That time a UFO maybe exploded over Michigan in 1897

DETROIT – A year before H.G. Wells’ iconic “The War of the Worlds” was published in hardcover, thousands of Americans saw mysterious lights in the sky.
Related: ‘I’ll believe this to the day I die’: The Michigan UFO craze of 1966
The earliest UFO sightings in Michigan date back to April 10, 1897.
An Unidentified Flying Object is defined as any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer. Feds now refer to them as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs.
The Phantom AirshipFrom November 1896 to May 1897, thousands of people claimed to have seen strange lights they believed were airships. Hot air balloons date back centuries and the precursor to blimps began to show up before this period, but these were different.