Fitch Bits: Boston's First Recorded UFO

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Watch the video above or read it in article form below!


This post was originally shared as a Facebook and Instagram "DID YOU KNOW" post.

We share them weekly and you can get in on the fun by liking us at Facebook.com/TheNewSlightlyOddFitchburg and following us at Instagram.com/SlightlyOddFitchburg! Now onto the odd story!

 


DID YOU KNOW

that the first recorded (by the Western world) UFO sighting in the Americas happened in what would become Boston?
 
It happened all the way back in 1639 when, on March 1st, John Winthrop (yes, of the Winthrop Winthrops) wrote: "earlier in the year James Everell, 'a sober, discreet man,' and two others had been rowing a boat in the Muddy River, which flowed through swampland and emptied into a tidal basin in the Charles River, when they saw a great light in the night sky. When it stood still, it flamed up, and was about three yards square,” the governor reported, “when it ran, it was contracted into the figure of a swine.”
 
That's not all. He also said that "Diverse other credible persons saw the same light, after, about the same place."
 
But don't go yet, there's still more! It also turns out that the men in the boat experienced missing time! As he put it, the men happened to find themselves one mile upstream, as if the light had transported them there. The men had no memory of their rowing against the tide, although it’s possible they could have been carried by the wind or a reverse tidal flow.
 
So, what was it? We don't know. What do you think it was? An alien? A scary ghost? A pig on fire?

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About the Author

Ed Sweeney documents folklore, odd history, hauntings, and cryptid cases at SlightlyOddAmerica.com. He wrote Slightly Odd Fitchburg: The Odd and Haunted History of Central Massachusetts, is a content creator, and founder of the Slightly Odd Society

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