1800s
The 1801 Orbs - June 19, 1801 - Hull, East Yorkshire, England ★★★★★
The 1808 Camden, Maine sighting - July 22, 1808 - Camden, Maine, USA ★★★★★
The 1870 Photo - Winter, 1870 - Coös County, New Hampshire ★★★★★ DEBUNKED
The California Airship Wave- November 17 to December 1896, California, USA ★★★★★
The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident - April 17, 1897 - Aurora, Texas, USA ★★★★★
Mystery Airship - April 20, 1897 - Miller County, Arkansas, USA ★★★★★
Airship Encounter - May 6, 1897 - Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas, USA ★★★★★
Case Credibility Rating System
★★★★★ DEBUNKED
★★★★★ Very Low
★★★★★ Low
★★★★★ Moderate
★★★★★ High
★★★★★ Exceptional
Primarily anecdotal, anonymous or unverifiable witnesses, story surfaced long afterward, little/no contemporary documentation, serious inconsistencies, or evidence of fabrication.
Identifiable witness or source, but evidence is weak. Limited corroboration, secondhand reporting, questionable documentation, or plausible conventional explanations significantly weaken the case.
Credible identifiable witnesses and reasonable documentation. Some independent corroboration may exist, but important uncertainties remain or conventional explanations cannot be confidently excluded.
Multiple credible or independent witnesses, strong contemporary documentation, and/or supporting photographic, radar, physical, military, police, or scientific evidence. Conventional explanations have been investigated but remain inadequate or disputed.
Exceptionally well-documented case involving multiple independent sources and several mutually supporting forms of evidence. Records have strong provenance, major details are independently corroborated, and extensive investigation has failed to produce a convincing conventional explanation.
A case revealed to be either a deliberate hoax or easily and undeniably explained through conventional explanations.