ALSACAT-1959-08-26-STRASBOURG-1
The regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, in their Strasbourg issue for August 28, 1959, wrote about a "mysterious craft seen in the sky" by readers domiciled "either Strasbourg or Brumath", who reported this "apparition" of Wednesday, August 26, 1959, between 8:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.
In Strasbourg, people had observed for five minutes "a ball the size of a star and of a fairly high brightness" which flew in a semicircle.
Coming from the East, the ball headed south, then north-west.
The newspaper wondered if it was "one of those artificial satellites that currently orbit in space?"
| Date: | August 26, 1959 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Between 08:30 p.m. and 08:15 p.m. |
| Duration: | 5 minutes. |
| First known report date: | August 28, 1959 |
| Reporting delay: | Hour, 2 days. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Strasbourg, Brumath |
| Place: | From Strasbourg and Brumath, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.649 |
| Longitude: | 7.728 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 17 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 3 or more. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | ? |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Adults. |
| Witness(es) types: | Readers of the newspaper. |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From a city and a village, UFO in the sky. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | Yes |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Possible plane. |
[Ref. dna1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
Several readers (domiciled either in Strasbourg or Brumath) reported the appearance of a mysterious craft in the sky Wednesday night between 8:15 p.m. and 08:30 p.m.
In Strasbourg, many people observed for 5 minutes a ball the size of a star and of pretty intense luminosity follow a semicircle.
From the East, the ball went to the South and to the North West. Is it one of those artificial satellites currently orbiting in space?
[Ref. jve1:] JACQUES VALLEE:
Jacques Vallée indicates in a bibliography:
"Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace August 28, 1959. Mysterious craft seen in the sky."
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
26 August 1959 20:15
Strasbourg, Alsace, France
Nocturnal lights were reported for over 15 minutes (Floerks).
Hynek rating: NL
Vallee rating: FB1
The sources are indicated as: "Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); UFO Nachrichten (Veit), UFO Nachrichten (Germany)."
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that a case in Strasbourg and Brumath was reported in the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Friday, 28 August 1959, in the Strasbourg issue:
Several readers (domiciled either in Strasbourg or Brumath) reported the appearance of a mysterious craft in the sky Wednesday night between 8:15 p.m. and 08:30 p.m.
In Strasbourg, many people observed for 5 minutes a ball the size of a star and of pretty intense luminosity follow a semicircle.
From the East, the ball went to the South and to the North West. Is it one of those artificial satellites currently orbiting in space?
Christan Valentin comments that the 50s therefore finished on such mundane and inconclusive events.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFODATENBANK":
| Case ID | 19590826 |
| Global case number: | 19590826-0002-UDB |
| Date of observation (Day) | 26 |
| Date of observation (Month) | 8 |
| Date of observation(Year) | 1959 |
| Hour of observation | 20.15 |
| Zip Code | |
| Place of observation | Strasbourg |
| County | |
| Federal state | |
| Country | France |
| Witnesses | |
| Hynek Classification | |
| Vallee Classification | |
| Ruthledge Classification | |
| Henke Classification | |
| Evaluation | |
| Identification | |
| Investigations | |
| Status of the investigation | |
| Domain | UFO-Datenbank |
| Case added by | |
| Latest change by: | |
| Investigator in charge of the case | |
| Source | DUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002 |
| State of the information | 25.04.2015 22:16 |
| Accesses to this record | 2 |
| Link to Openmap | http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Strasbourg,France |
| Link to the observation | http://www.ufo-db.com/WfrmSetupSichtung.aspx?uid_Sichtung=3e0fed55-89c1-4718-8a09-30a34c975301 |
| Summary for guests | The facts and other possible documents will be published progressively. We thank you for your patience. |
| Preview image |
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Brumath is a village of the Lower Rhine, 17 kilometers from Strasbourg, located approximately at the north of Strasbourg.
The data is very meager. Apparently the thing made a turn change, so that the satellite suggested by the newspaper could be ruled out, and a plane makes a more plausible explanation.
Possible plane.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | November 27, 2014 | Creation, [dna1], [jve1], [uda1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 27, 2014 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | January 25, 2018 | Addition [ubk1]. |
