CFZ-USA

On This Day in Weird, January 18...

1644: Pilgrims in Boston report Colonial America's first UFO sighting.

1945: Witnesses sight a large silver "balloon" passing over Oyster River, on Vancouver Island. It discharges another balloon-like object, before the two fly off in different directions.

1950: Seven U.S. Air Force pilots in four planes track a reddish-white UFO flying at 15,000 feet over Denver, Colo.

1954: Residents of three towns in Algeria's Constantine Department report a UFO leaving a trail of white smoke.

1956: Pilots at Japan's Itazuke Air Force Base (now Fukuoka Airport) report a white balloon-shaped UFO passing overhead at high speed.

1960: Crewmen aboard a B-52 bomber report radar contact with a UFO at 38,000 feet, traveling at 10,000 to 14,000 knots (11,507 to 16,111 mph.) over the Gulf of Mexico.

1967: Alleged "Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo receives a life sentence for rape, without facing murder 13 charges. DNA absolves him of one confessed murder in July 2013, casting doubt on his role in 12 other deaths.

1967: Witnesses in Mansfield and Norton, Mass., report a flat-bottomed UFO with a dome on top. A family in Shamokin, Pa., watches a UFO through binocular, flying at 400-500 feet.

1978: Air Force personnel report a formation of UFOs over New Jersey's McGuire Air Force Base. An army MP at nearby Fort Dix claims to have shot a humanoid entity, shortly before Air Force security officers find a body on a deserted McGuire AFB runway. Both services deny said events.

1982: Witnesses report a UFO over Norway's Hessdalen Valley, accompanied by magnetic anomalies.

1983: 200 witnesses, including two policemen, watch two "triangles of light" fly over Cardiff, Wales at dusk.

1989: UFO's appear over Glen Allan, Miss., and Somerville, Ohio, causing domestic animals to behave strangely in both towns.

1990: Several witnesses photograph a UFO over Gulf Breeze, Fla.

1992: Bus passengers see a red, "Saturn-shaped" UFO over Col de Vence, France.

1998: A female giant squid 48 inches long washes ashore at Newburgh, Scotland.

2011: The partial carcass of an apparent giant octopus—including part of the head and beak—

beaches on Grand Bahama Island. Local fishermen estimate the living creature's size at 20 to 30 feet.