1790.06.12
05.00
Police Inspector Liabeuf, in the presence of several local officials, witnessed and investigated an extraordinary event during summer near Alençon, France.
A large red globe flew across some farmland, scorching grass and burning trees. The globe landed and a man emerged and spoke to the gathered crowd who did not understand him. Shortly afterwards the globe exploded into pieces and the man disappeared.
The report appears to be well documented and corroborated and is all the more thought-provoking because it occurred in the year 1790!
(The UFO Encyclopaedia, Spencer)
According to Antonio Fenoglio, he visited the archives of the French Academy of Sciences, Paris, and discovered the following report submitted to it. In 1975, Dr Jacques Vallée quoted the account and appeared to indicate that he had seen the report himself…
During June, 1790, Police Inspector Liabeuf was sent from Paris to Alençon, west of the city (between Argentan and Le Mans). His orders were to make a thorough investigation of a disturbing incident – some of the observers being of high standing.
Liabeuf visited the town and the following is his report, submitted to the Academy of Sciences.
“At five am, on June 12th, several farmers caught sight of an enormous globe which seemed surrounded with flames. First they thought it was perhaps a balloon that had caught fire, but the great velocity and the whistling sound which came from that body intrigued them.
The globe slowed down, made some oscillations and precipitated itself towards the top of a hill, unearthing plants along the slope. The heat which emanated from it was so intense that soon the grass and the small tree started burning. The peasants succeeded in controlling the fire which threatened to spread to the whole area.
In the evening this sphere was still warm and an extraordinary thing happened, not to say an incredible thing. The witnesses were: two mayors, a doctor and three other authorities who confirm my report, in addition to the dozens of peasants who were present.
This sphere, which would have been large enough to contain a carriage, had not suffered from all that flight. It excited so much curiosity that people came from all parts to see it. Then all of a sudden a kind of door opened and, there is the interesting thing, a person like us came out of it, but this person was dressed in a strange way, wearing a tight-fitting suit and, seeing all that crowd, said some words which were not understood and fled into the woods. Instinctively, the peasants stepped back, in fear, and this saved them because soon after that the sphere exploded in silence, throwing pieces everywhere, and these pieces burned until they were reduced to powder.
Researches were initiated to find the mysterious man,but he seemed to have dissolved.”