CFZ-USA

On This Day in Weird, January 16...

1412: The imminently trustworthy Medicis are named official bankers of the Papacy.

1936: Sadomasochistic child killer and cannibal Albert Fish dies in New York's electric chair. Fables spread that he short-circuited the chair with needles inserted into his body.

1947: An RAF pilot pursues a UFO over the North Sea, 50 miles off the Dutch coast.

1951: Amateur astronomers tracking a Skyhook balloon near Artesia, N.M., see two disc-shaped objects approach and circle the balloon before speeding away.

1957: Flight crews aboard two B-25 aircraft experience radio and compass malfunctions as a round white UFO maneuvers nearby. On the same date, Retired Rear Admiral Delmer Fahrney, former head of the U.S. Navy's guided missile program, tells reporters, "There are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds." He adds, "No agency in this country or Russia is able to duplicate at this time the speeds and accelerations which radar and observers indicate these flying objects are able to achieve."

1958: The commander and crew of an International Geophysical Year research ship watch and photograph a "Saturn-shaped" UFO maneuvering over Trinidad. The ship's power fails, then returns when the craft departs,

1965: The last first-run episode of The Outer Limits airs on ABC-TV.

1966: Passengers and crew members aboard an American Airlines flight see a UFO trailing the aircraft between El Paso and San Antonio, Texas.

1967: Four witnesses observe a long, cigar-shaped UFO with lighted windows and bright "headlights" flying over Warner, N.H.

1974: First publication of Jaws, by Peter Benchley.

1977: Witnesses see and photograph a "giant" UFO over the southwestern quadrant of Moscow, USSR.

1978: A boy sees a "big ape" eating minnows from a stream near Crowley, La. When pelted with stones, it hops away on one leg.

1989: The USSR announces plans for a two-year manned mission to Mars. The world is still waiting.

1991: Observers log UFO sightings over Gulf Breeze, Fla., and Bettignies, France. In the latter case, a car's headlights dim and the radio suffers interference as the object passes at low altitude.

1992: A gray UFO pursues a car for seven minutes, on a rural road near Columbus, Ga.

1995: A witness in Miami, Fla., reports a multi-colored UFO "rolling in loops" around a shopping mall.

1996: A fishing trawler nets a 21-foot giant squid off the coast of New Zealand's South Island.

1999: Witnesses report an orange, spherical UFO zigzagging over Whitehorse, in the Yukon.

2003: UFO sightings occur over Marbella, Spain; Port Chester, N.Y.; and Wildrose, N.D. The first is round, silver and black. The second is large and dark, with a watery reflection. The last is gray, triangular, and makes a humming noise.