- The truth is out there, and apparently has been for a long time.
It might be easy to think that UFO sightings are a modern phenomenon, born mostly after WWII. After all, that’s when we developed proper flying machines ourselves, and mass media grew to the point that potential UFO encounters could be reported worldwide.
But the fact is that people have seen unexplainable things in the sky all throughout human history. We’ve simply lost most of the stories but some have fortunately been preserved.
Are they records of encounters between ancient humans and flying saucers? Or are they simply tales of natural phenomena the folks of the past just didn’t understand?
Read these seven accounts and decide for yourself.
7) The Mystery Airship (1896-1897)
From late 1896 to mid-1897, there was something strange in American skies. People all across the U.S. reported seeing a mysterious airship flying through the skies.
If you look at the number of sightings, it’s hard to doubt that there was something there. Dozens of people with no connection to each other saw the zeppelin-like aircraft, while one person from Missouri claimed he encountered it on the ground and even spoke briefly to its otherworldly passengers.
One theory posited at the time claimed that the airship was linked to Thomas Edison. He denied having anything to do with the matter — but was he telling the truth?
6) The Air Battle of Stralsund (1665)
In April 1665, six German fishermen witnessed something that we’re sure left them speechless. Strange flying ships engaged in thunderous aerial combat above the city of Stralsund on Germany’s northern coast.
According to the fishermen, what seemed like large flocks of birds coalesced into multiple warships sometime after noon. With their crew visible on their decks, they then started battling each other in the skies.
Finally, as the sun began to set, a “flat round shape, like a plate” emerged from the clouds above the city and the fishermen hid themselves in terror. The following day, they all said they were in great pain and experienced tremors throughout their bodies.
5) Basel Celestial Phenomenon (1566)
Another sky battle took place some 100 years before Stralsund. In 1566, the people of Basel, Switzerland, looked in awe as multiple red and black spheres appeared in the sky.
According to contemporary accounts, the orbs appeared three times over the year, always against a setting or rising sun. The spheres even affected the sun, as reports say the sun dimmed prematurely and shone with an unnatural red light.
Many people also claimed the black and red balls seemed to be fighting, either together or against each other. Having not heard about UFOs, chroniclers at the time wrote the event off as a sign from God.
They couldn’t agree on what it was a sign of, though.
4) Nuremberg Celestial Phenomenon (1561)
Five years before Basel, one more celestial battle occurred in Nuremberg, Germany. A preserved broadsheet news article (yes, they had newspapers back then), reported multiple strange objects seemingly emerging from the sun.
Right around daybreak, around 5 a.m., an entire fleet’s worth of spheres, cylinders, crosses, and other geometric shapes appeared. The broadsheet reported they “started to fight with each other,” flying in erratic patterns in front of the sun as if engaging in an aerial dogfight.
The battle came to an when a “black spear” showed up. With its appearance, all the remaining shapes fell smoking and burning to the ground.
3) ‘Strange Happenings’ in China (c. 1022-1063)
Shen Kuo, an ancient Chinese politician and scientist, published a collection of writings called The Dream Pool Essays in 1088. It includes an account of “strange happenings” witnessed in the eastern provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu during the reign of Emperor Renzong (1022-1063).
According to witnesses, a large bright “pearl” appeared over the city of Yangzhou at night. Its surface had openings from which shone a light so bright that it illuminated an area reaching 10 miles in every direction.
All of a sudden, the pearl “took off at a tremendous speed” and disappeared into the Xingkai Lake in the territory of modern Russia. Shen Kuo doesn’t speculate what the thing might’ve been — maybe because he continues with a rant about how the Chinese people of his time don’t behave as well as they used to.
2) Airships of Clonmacnoise (744)
Multiple Irish annals briefly mention a bizarre sight in the skies above the Emerald Isle around the year 744. Each record states that ships appeared in the sky, with their crews visibly working on their decks.
And that’s pretty much it. The story has been embellished over the centuries, with later writers adding details such as stating the crews couldn’t breathe in our atmosphere and moving the location of the event to Clonmacnoise Monastery.
The latter change gave the phenomenon its modern name. The original stories, however, simply say there was a sky ship and that’s it.
1) Rome’s Phantom Ships (218 BCE)
Titus Livius, better known in English, as Livy, wrote one of the most comprehensive histories of Rome in his time. This work, Ab Urbe Condita, mentions an ominous incident in 218 BCE.
According to Livy, the people of Rome saw “a spectacle of ships gleaming in the sky.” Could have been an alien fleet in Earth orbit?
Maybe, but even Livy is skeptical of the sighting. He believes his compatriots simply saw strange clouds and took them as a sign, as the entire city of Rome was terrified of the upcoming Second Punic War with Carthage.
And as far as we’re aware, Carthage didn’t have any skyships. Although Hannibal probably wished he did as he was crossing the Alps.