Victorian UFO? Haunted blimp? Giant bird?! Which of these could be the possible explanation for the Mystery Airship sightings of 1896 and early 1897. Or was it more likely that these were fantastical tales that wound up in the newspaper and people assumed to be true?

While some people argue that this is the first case of a mass-UFO sighting, we’re sad to tell you that the latter explanation is more probable. It seems that the Mystery Airship sightings came from “enterprising reporters perpetrating journalistic hoaxes.” And some historians have noted that you can even tell this from the tone the reports are written in. They come across as tongue-in-cheek (much like some of our reporting but we promise we never fib to you).

It has been suggested that these could have been test flights of airships, created by some unknown genius - the first airships were flown in the 1860s, making this not an entirely outlandish claim. BUT it does come with the bigger mystery of who was this genius and why would they be flying over populated areas if it was such a secret?

And we’re not buying steampunk aliens. Not happening, peeps. We’ll stick with the good ol’ hoax theory.