1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:03,200 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:09,000 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: show that demystifies history one day at a time. I'm 4 00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: Gabe Blusier, and in this episode, we're talking about the 5 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:21,799 Speaker 1: first documented UFO sighting in North American history, the first, 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:30,640 Speaker 1: but far from the last. The day was March first, 7 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 1: sixteen thirty nine. Governor John Winthrop documented a report of 8 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: unidentified flying objects in the sky above Boston. It wasn't 9 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:45,479 Speaker 1: a firsthand account. Winthrop hadn't witnessed the site himself, but 10 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: he considered the source of the story to be credible, 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: so he wrote it up in the journal he kept 12 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: about the daily happenings of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The 13 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: UFO described in Winthrop's private journal probably wasn't the first 14 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 1: mysterious thing to be seen in America's skies, but the 15 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: account is the first time anyone wrote down such a sighting, 16 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: at least that we know of. According to Winthrop, the 17 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: UFO in question was a great light that had been 18 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,560 Speaker 1: spotted at night and the sky above a nearby swamp. 19 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: A local Puritan shoemaker named James Everell was the first 20 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: to report seeing it. He and two unnamed friends had 21 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:27,680 Speaker 1: been rowing a boat along the Muddy River that night 22 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,399 Speaker 1: when all of a sudden, a bright light appeared in 23 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: the sky. The men said that when it stood still, 24 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:39,640 Speaker 1: the light quote flamed up and was about three yards square. However, 25 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 1: the light didn't stand still for long. According to the witnesses, 26 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,919 Speaker 1: it darted across the sky at high speed, traveling back 27 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: and forth between their boat and the village of Charlestown, 28 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: some two miles away. And if that weren't weird enough, 29 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: the light apparently took the form of a huge, glowing 30 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: pig during its journey, or, as Winthrop put it, quote, 31 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: it was contracted into the figure of a swine and 32 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: ran as swift as an arrow. Everel and his buddies 33 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: were stunned. In fact, they were so captivated by the 34 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: speeding light they wound up sitting in their boat watching 35 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:21,639 Speaker 1: it for hours two to three. According to Winthrop, they 36 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: laid down their oars during the light show and were 37 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: reportedly pushed about a mile downstream by the tide. And 38 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: here's the strange part. When the light finally vanished, the 39 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,360 Speaker 1: men found they had somehow returned to their original location. 40 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: No one remembered rowing back against the current. Yet there 41 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: they were, almost as if they'd been transported somehow. It's 42 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:49,600 Speaker 1: possible the wind change direction and blew the men back upstream, 43 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: or maybe they just misjudged how far they drifted in 44 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: the first place. Still, it is odd that no one 45 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: in the boat had any memory of the return trip, 46 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:01,920 Speaker 1: since they were all in agreement they had traveled at 47 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: least some distance. Less skeptical listeners might interpret that detail 48 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: as evidence of a fugue, a temporary dissociative state where 49 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: a person loses memory of their actions and ends up 50 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:19,519 Speaker 1: in an unexpected place. Verified cases of fugues have been 51 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 1: linked to severe stress, often brought on by traumatic events. 52 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:27,679 Speaker 1: That usually means things like war, abuse or some kind 53 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: of accident, though fugue states are also commonly reported by 54 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 1: people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. Just saying, 55 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: of course, there are other potential explanations for what happened 56 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: that night besides little Green Men. For starters, maybe the 57 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 1: guys in the boat were lying and hadn't seen anything 58 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: at all. That's possible, but it would mean Governor Winthrop 59 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: was a bad judge of character, And who wants to 60 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: believe that, After all, he described James Everell as quote, 61 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: a sober, discreet man, someone he seemed to think was trustworthy. 62 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: And then there's the fact that other people later corroborated 63 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: the men's story. As Winthrop noted, quote, many other credible 64 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: persons saw the same light after about the same place. 65 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,360 Speaker 1: So assuming they were telling the truth, what might they 66 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: have seen out there? The most frequently proposed explanation is 67 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,839 Speaker 1: a natural phenomenon called ignis fatus, which is Latin for 68 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: foolish fire. It typically occurs in swamps and marshes where 69 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: there are large build ups of decaying organic matter. Natural 70 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,800 Speaker 1: gases are often emitted during decomposition, and when those come 71 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: in contact with oxygen in the air, they sometimes ignite spontaneously, 72 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,719 Speaker 1: producing ghostly balls of fire that seemed to hover in 73 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: the air. Ignis fatus have been the subject of folklore 74 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: the world over for centuries. They're known by many names, 75 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: including willow the wisps, hobby lanterns, go lights, and spunkies. 76 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: But whatever you call them, the atmospheric swamp lights are 77 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:08,400 Speaker 1: now all considered to be the byproducts of an explainable 78 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: natural process, or are they? Because while the marsh gas 79 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: hypothesis is scientifically sound. It doesn't account for the strange 80 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,719 Speaker 1: behavior attributed to ignis fatus, such as racing across the 81 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,279 Speaker 1: sky and the shape of a pig. If Winthrop's account 82 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: is accurate, then it doesn't sound like a simple case 83 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 1: of exploding swamp gas. That said, Governor Winthrop did recount 84 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 1: another curious sighting five years later, and admittedly that one 85 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: sounds a lot more like traditional ignis fatus. In his 86 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: journal entry, Winthrop wrote, quote, about midnight, three men coming 87 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: in a boat to Boston saw two lights arise out 88 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: of the water near the north point of the town, 89 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:55,159 Speaker 1: cove in form like a man, and then went at 90 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,599 Speaker 1: a small distance to the town, and so to the 91 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: south point, and they're vanished away. The fact that the 92 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:04,800 Speaker 1: lights rose out of the water rather than flying through 93 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:08,359 Speaker 1: the sky, supports the idea they were gas emissions, and 94 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: to be fair, the same could have been true of 95 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: the sixteen thirty nine sighting. Maybe the witnesses were just 96 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:18,360 Speaker 1: mistaken about which direction the light had come from. In 97 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 1: either case, the event Everel and his friends observed that 98 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: night caused quite a stir among their fellow Puritan colonists. 99 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:28,599 Speaker 1: It was also noteworthy enough to capture the interest of 100 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: Governor Winthrop. We'll never know for certain what the men 101 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: in the boat really saw that night, and it's that 102 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: ambiguity that gives the story its appeal. Maybe the light 103 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 1: was an especially spirited burst of gas. Maybe it was 104 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: the first alien encounter in North America. Or maybe it 105 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,680 Speaker 1: was a Chinese spy balloon. That's the best part about UFOs. 106 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: You get to use your imagination and science can't do 107 00:06:54,800 --> 00:07:00,040 Speaker 1: a thing about it. I'm Gay Blusier and hopefully I 108 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,719 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 109 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us 110 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and 111 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:15,440 Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to 112 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this Day at 113 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:22,440 Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, 114 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here 115 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in History Class.