. It rose and got lost into the clouds. A little while later it would come down, always slowly, going up and down in the same way. At nightfall, the flying object lost its yellow color and turned paler and blurry. It disappeared completely when the sky was dark.”
Source: Shi Bo, La Chine et les Extraterrestres, op.cit., 36.
302.
20 December 1689, England, exact location unknown
Strange object
About 4:45 A.M., a fiery object shaped like a half-moon changed into a bright sword and “ran westward.”
Source: “Diary of Jacob Bee of Durham,” reprinted in Six North Country Diaries, vol. CXVIII, J.C. Hodgson, ed. (Durham: Surtees Society, 1910).
303.
6 May 1692, Edo (Tokyo), Japan: Three unknowns
In broad daylight, three luminous objects like the sun, moon and a star appeared, sparkling “in an unearthly way.”
Source: Inforespace 25.
304.
1693, Hamburg, Germany: Round machine
A very luminous, round “machine” with a sphere at its center, crossing the sky.
Source: Researcher Winkler (in a catalogue published by the Fund for UFO Research) cites Peter Kolosimo. Unfortunately we have no specific reference for this case, which could refer to an ordinary meteor. There could also be some confusion with case 310 below.
305.
Sept. 1693, Bowden Parva, Northampton, England
Unknown, complex object
“The top of it was in Form of the letter W: And had a Lift or String of Light appendant to the lower Part of the W, about a Yard and Half in Length. It continued some time, and was seen by several round the country.”
Source: John Morton, Natural History, op. cit.
306.
December 1693, Egryn, Merionethshire, Wales
Unexplained fiery phenomenon
A “fiery exhalation” came from the sea and set fire to the hay with “a blue weak flame.” The fire, though easily extinguished, “did not the least harm to any of the men who interposed their endeavour to save the hay, though they ventured (perceiving it different from common fire) not only close to it, but sometimes into it.”
Source: The oldest report comes from a letter dated January 20th, 1694 by a certain Maurice Jones to the author of the additions to Cambden’s Brittania. The letter was published in The Philosophical Transactions, vol. XVIII (1694), pp. 49-50, along with a chronology and names of witnesses of the events.
307.
23 July 1694, London, England
Figures moving within a fiery circle
Jane Lead describes something she calls an “enclosed Principle” surrounded by a fiery circle:
Within it there appeared bright Beryl Bodies walking up and down, and with them did appear as in a Looking glass, like as a round Globe, the Personal Glory of our Mighty King, who moved as they moved. The Ground they went upon, was paved as with Sparkling Stones, with Veins of Gold, which cast forth a mighty Lustre.
Source: The Works of Jane Lead, op. cit.
308.
25 November 1696, Tobolsk, Russia
Human form in the sky
An object split into four luminous parts, the center being dark, with a human form inside. The report reads: “On Sunday, at 2 P.M., there appeared in Tobolsk a sign in the sun: it split into four parts, as it were, and the rays from the sun were light, but in the middle it was dark. And among these parts one could see in the darkness something like a man with extended arms.”
Source: Cherepanov, Aerial Fears of Tobolsk in Olden Days–from the Siberian Olden Days. (Tobolsk, 1882). Quoted in Zvesdochtets (Moscow, 1990), 214-215.
309.
28 November 1696, Tobolsk, Russia
Double object descending
At 5 A.M. “there was a sign in the east: from a dark cloud there was suspended something like an iron-clamp with a great fire that shone brightly and descended down to the very earth.”
Source: Cherepanov, Aerial Fears of Tobolsk in Olden Days – from the Siberian Olden Days (Tobolsk, 1882), op. cit.
310.
4 November 1697, Mecklenburg & Hamburg, Germany
Two wheels in the sky
Two enormous, glowing wheels are shown in a picture with crowds watching the sky. This was primarily seen between 6 and 7 P.M.: “A great fiery ball in the shape of a cannon ball was seen floating…which phenomenon or air sign also above the horizon of Hamburg at the same time but below was seen floating a cross shape…” After a quarter of an hour the ball emitted a bang. It then “disappeared from the sight of many thousands of spectators.” After the same delay the cross-shape, described as having “a sulfur-gleaming, bright shining terrible lightning” also departed.
Fig. 28: Mecklenburg phenomenon
Source: Nachdencklich-dreyfaches Wunder-Zeichen: 1. Eines großerschröcklich-feurigen Cometen, 2. Eines entsetzlichen Feuer-Kugel Lufft-Zeichens, 3. Einer sehr ungestalten Fontange-Mißgeburt…, [s.l.], 1697 [Goethe Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt-am-Main, Einblattdrucke G. Freytag].
311.
Merging globes in the sky
A priest saw a large light and three globes coming from the sky and merging together: “As I arrived near the oratory I saw the sky open, a great light appeared and soon I observed three globes of fire. The middle one was higher than the other two. I thought, ‘here are the lights I have been told about.’ Immediately I fell to my knees and thanked God for such a great marvel. At the same time, two more lights appeared, but a bit higher than the place where the chapel is located (…) The two globes merged with the middle one and vanished.”
Source: L’histoire du diocèse d’Avignon by Abbot Granget, cited by Michel Bougard, La chronique des OVNI (1977), 99-100.
Epilogue to Part I-D
From the scientific observations of several astronomers to the visions of Jane Lead, the 17th century is especially interesting to a researcher of unusual aerial phenomena because it gives us a complete template by which to parse the claims and sightings of today’s witnesses.
This section of our Chronology records stories of abductions by little people (interpreted as “fairies” in Celtic countries, but similar in stature and behavior to today’s Aliens) as well as reports of partial paralysis and occasional healing powers among humans exposed to these phenomena. Such enigmas continued to be seen in the light of theology, to the grave detriment of poor witnesses accused of commerce with demons, but a new philosophical movement would soon remove the old religious backdrop in favor of a revolutionary, “experimental” mode of thinking.
The observations recorded in Mirabilis Annus, an important document we have quoted on several occasions, provide a good illustration of the context of the prodigies and their interpretation for political or religious purposes. In his thoughtful analysis (An Age of Wonders, Prodigies, Politics and Providence in England 1657-1727, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2002, 27-30) William E. Burns notes:
Mirabilis Annus made clear its political point very early on. Rather than merely adducing specific prodigies to demonstrate divine displeasure, it adopted an apocalyptic tactic of delegitimizing the regime through the sheer quantity of prodigies alleged to have taken place in the preceding ‘Year of Wonders’
Whatever the physical nature of the unexplained objects that triggered the sightings, their interpretation allowed critics of the régime to vent their opposition:
The prodigies that Mirabilis Annus actually recounted, which divided into the four categories of prodigies of air, fire, earth and water, and judgments on particular individuals, continued to undermine the regime’s legitimacy by depicting it as sinful and weak. One prominent technique for this was the use of historical parallels.
Aerial phenomena were also used as symbols of desired events, historical changes that the compiler of the changes wished to see happen. Again, in the words of Burns:
Mirabilis Annus claimed that a Surrey gentleman had a vision of a glorious cathedral in the sky beside a small church with a star inside it. The cathedral vanished, while the small church, whose star suggests the glory of God, was exalted. This symbolically represented the hope of dissenters that the Church of England would be overthrown and that the small gathered churches of the dissenters would triumph over it. Even less subtle was the appearance of a black cloud dropping fire over Westminster Palace and the Parliament House.
We are left with the fact that the interpretation of the reported events is generally biased by the writer who recounts the cases, but that may be the price we have to pay for obtaining any knowledge of the underlying phenomena in the first place. As to the actual explanation for the sightings, it is left for us to discover.
Early in the 17th century Descartes and Pascal in France, and Francis Bacon in England, had already introduced new methods of inquiry into the order of nature. By the end of the period people were beginning to think in new ways, inspired by the progress of science based on observation.
The Age of Reason was imminent: in 1703 Isaac Newton would be elected President of the Royal Society; in 1705 Edmund Halley would predict that the comet last seen in 1682 would return in 1758 (it did) and in 1707 French inventor Denis Papin would invent the high-pressure boiler that would lead to the first steam-powered ship and would pave the way to James Watt’s steam engine and the industrial revolution.
The new impetus in science in the closing years of the seventeenth century parallels a worldwide evolution in classical literature, in education and in the arts. When the year 1700 comes around, there are literate people everywhere who are eager to read intelligent reports of new ideas and discoveries. Magazines circulate throughout Europe and America; new journals are born. Naturally, reports of unusual aerial phenomena continue to thrive in this new enlightened culture. They are now reported in the pages of well-edited periodicals like the Gentleman’s Magazine, the Annual Register or the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal society of London, “giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of the world.”
As we shall see, these “undertakings and labours” often had to do with an attempt by “the ingenious” to understand phenomena that were beyond the physics of the time – and still present us with a most interesting challenge today.
PART I-E
Eighteenth-Century Chronology
Often called “The Century of Enlightenment,” the eighteenth century is characterized by intense interest for the rational study of nature, systematic investigation of “meteors,” the rise of an international community of scientists and “natural philosophers,” experiments with electricity, Benjamin Franklin’s demonstrations of the nature of lightning, the wide development of navigation, the worldwide recognition and imitation of the Royal Society, and early attempts to fly culminating in the first manned balloons.
The search for new planets gave rise to numerous observations of unknown bodies by competent astronomers, both professionals and amateurs, eagerly reported in considerable detail in the pages of the new scientific journals and publications dedicated to an enlightened elite.
The eighteenth century belonged to Newton and Lavoisier, to the triumph of Reason. Unlike modern “rationalists,” however, intellectuals who considered themselves enlightened were dedicated to careful observation of nature and did not recoil before its more mysterious aspects. On the contrary, unusual aerial phenomena were carefully documented, published and commented upon with an openness of mind that is sorely lacking in our “modern” era of institutionalized science.
312.
August 1700, Sahalahti, Eastern Finland
Abducted by a disk
An old man, a smith named Tiittu, is said by a local story to have disappeared shortly after a flying disk hovered over the village. His son went to search for him, and met a being he perceived as a “bear” who said he had flown off.
“After Tiittu had gone to the forest, the same day villagers saw a huge disc hovering above the village. It stayed without moving for a moment, then started to fly out to the direction where Tiittu had gone to. Villagers believed that it was a mark of the end of the world. They were horrified.
“For two days they stayed inside praying, singing religious songs and confessing their sins. Only in the third day they were calm enough to go back to their normal work. When Tiittu didn’t return, the villagers started to look for him. In the forest Tiittús son suddenly met a big being looking like a bear. The being started to speak in Finnish: ‘Don’t be afraid. I can tell you that you are looking for your father in vain. You saw that ‘sky ship’ like a rainbow—it took your father up to the heights, to another, better world, where lives a race much higher than your people. Your father feels good there and doesn’t miss his home.’ The bear disappeared, and they stopped looking for Tiittu.
“All the people of Sahalahti were talking about the mysterious case. Then they got a new priest, who announced in the church: “This story speaks of sinful witchcraft, and it
represents the imagination of drunken and mad people, so yoúd better forget it.”
Source: Finnish researcher, Tapani Kuningas, published this story in the Finnish magazine Vimana (No. 3-4, 1967) and later in his book Ufoja Suomen taivaalla (Kirjayhtymä, Helsinki, 1970). He claimed the story was a local tradition in Sahalahti, in East Finland. However, no confirmation for this exists except for a single letter, which is now lost.
313.
1701, Cape Passaro, Sicily, Italy: Hovering light
Witness C. De Corbin reports observing a very bright light in the sky, hovering for two hours in spite of a strong wind.
Source: Abbé J. Richard, Histoire Naturelle de l’Air et des Météores (1771).
314.
September 1702, Japan, exact location unknown
Red residue from a sun-like object
An object like a red sun was seen in the sky, dropping cotton-like filaments.
Source: Brothers Magazine I,1.
315.
1704, Hamburg, Germany: Sparkling flying boats
People saw the sky “crisscrossed with sparkling boat-like objects” chasing one another, blending and separating, multiplying in plain view. We have too little information to conclude they saw an aurora borealis.
Source: Yves Naud, UFOs and Extraterrestrials in History (Geneva: Ferni, 1978), vol. II, 176.
316.
28 October 1707, Hidaka County, Wakayama, Japan
White light
During a tsunami that struck the coast, a luminous object like a white ball appeared in the waves.
Source: Takao Ikeda, Nihon nu ufo (Tokyo: Tairiku shobo, 1974).
317.
18 December 1707, Southern coast of England
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