14th April 1561: The Nuremberg celestial phenomenon sees a ‘dreadful apparition’ in the sky

The spectacle in the skies above Nuremberg was recorded by the artist Hans Glaser who lived in the city and so presumably witnessed the event himself. He published a woodcut and text in a local ‘broadsheet’, a kind of tabloid newspaper that revelled in reporting strange or violent stories. The woodcut shows cylindrical objects, multiple-coloured discs and globes, crosses, and even tubes that look like cannon barrels all moving across the sky.

Modern UFO enthusiasts have used the Nuremberg celestial phenomenon as evidence of extra-terrestrial life, although scientists have also put forward their own explanations of why hundreds of people saw what was described as an aerial battle raging in front of the sun.

There’s no way of knowing how accurate Glaser’s woodcut is, nor what caused the shapes in the sky. However, recent science has suggested that atmospheric phenomena are responsible. UFO-skeptic Frank Johnson has written a convincing argument suggesting that the people of Nuremberg witnessed a parhelion, otherwise known as a sundog, which is caused by light refracting through clouds of ice crystals. His argument suggests that this was combined with other atmospheric tricks of the light such as a low viewing angle of the sun due to the early time of day at which the phenomenon took place.

Other commentators have suggested that a city-wide outbreak of ergotism, in which fungus growing on grain can cause hallucinations, may have been responsible. Whatever the actual cause, the celestial phenomenon terrified the people of Nuremberg who interpreted it as a warning from God.