Brazil’s very first official UFO report in 1846

www....(nolink)/brazils-first-ufo-report/

Hmmm, this one I just came across, and don't see any reference to it on this site using search.

The Navy officer who published the 1846 UFO report in the Imperial Gazette had impeccable credentials.

The sighting itself took place about 19 miles away from Asunción, where the phenomenon was also seen by the Brazilian Minister (Ambassador), Dr. José Antonio Pimenta Bueno, marquis of São Vicente, and many other witnesses. We don’t know the exact date of the event, but from the biographical details of Leverger’s travels, we know that he was in Asunción in June of 1846. Capt. Leverger wrote a detailed report of the sighting, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Empire of Brazil on November 26, 1846 (Vol. I, nº 74, page 295). The terms UFO, UAO (Unidentified Aerial Object, a term later used by the Brazilian Air Force) or flying saucer are naturally not used by Leverger, since none of them existed in his time, but the Gazette referred to it as an “extraordinary meteorological phenomenon.”

A light band 5º or 6º long and 30º to 35 ° wide remained, in which one could see three bodies whose brightness was much more lively than the band, and equaled if not exceeded in intensity the full moon in clear weather. They were superimposed and separated from each other. The middle one had an almost circular appearance; the bottom one seemed like an arc of a circle of 120 degrees with broken rays at the end; the form at the top was an irregular quadrangle; the larger dimension of the disks would be from 20 to 25°. Finally you could see above them a ribbon of very faint light in the form of zigzag about 3° wide and 5 or 6º long. The angular height of the big band on the horizon appeared to be of 8º (afraid of losing some circumstances of the phenomenon I did not go to get the instrument to measure these dimensions).

What exactly did they see? We don’t know for sure but whatever it was, it was certainly highly unusual. Edison Boaventura, who discovered the case, concluded his article with the following paragraph: “Today, we know that this case which took place during the time of the Brazilian Empire cannot be explained as a meteorite or a natural atmospheric phenomenon, mainly because of the sighting’s duration time of 25 minutes… Therefore, I understand that this case has incalculable ufological importance by the characteristics that were described and by being the very first [UFO] event published in a national newspaper and, moreover, witnessed by experienced and respectable men.”

So, let the "debunking" and "Hoax-police" commence...(read: Geez, some of y'all are SO contrary!) Let me say right now: NO, I don't have pics or videos.

Do I believe this man's account? YES I DO.

Do I need to explain why? I can if you like, but I'm not a scientist, nor was I there, nor am I a psychic. I'm just a regular person curious about weird phenomena.

Disclaimer: If even ONE PERSON tries to tell me these were fricking "Chinese Lanterns" - well, I'm not even going to dignify that ludicrous nonsensical response with any comment at all. Flame on you before you even type the "C"

Those who, like I, want to believe ---
climb aboard!!!

reply to post by wildtimes


Great story thanks OP. Its one ive never read before.
If it wasn't a UFO.
The only thing it may have been were hot air ballons,
as the first one was made in Paris in 1783.
And that could explain the time frame and length of the sighting and the change of shape of the objects too as they headed higher into the atmosphere.
Just my thoughts.
Thanks again

reply to post by meathed


My pleasure!!

I feel pretty confident that these folks would have been aware of hot air balloons - and would have been able to tell if that's what they were....but who knows?

It's interesting to me because partly the title reads "Brazil's first OFFICIAL report" - but what about the ancient clay tablets and sculpted recordings of all the ancients like the Maya, the Egyptians, the Sumerians, and so forth? They were certainly recorded "Officially" - but why does the skeptical populace of today argue so much over it?

The golden airplanes found in the ancient world from thousands of years ago seem to me to be VERY GOOD evidence - and yet, they only get attention as "Ancient Aliens" and even the experts in that field are called kooky.

Why? Any thoughts?

EDIT to add thoughts of the back-engineering claims around the German scientists and Hitler's so-called fanaticism for the technology - maybe a hundred years earlier someone, somewhere did the same thing?

reply to post by wildtimes


I find it fasinating too. I was just throwing some thoughts out there.
I agree we have had to many sighting from over thousands of years. Along with the paintings, sculpture ect, ect,
There has been to many tales over to many civilisations to be discredited, I dont doubt all the stories nore do i doubt this one im just thinking of all possibilities.
I agree that these witness may have seen hot air ballons before but..
As i said interesting tale, and thanks again for sharing mate

As that page doesn't show the start of the report, here is the translation of the Portuguese text available here is something like this:

I watched tonight a phenomenon as never before seen. At 5 hours and 57 minutes, with perfectly clean sky, quiet weather, thermometer 60, a light globe described with instantaneous a curve some 30º, in the direction of NNW. The direction made angles with the horizon of approximately 75 and 105, the acute one opened to west side.

Then comes the text you posted.

A light band 5º or 6º long and 30º to 35 ° wide remained, in which one could see three bodies whose brightness was much more lively than the band, and equaled if not exceeded in intensity the full moon in clear weather. They were superimposed and separated from each other. The middle one had an almost circular appearance; the bottom one seemed like an arc of a circle of 120 degrees with broken rays at the end; the form at the top was an irregular quadrangle; the larger dimension of the disks would be from 20 to 25°. Finally you could see above them a ribbon of very faint light in the form of zigzag about 3° wide and 5 or 6º long. The angular height of the big band on the horizon appeared to be of 8º (afraid of losing some circumstances of the phenomenon I did not go to get the instrument to measure these dimensions).

Then he also wrote:

Everything was lowering with no bigger speed than the setting stars, but the globes of light changed in appearance, turning elliptical with an increasingly flat shape, and getting dulled up until they look like small clouds. The big band leaned to N until it was almost horizontal, but the zig-zag always retained the same direction. After 25' all disappeared, and there wasn't the slightest sign of disturbance in the atmosphere. In the city of Assumption I talked to the Minister of Brazil and several other people who witness this, for us all, singular apparition. One circumstance that seems very worthy to be noted, the direction in which the Minister he said had noted the phenomenon and there was no mistake because the remark referred to a wall whose azimuth was easy to check, and this direction was forthcoming from WNW, so making an angle of 45 ° to the NNW I noticed. I submitted to trigonometric calculus this large parallax combined with the geographic positions of the Assumption and the place where I watched, and found that the phenomenon had occurred in the atmospheric region and only 59 leagues distance of the Assumption

So, let the "debunking" and "Hoax-police" commence...(read: Geez, some of y'all are SO contrary!) Let me say right now: NO, I don't have pics or videos.

That's not the best way of starting a thread, it makes you look more like someone looking for a fight than for the truth.

I know that the Brazilian military has large parts of their archives digitised, so it would be good if we could find an official online confirmation of this.

I will look for it.

PS: I don't doubt his report either.

Originally posted by meathed
The only thing it may have been were hot air ballons,
as the first one was made in Paris in 1783.
And that could explain the time frame and length of the sighting and the change of shape of the objects too as they headed higher into the atmosphere.

I don't think so, because of the place where they were seen and because they were not getting higher but lower.

And I don't think that a hot air balloon from that time would have such a large heat source that made it visible like that in the night sky.

Originally posted by wildtimes
It's interesting to me because partly the title reads "Brazil's first OFFICIAL report" - but what about the ancient clay tablets and sculpted recordings of all the ancients like the Maya, the Egyptians, the Sumerians, and so forth? They were certainly recorded "Officially" - but why does the skeptical populace of today argue so much over it?

Well, just present those reports, and if they are as good as this one I'm sure most people will accept them.

The golden airplanes found in the ancient world from thousands of years ago seem to me to be VERY GOOD evidence - and yet, they only get attention as "Ancient Aliens" and even the experts in that field are called kooky.

Why? Any thoughts?

Those are not evidence of anything, there's only evidence that they were made, the interpretation that they show aeroplanes is based on today's perceptions of some people.

I found a book digitised by Google that has that report on page 185, and I noticed some differences.

Instead of

the larger dimension of the disks would be from 20 to 25°

it says

the larger dimension of the disks would be from 20 to 25'

And instead of

Finally you could see above them a ribbon of very faint light in the form of zigzag about 3° wide and 5 or 6º long.

it says

Finally you could see above them a ribbon of very faint light in the form of zigzag about 3' wide and 5 or 6º long.

Edit: That book is the 25th volume of the trimonthly magazine of the Historic and Ethnographic Institute of Brazil, published in 1862.