Sighting record / 1907
July 2, 1907. Shortly before noon. Bishop John S. Michaud stood on the corner of Church and College Streets in Burlington, Vermont, talking with a former governor. Then a terrific explosion shook the street. The bishop looked east. Some 300 feet away, about 50 feet above the rooftops, hung a dark, torpedo-shaped body. Tongues of fire burst from its surface like red-hot, unburnished copper. A dim halo surrounded it. Then it began to move, slowly, its covering seeming to rupture as red flames poured out. Down on College Street, a horse lay knocked flat. The Weather Bureau called it ball lightning. Charles Fort saw something else entirely.
Burlington, Vermont. Tuesday, July 2, 1907. An angry-looking cumulonimbus cloud was rolling in from the northwest. Three prominent men stood talking in front of the Howard Bank at Church and College Streets. They were John S. Michaud, the Bishop of Burlington, Urban A. Woodbury, a former Governor of Vermont, and A. A. Buell, a local businessman.