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UFOs appeared both in the Eastern and Western empires. We have this report from Byzantium, in 398 A.D.: "A thing like a burning globe, presenting a sword, shown brilliantly in the sky over the city. ... It seemed almost to touch the earth from the zenith. Such a thing was never recorded to have been seen However, UFO sightings did not stop in the Middle Ages only to be revived in modern times. During the Renaissance and afterwards, they probably became more frequent Take this account from France on March 10, 1554: "There appeared ... between 6:00 and 8:00 P.M. about the moon, a burning fire, emitting a great noise, what seemed to be the point of a lance, turning from side to side, from east to west, casting out flames on all sides." Only a few years earlier, in 1528, during the seige of Utrecht in Holland "... a cruel and strange sight was seen in the sky, which terrified the townspeople, and made the enemy think he would get the city. It was the form of a Burgundian cross right over the city, high In the sky, yellow in color, and fearful to behold." By the diarist John Evelyn: "11th March 1643 ... I must not forget what amazed us exceedingly the night before, namely, a shining cloud in the air, in shape resembling a sword, the point reaching to the north; it was as bright as the moon, the rest of the sky being very serene. It began about eleven at night, and vanished not till about one, being seen by all the south of England." Clearly this could not have been a meteor; and its flight was too slow and its orbit too fast for a comet. Through the growth of interest in the physical sciences, reports of unexplicable aerial phenomena became more specific. Here is an account by a Fellow of the Royal Society dated December 16, 1742. The time was 8:40 P.M. "I was crossing St James Park, when a light arose from behind the trees and houses, from the south and west, which at first I thought was a rocket, of large size. But when it rose 20 degrees, it moved parallel to the horizon, but waved like this (the speaker drew an undulating line) and went on in the direction of north-by-east It seemed very near. Its motion was very slow. I had it for about a half a mile in view. A light flame was turned backwards by the resistance the air made to it. From one of burning charcoal. That end was a frame like bars of iron, and quite opaque to my sight. At one point on the longitudinal frame, or cylinder, it issued a train in the shape of a tail of light more bright at one point on the rod of the cylinder, and growing gradually fainter to the end of the rod or cylinder; so that it was transparent for more than half of its length. The head of this strange object seemed about half-a-degree in diameter and the tail near three degrees in length." In the 19th century, with the great advance in knowledge, communications and literacy, UFO reports became abundant. But hardly anyone suggested they might be extraterrestrial spaceships. One of the very few exceptions was Charles Fort. Fort was born in Albany, N.Y., in 1874. He was blessed, or cursed, with a small inheritance. For long years he devoted his life to collecting reports of curious and Everywhere the air burned, and on many nights, when the weather was serene, a ship was seen in the air moving fast." In 98 A.D., we have this account: "At sunset, a burning shield passed over the sky at Rome. It came sparkling from the west and passed to the east." before by man."