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Oakland 1896 Airship Sighting

1896-11-23·Oakland, California·FBI·unresolved
Document cover: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_449Document cover

Page 1 of 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_449 · View original on war.gov

Multiple residents of Oakland, California observed an egg-shaped craft with lights at both ends that resembled a huge bird, moving at approximately 20 miles per hour across the skies.

The date was Nov. 23, 1896, and it reported that many persons saw an "airship" flying over Oakland. The Oakland "airship" was the talk of the town for days and a number of other sightings were reported, from as far away as Red Bluff. Although the original story said the craft resembled a "huge bird," later sightings described it as egg-shaped with lights at both ends.

Verbatim from 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_449 · View original on war.gov

Case details

Date
1896-11-23
Precision
day
Location
Oakland, California
Country
United States
Region
California
Branch
FBI
Sensors
eyewitness
Shape
Resembled a huge bird; egg-shaped with lights at both ends
Size
Appeared to be of huge size

Source document

Agency: FBI

File: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_449

Case ID: 1896-FBI-529C

View original on war.gov →

Extracted via LLM. Verbatim excerpt validated.

XBluesky

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