The 1897 Mystery Airship Wave (1897)
From November 1896 to May 1897, thousands of Americans, first on the West Coast and then across the Midwest, reported nighttime sightings of mysterious "airships" equipped with powerful searchlights. On April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, one such craft allegedly crashed into the local judge's windmill, leaving behind metallic debris covered in indecipherable symbols.
Witnesses
thousands of witnesses across the United States
Why it endures
The very first mass UFO wave of the modern era, predating the "flying saucer" era by fifty years and already displaying every hallmark of the phenomenon to come.
Official version (contested)
Historians largely agree this wave was a social phenomenon amplified by sensationalist newspapers, with the Aurora incident in particular considered by most researchers to be a local hoax.