Uncanny Atlas
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Everything in the atlas

Every published entry, A to Z. Each one says what kind of claim it is.

574 entries · page 9 of 12
Claimed sighting
The Norfolk News airship reports of May 1909
On 15 May 1909 the Norfolk News printed three witness accounts of an airship over Norfolk, and a theory that it came from a German warship.
Something SeenObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Norfolk airship witnesses of May 1909
On 22 May 1909 the Norfolk News reported several people who saw an airship over Norfolk and Lowestoft, alongside an aeronaut's explanations.
Something SeenObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The O'Hare Airport UFO sighting
On 7 November 2006, United Airlines workers at O'Hare Airport in Chicago reported a spinning disk hanging below the clouds over Concourse C.
Something SeenObscurity 4 of 7
Folklore
The Octavius ghost ship
A legend of a ship found drifting west of Greenland with its whole crew frozen dead below deck. Frank M. Schuster, writing in Polar Record in 2022, links it to an unnamed-ship story printed by the New York Gazette in 1828 under the headline Awful Discovery.
Something ToldObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
The Odiyan
In rural Kerala, Odiyans were people said to shapeshift into animals at night and to scare people to death.
Something ToldObscurity 5 of 7
Folklore
The Okiku doll
A Japanese doll kept at Mannenji temple in Hokkaido. In the story told about it, a family came to believe its hair was growing after the young girl it belonged to died.
Something Left BehindObscurity 2 of 7
Folklore
The Ouija board patent
On 10 February 1891 the US Patent Office issued patent 446,054 to Charles Kennard and Elijah Bond for a lettered board filed under toy or game.
Something Left BehindObscurity 1 of 7
Documented
The Paisley witches' executions
On 10 June 1697 people convicted of witchcraft after the Bargarran trial of 1696 were executed at Paisley's Gallow Green in Scotland.
Something ToldObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
The Palatine Light of Block Island
A ship carrying emigrants from Rotterdam wrecked on Block Island, Rhode Island, in December 1738. A ghost-ship legend grew from the wreck, and tellers say a burning ship appears each year.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Pascagoula abduction
Two shipyard workers, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, said they were taken aboard a craft while fishing on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi on 11 October 1973.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 2 of 7
Disputed
The Patterson-Gimlin film
Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson say they filmed a Bigfoot near Bluff Creek on 20 October 1967, in a clip of 59.5 seconds.
Something SeenObscurity 4 of 7
Folklore
The Peckham letter on Spring-heeled Jack
An anonymous letter from a Peckham resident, complaining of pranksters in villages around London, was made public by the city's Lord Mayor on 9 January 1838.
Something ToldObscurity 2 of 7
Documented
The Pendle witches hanged at Lancaster
A group from the Pendle area, convicted of witchcraft at a trial lasting two days, were hanged on 20 August 1612 at Lancaster's Gallows Hill.
Something ToldObscurity 2 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Petrozavodsk phenomenon
A bright light sending pulsing rays to the ground, seen over Petrozavodsk at about 4 a.m. on 20 September 1977. Soviet researchers and James Oberg later tied it to a satellite launch from Plesetsk.
Something SeenObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
The Philadelphia Experiment
A story says the Navy made a destroyer escort vanish around 28 October 1943. It traces to letters written after 1955.
Something ToldObscurity 1 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Phoenix Lights
Hundreds of witnesses reported lights over Phoenix, Arizona, on the night of March 13, 1997. Skeptics trace them to Air National Guard training flights.
Something SeenObscurity 1 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Pictou Harbour yellow fall
On a still June night a yellow substance fell by the bucketful onto a ship in Pictou Harbour, Nova Scotia. Tests reported in the American Journal of Science suggested to one Mr. Blake that it might be insect eggs.
Something SeenObscurity 5 of 7
Folklore
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
In the tradition of Hamelin in Germany, on 26 June 1284 a piper in colourful clothes led 130 of the town's children away and they vanished.
Something ToldObscurity 1 of 7
Folklore
The Poltergeist curse
A rumour that the Poltergeist films were cursed, built on the early deaths of Dominique Dunne in 1982 and Heather O'Rourke in 1988, two young members of the cast.
Something ToldObscurity 2 of 7
Folklore
The Pombero
The Pombero is a small humanoid being of Guaraní mythology, part of Paraguay's cultural heritage and also known in Misiones, Argentina, and southern Brazil. Billiken says country people who want his help leave him offerings at night.
Something ToldObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
The R101 medium sitting
On 7 October 1930, two days after the R101 airship disaster, medium Eileen Garrett held a sitting in London that spiritualists said reached an R101 officer.
Something ToldObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
The RB-47 radar encounter
On 17 July 1957 a six-man Air Force crew flying an RB-47 reported an unidentified object that followed the aircraft for over 700 miles from Mississippi to Oklahoma. The Condon Committee listed the case as unidentified.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Rain Woman painting
A painting by Vinnytsia artist Svetlana Telets that Ukrainian newspapers reported was repeatedly bought and returned by owners who said they dreamed about it.
Something Left BehindObscurity 6 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Rendlesham Forest incident
In late December 1980, USAF security police at RAF Woodbridge in England reported strange lights and a glowing object in nearby Rendlesham Forest. Astronomers and skeptics have tied the lights to a fireball and a lighthouse.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 1 of 7
Documented
The Robertson Panel
In January 1953 a panel of scientists met to review the US Air Force's UFO files for the CIA, and recommended a public education campaign to debunk sightings.
Something Left BehindObscurity 4 of 7
Folklore
The Roswell incident
In June 1947 rancher W. W. "Mac" Brazel found a field of wreckage on his land northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. Stories of a crashed saucer and its crew grew around it; two later Air Force reports traced the debris to balloon research.
Something Left BehindObscurity 1 of 7
Disputed
The SS Cotopaxi distress call
The coal steamer SS Cotopaxi sailed for Havana on 29 November 1925 and sent a distress call on 1 December. A wreck identified in 2020 places its loss off Florida, away from the Bermuda Triangle.
Something ToldObscurity 6 of 7
Folklore
The SS Ourang Medan
A story of a ship whose dead were found in cramped postures, told in newspapers from 1940 onward. Skeptoid argues that no real ship could have escaped every shipping register, and the earliest known versions trace to one Trieste journalist, Silvio Scherli.
Something ToldObscurity 7 of 7
Folklore
The Saci
The Saci, or Saci-Pererê, is a figure of Brazilian folklore. Some details of his story come from a 1917 newspaper inquiry by Monteiro Lobato, and a town in São Paulo state now marks a Dia do Saci.
Something ToldObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
The Salem Coast Guard UFO photograph
On 16 July 1952 two Coast Guard men at Salem reported bright lights outside a window, and one photographed them. Investigators later blamed reflections.
Something SeenObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Sallie House
A house in Atchison, Kansas, where tenants Tony and Debra Pickman reported strange events after moving in during 1993. A local story links it to a 6-year-old girl called Sallie.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 1 of 7
Disputed
The Seaford poltergeist
From 3 February 1958, a family in Seaford, Long Island, reported broken objects and bottles opening and spilling in their home. Police, reporters and parapsychologists looked into it.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 5 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Shag Harbour UFO
Witnesses at Shag Harbour, Canada, reported lights they took for a crashing plane and called the RCMP. Searchers later found that no aircraft was missing.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 1 of 7
Disputed
The Silver Bridge collapse and Mothman
On 15 December 1967 the Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed into the Ohio River in rush-hour traffic and 46 people died. Author John Keel later tied the collapse to the Mothman sightings.
Something ToldObscurity 4 of 7
Disputed
The Skookum cast
On 22 September 2000, members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization found a large body imprint in mud at Skookum Meadows, Washington. They read it as a Bigfoot; skeptics read it as an elk.
Something Left BehindObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
The Smurl haunting
Jack and Janet Smurl said demons tormented their family in a duplex in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. They went public in 1986 and drew in Ed and Lorraine Warren. A critic, Kurtz, called the affair a hoax.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 2 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Socorro UFO (Lonnie Zamora)
Socorro, New Mexico, police officer Lonnie Zamora reported a flame overhead and a landed object outside town on April 24, 1964.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 2 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Spicer road sighting
George Spicer and his wife reported a huge long-necked animal crossing the road ahead of their car beside Loch Ness on 22 July 1933.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Stanley Hotel
A hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, opened in 1909, where guests say they sense a former housekeeper in room 217. Mental Floss ties a 1974 night Stephen King spent there to The Shining.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 1 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Stephenville lights
On 8 January 2008, dozens of Stephenville, Texas, residents reported bright lights overhead after dark. The Air Force later said F-16s had been flying in the area.
Something SeenObscurity 4 of 7
Hoax, proven
The Stockwell ghost
In Stockwell, on 6 January 1772, in Mrs Golding's house, crockery was reported flying from shelves and violent noises were heard.
Something ToldObscurity 6 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Stratford knockings
From 10 March 1850, the house of Eliakim Phelps in Stratford, Connecticut, was the scene of disturbances that his family reported for eight months.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 6 of 7
Disputed
The Stronsay Beast
In September 1808, off Rothiesholm Head on Stronsay in Orkney, a farmer reported a strange carcass at sea. It was driven ashore about ten days later and measured at some 55 feet.
Something Left BehindObscurity 6 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Sunnyvale Toys "R" Us ghost
A Toys "R" Us store in Sunnyvale, California, where staff told of items flying off shelves and taps running on their own. Psychic Sylvia Browne said she contacted a farmhand's ghost there.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 4 of 7
Hoax, proven
The Surgeon's Photograph
A photograph of a long-necked head above Loch Ness appeared in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934. In 1994 Christian Spurling said it showed a toy submarine topped with a serpent head.
Something SeenObscurity 6 of 7
Disputed
The Syderstone Parsonage knockings
Knocking in the dead of night at Syderstone Parsonage, home of the Rev. Mr. Stewart, grew so violent over six weeks that one servant left in terror.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 4 of 7
Disputed
The Tarbes worked stone disk
A small disk of shaped stone fell at Tarbes, France, on 20 June 1887. The French Academy's examiners found it was gypsum and had without doubt been worked.
Something Left BehindObscurity 5 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Tehran UFO incident of 1976
Early on 19 September 1976, people in Tehran reported a bright light overhead, and Iranian Air Force F-4 jets were sent up to intercept it.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 3 of 7
Hoax, proven
The Tonawanda ghost hoax
In 1920 ghost reports in Tonawanda and North Tonawanda drew crowds. On 14 June police said local business people had invented them.
Something ToldObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Tower of London ghosts
Ghost reports from the Tower of London, centred on the Jewel House, where the Keeper of the Crown Jewels described an apparition in 1817 and a sentry is said to have died after seeing a bear-like figure.
Somewhere You Can GoObscurity 3 of 7