Even before the first European settlers arrived on these shores in the 1600s, New England received guests from all over the world. However, some believe New England also welcomed guests from further afield.
The first recorded UFO sighting in America occurred here, as did the first widespread allegation of alien abduction.
Cynthia Everett (1808)
Cynthia Everett, a 24-year-old Massachusetts woman who works as a schoolteacher in Camden, Maine, in 1808, wrote a somewhat similar account in her diary. Her July 22 entry reads: “At about 10 am I saw a very strange picture. It was a light that came from the East. At first glance, I thought it was a meteor, but from its movement I soon realized that it was not. It seemed to move as fast as lightning; and, it seemed, was in the atmosphere, but descended to the ground and kept at the same distance, sometimes rising and sometimes falling."
The Exeter Incident (1965)
On September 3, 1965, one of the most famous UFO events of all time took place in Exeter, New Hampshire. It was turned into a 1966 bestseller by John J. Fuller, The Exeter Incident. Fuller reports that a police officer patrolling Route 101 just after midnight stopped to check on a woman who was parked by the road. The choking woman claimed to be being chased by a flying object with red flashing lights.
Promotional video:
A few hours later, an 18-year-old man arrived at the Exeter police station and stated that while hitchhiking on Highway 150, he saw a line of five bright lights over a house 100 feet from where he was standing. He said that the light went out over a large field, disappeared, and reappeared behind the line of trees several times. Arriving at the site with a young man, the same policeman witnessed the lights, as did another officer who arrived some time later. In the following weeks, authorities received about 60 reports of UFO sightings near Exeter. Those who disproved it claimed that the light patterns described were consistent with those used on the KS-97 Air Force tanker, but Exeter's official sightings remain a mystery.
Harold Trudell (1967)
At noon on June 10, 1967, Harold Trudell turned towards West Wrentham Road near East Woonsocket, Rhode Island. By all accounts, the 29-year-old man had previously seen unidentified objects in the area and decided to document them on that day. He didn't have to wait long, he said, as the dome-shaped metal object soon approached. When the UFO hovered over power lines, Trudel took pictures for about five minutes. He snapped seven images that became some of the most iconic UFO photographs of the time (but they look a little strange now).
ORLOVA ELENA