Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

OK, kids, it’s time for more Weird Stuff in the Sky.  The “Waynesburg Republican,” January 8, 1884:

NEWCOMERSTOWN, Dec. 28.- A very singular phenomenon was observed in the heavens here last night and people are much puzzled to account for the strange occurrence. A short time after dark a large bright light appeared suddenly in the Eastern sky, a few degrees above the horizon, and started in a direct northern path. The object had the appearance of an almost square volume of white light, and in its flight across the heavens left a bright trail which lighted up the woods just east of town over which it passed so brilliantly that small trees and bushes could be observed distinctly by some of our citizens.

A very singular circumstance about the phenomenon was the remarkable slowness with which the object traversed the heavens, it being seen for a long time by several of our citizens. There have been several hypotheses as to the probable cause of this peculiar astronomical phenomenon; and some think it was an ex-inhabitant of interplanetary space, or, in other words, an aerolite; but the slowness of its passage through the atmosphere leaves abundant room to doubt the accuracy of this theory. The superstitious are troubled.