UFO Sightings from the Early Modern Era

We tend to think of UFO sightings as being a fairly modern phenomena starting with Roswell in the 1940’s but people have spotted unexplainable objects in our skies since time began. Today we’re going to focus on four sightings that occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries.

The 1561 Battle of Nuremburg

A woodcut depicting the Battle Over Nuremburg in April 1561.

A broadsheet news article was printed in April, 1561 describing a strange and terrifying event that occurred in the skies over Nuremburg just a few days prior. The article included a woodblock depiction of what witnesses described (see above).

According to the article in the early morning of April 14, 1561 a ‘dreadful apparition’ appeared in front of the sun. At first in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs appeared described as being the shape of the moon when it’s in its last quarter.

Then the sun become covered in a large number of black and blood-red balls. Some of these balls were connected by red crosses or strips of light. In between all of these balls were a number of rods which contained balls

The event was witnessed by many men and women in both the city and the countryside.

All of the strange objects in the sky began to shoot around the sky, seemingly fighting with each other for over an hour. When they seemed to run out of steam the balls began to fall to the earth and burnt up in the atmosphere as they fell leaving trails of thick smoke.

After all of this another huge object appeared that looked like a long, black spear that pointed towards the west.

The author of the article believed the event to be a sign from God that the people of Nuremburg had sinned and needed to repent.

Skeptics believe the event was made up and used as religious and military propaganda. Others believe the phenomena was simply a sun dog, a rare weather phenomena where the light from the sun is split into a number of orbs, similar in appearance to a lens flare.

Celestial Phenomenon over Basel 1566

A woodcut depiction of UFOs spotted over Basel, Switzerland in 1566

On the 27th and 28th of July as well as the 7th August in 1566 during sunrise or sunset strange shapes appeared in the sky over Basel, Switzerland.

On the 27th of July the sun was shining upon several clear bright shapes that appeared in the sky. Suddenly the sun lost all of its brightness and it became no bigger than the full moon. It appeared to be weeping tears of blood and had a dark shadow around it. The sun set and when the almost full moon rose with a blood red color. This event was witnessed by many people in both the city and the rural areas around Basil.

The next day on July 28th he sun rose at 6am. It had the same appearance as it had had the night before and lit the city in a fiery red glow.

A few weeks later on the 7th of August large black spheres began to come and go with great speed in front of the sun in a similar way to what was described in Nuremburg. They were described as fighting with each other before falling to the earth in clouds of smoke.

Gwanghaegun period UFO Turmoil

The Annals of Joseon Dynasty have one event recorded in them that doesn’t seem to fit with the usual comings and goings of dynastic record. In September 1609 a UFO was witnessed by several people in Gangwon province.

According to witnesses there were several flying objects seen in the skies over Gangwon on this day. They were reported at Wonju,Gangneung between 9-11am, Chuncheon County between 11am and 1pm and Yangyang County at between 1pm and 3pm. The objects looked like giant washbowls and appeared with a thunderous noise, bright light and smoke. The objects seemed to float in the air.

1668 Slovakia UFO

Flying serpent seen in Essex in 1668

In 1668 a newspaper in Slovakia called Levočská kronika or Levoča Chronicles had a article where witnesses described seeing a giant silver lizard flying across the sky.

In the very same year another flying lizard was spotted in Essex, UK on the 27th May.

Skeptics claim all of these sightings were just misidentification by people who didn’t know any better or simply made up stories. While it’s hard to verify anything that happened such a long time ago it seems that the people who were there at the time genuinely believed them to be supernatural.

If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy reading about other ancient UFO sightings or the strange phenomenon of ball lightning.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1566_celestial_phenomenon_over_Basel

http://www.ufo-information.de/images/PDF/Artikel/nuernberg_1561.pdf

http://www.gfn.or.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=special_aod_07&wr_id=2

https://refresher.sk/60038-Ufolog-Slovenske-stihacky-uz-UFO-nahanali-medzidimenzionalna-brana-je-nedaleko-atomky-v-Jaslovskych-Bohuniciach-Rozhovor

http://wunderkammertales.blogspot.com/2015/05/never-laugh-at-live-dragons-dragon-of.html