Close Encounters of the First Kind: 1910-1942
When it comes to UFO sightings, the 20th century saw an assortment of reports come in that dealt with the likes of locations, such as northern China to Great Falls, Montana. Throughout the world, a variety of documentation centers on an array of Close Encounters of the First Kind claims. In this article, we will take a look at some of the incidents reported that took place between 1910 and 1942.
One of the prominent mysteries that occurred during the early part of the 20th century is attached to the Brown Mountain area in North Carolina. It is here that the Brown Mountain Lights were reported to make an appearance. This phenomenon is considered a series of ghost lights that have provided loads of mysterious chatter amongst the paranormal community and unidentifiable subjects enthusiasts. While this type of sighting is mentioned under the 20th century, Native American tribes of the area have observed the intriguing lights for many years. It is believed that the earliest sighting involving a European took place in 1771 by a man named Gerald Will de Brahm. His explanation for the occurrence was that it looked like “nitrous vapor” that possessed inflaming characteristics.
Back to the 1900s, where the Brown Mountain Lights shown bright in the sky once again. The date was September 13th, 1913, and the pages of the Charlotte Daily Observer told the tale of a fisherman, who caught sight of mysterious lights that appeared “just above the horizon every night.” The lights were also described as red in color and were circular in shape. Shortly after his claim, it was said that the man mistook a group of train lights for what he deemed as quite a mysterious sight. An affiliate with the United States Geological Survey conducted the study that burst the bubble on this report.
In June of 1919, a UFO sighting was documented at Docking, Norfolk, which is situated in England. Seven years later, a Russian explorer and artist by the name of Nicholas Riley, submitted an entry in his diary that suggests that he encountered an unidentifiable object in the sky. While he was traveling throughout northern China, he cited that he spotted a brightly shining object that took to the sky and positioned itself above a group of mountains.
In 1942, China was once again the site of another UFO sighting. This time a photograph was taken of the event, which became known as the Hopeh Incident, which was named after the city the occurrence took place at. A man named Masujiro Kiru found the photograph, which looks authentic at first glance, but could actually be a bird in the distance (if you’re a skeptic). As he sifted through the snapshots situated in his father’s China Campaign photo album, he found this curious item, which was purchased by his father from a photographer working the Tientsien streets.
Between 1942 and 1945, a wide-range of unexplainable events in the air was reported, which took place throughout the Second World War. The validity of these reports has often been dismissed as aircraft and their lights as they flew through the night skies.