Today in History: A 16th Century UFO Sighting

On this day (April 14) in 1561 a bizarre celestial phenomenon occurred in the skies above Nuremberg which contemporaries described as an aerial battle. According to broadsheet printed that month the phenomenon occurred at dawn and involved hundreds of spheres and strangely shaped objects flying about the sky in combat to each other. After these crashed from the sky, a large black triangular spear appeared.

UFO enthusiasts understandably think that UFOs were being described. Skeptics tend to credit the sundog phenomenon (an optical illusion which makes it appear that more than one sun is in the sky) is to blame. Here are pictures of both the broadsheet and the sundog phenomenon.