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Sightings occurred simultaneously in several different widely sepa- Tated states on the same dates, and no known natural phenomena (meteors and the like) could be applied as a possible explanation. A rocket test in Florida at 4:30 A.M. on January 16 accounted for a very small percentage of reports of sightings made at that time. My prediction for 1969 was quite specific, for I expected the flap to begin in the Midwest along the perimeter of the great circle and radiate outward into the traditional flap areas of Ohio, Canada, etc. I also calculated that the flap would be preceded or followed by one or more “meteors” in the window areas. On Tuesday, January 2, 1969, hovering globes of light were seen in three Missouri cities—Joplin, Webb City and Carterville. These were the usual nonstars performing circular and falling-leaf maneuvers. At 8:30 P.M. on Tuesday, January 9, a single bright light was observed following the Mississippi River along the border between Missouri and Iowa. The object reportedly paced an automobile from an estimated altitude of 400 feet. It sped ahead, stopped, hovered, and changed to an amber color before darting off. A deputy sheriff in Green County, Missouri, reported seeing a bright, starlike object at 9:30 P.M. on Sunday, January 12. Other witnesses said the object hovered, moved in circles, and then hovered again. The beginning of the January 1967 wave also occurred in this region along the Mississippi, although the major sightings of that period were concentrated farther south around Cairo, Illinois, where the Mississippi links up with the Ohio River. During the first two weeks in January 1969, additional reports started to trickle in from Ohio. Unusual low-flying objects were sighted around Middletown, Ohio, and fireballs were seen by hundreds in the Cleveland area as they seemed to plunge into Lake Erie. Back in Florida, residents of Jacksonville Beach were puzzled by “mystery clouds” which emitted sounds ‘like someone walking on pebbles.”’ Police Chief James Alford heard it and ordered Captain Harold Bryan to follow the ‘‘cloud.” He pursued it to the edge of the Atlantic, where it slowly dissolved into nothingness. Strange nonstars were also bobbing around the skies of northern New Jersey again. On Wednesday, January 15, a professional man there was awakened by an odd mechanical beeping sound outside his bedroom window. No vehicles, police cars or UFOs were around. But simultane- aecalee Min ctf. cA cen nase ain 2 Abt. Senet 22 ee nee ously his wife, who was attending a civic meeting some miles away, thought she saw an unusual aerial light in the sky. Charting the Enigma / 145