Encounters with Aliens on this Day
April 17
1897 -- At least a dozen farmers in Williamston, Michigan saw an object maneuver in the morning sky for an hour before it landed. A strange man nearly 3 meters (10 feet) tall, almost naked and suffering from the heat was the pilot of the craft. "His talk, while musical, seemed to be a repetition of bellowings". One farmer went near him and received a blow that broke his hip. (Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 184, citing Lansing State Republican, April 18, 1897).
1950 -- Three flat, metallic flying objects were sighted east of the Los Alamos AEC nuclear facility in New Mexico by 15 University of California scientists at 1:30 p.m. The sighting lasted for 20 minutes and the UFO was viewed through a telescope. They estimated their size as approximately nine feet in diameter and they flew faster than conventional aircraft. (Source: Loren Gross, UFOs: A History. 1950: April-July).
1952 -- Two engineers watched several silent noctunal lights make erratic maneuvers and ninety-degree turns in the sky over Longmeadow, Massachusetts at 8:30 p.m. The sighting lasted for 400 minutes. (Source: Loren Gross, UFOs a History, 1952: January-May, p. 48).
1952 -- Thirty minutes later two men in Westmont, Illinois, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Hall, tracked an object traveling at a high rate of speed from the east to the north, vanishing just under the Ursa Minor constellation. No tail or exhaust were visible, nor were any signs of propulsion visible. They watched the object through a pair of binoculars. (Source: Edward Sullivan, CSI--Los Angeles letter files, April 17, 1952).
1958 - Three hovering discs were observed all night long in Boa del Tigre, Argentina by several witnesses in the area. Mr. Cavalheiro, a railroad employee, and his station chief, J. Machado, wired the Tupancireta police and all saw the UFOs come to ground level about one kilometer away. At times the discs appeared to exchange signals. One of the them flew over the station itself, leaving a luminous trail and considerable heat. (Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, case 466).
1966 - Police officer Dale Spaur and three other officers chased a 40-foot diameter glowing disc or football shaped object from Ravenna, Ohio to Atwater, Pennsylvania in the pre-dawn hours of this morning. The UFO played cat-and-mouse with them in the pursuit: approaching, waiting for them to catch up, then moving away. It beamed an intense light onto the road. It was last seen shooting straight up into the sky and out of sight. At about the same time and in roughly the same vicinity, a man named George Buchert took a photograph of a double-saucer shaped object in Mantua, Ohio. (Sources: J. Allen Hynek, UNICAT, case # 383; J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience, p. 100; Richard H. Hall, The UFO Evidence Volume II: A Thirty Year Report, pp. 172 & 320; Columbus Dispatch, April 19, 1966).
Ravenna, Ohio Police Pursuit - 1966
1993 - In Birmingham, England Peter Gregory had gotten out of bed at 2:30 a.m. to go to the bathroom when he noticed a light outside his landing window. He peered out and saw a glowing ball the size of a football. After five seconds it flew silently past the window and out of sight. He fell back into a deep sleep and had a dream or vision. He saw himself in what appeared to be a control room inside an enormous object. He felt motion and heard a humming sound. The room was illuminated with an intense blue light that seemed to pulse with a hypnotic rhythm. He felt an inner state of euphoria. Without warning he suddenly then found himself inside an oval room with a console with lights in the center. On the left of the console was a cubicle about six feet high. Three humanoid figures were standing there and staring at a viewing screen, watching a transmission. The beings did not notice Gregory. He described them as human sized, with piercing deep blue eyes, reddish brown hair, and heads circled by a broad silver band. He moved closer and noticed on a display screen something that read "Year 3600." He felt the message on the screen meant the destruction of human civilization. (Source: Albert S. Rosales, Humanoid Contact Database 1993, case # 2748, citing Marcus Day, Aliens: Encounters with The Unexplained).
Written by Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D. (Revised 11 September 2005).
Compiled from the UFOCAT computer database.