MIDDLE AGE:

Unknown Author

776 AD, from a chronicle by W. R. Drake:

"Those watching outside in that place, of whom many still live to this very day, saw they beheld the likeness of two large shields, reddish in color in motion above the church, and when the pagans who were outside saw this sign, they were at once thrown into confusion and terrified with fear and began to flee from the castle."

800 AD, Peru, huge strips:

Aerial landing strips are built in the Peruvian Andes.

810 AD, Charlemagne:

St. Gregory of Tours, a historian, wrote of Charlemagne:
"Alcuin, the secretary and biographer of Charlemagne, and author of the Vita Karoli, states in the thirty second chapter of his work that in 810 when he was on his way from Aachen, he saw a large sphere descend like lightning from the sky. It traveled from east to west and was so bright it made the monarch's horse rear up so that Charlemagne fell and injured himself severely."

1100 AD, India:

Vimanas (silent flying machines) written of in Indian vedantic texts.

1235, Pacific:

General Yoritsume was at military camp with his unit on September 24, 1235, when a most extraordinary phenomenon was sighted. Through the night and into the early morning lights in the sky were seen swinging, circling, and looping. General Yoritsume had some astronomers working for him investigate this phenomenon. They came up with perhaps the first explanation offered for UFOs, 'The whole thing is completely natural, General, it is only the wind making the stars sway'.

1239, England, from Matthew of Paris:

On July 24, 1239 at dusk, but not when the stars came out, while the air was clear, serene and shining, a great star appeared. It was like a torch, rising from the south, and flying on both sides of it, there was emitted in the height of the sky a very great light. It turned quickly towards the north in the aery region, not quickly, nor, indeed, with speed, but exactly as it wished to ascend to a place high in the air.

1254, January 1, from Matthew of Paris:

At midnight in the clear and serene sky with the stars shining and the moon eight days old, there suddenly appeared in the sky a kind of large ship, elegantly shaped, and well-equipped of marvelous color. Certain monks of St. Albans saw it for a long time, as if it were painted, and a ship made of planks, but finally it began to disappear.”

1290, Byland, North Yorkshire, from William of Newburghs Chronicle:

"While the abbot and monks were in the refectorium, a flat round, shining, silvery object (discus) flew over the abbey and caused the utmost terror."

The text is known as "The Ampleforth Manuscript", it is a very old manuscript found in Ampleforth Abbey which gives a startling account of a flying saucer over Byland Abbey in Yorkshire. The event is reported to have been witnessed by monks in the year 1290.

Curious fact:

In the Middle Ages, as a result of so many UFO sightings, laws came onto the statute books that imposed a penalty on anybody traveling in an airship.

Curious fact:

An ancient cave drawing known as "The White Lady of Brandenburg" in South Africa depicts a lady dressed in a short pullover, gloves, garters, and slippers. Behind her is a figure with a pipe in hand, and he wears some sort of helmet.

Curious fact:

Another ancient cave drawing in Lussac France also shows figures dressed in modern clothes. In addition, despite being a verifiably ancient cave drawing, they are drawn in a style which interweaves modern realism and French impressionistic manners.

1332, Uxbridge: November 4, from Robert of Reading:

In the first hours of the night, there was seen in the skies over Uxbridge England, a pillar of fire the size of a small boat, pallid, and livid in color. It rose from the south, crossed the sky with a slow and grave motion, and went north. Out of the front of the pillar, a fervent red flame burst forth with great beams of light. Its speed increased as it flew through the air.”

1492, October 11, 10:00 PM, from "The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus":

Christopher Columbus and Pedro Gutierrez while on the deck of the Santa Maria, observed, "a light glimmering at a great distance." It vanished and reappeared several times during the night, moving up and down, "in sudden and passing gleams." It was sighted 4 hours before land was sighted, and taken by Columbus as a sign they would soon come to land.