A 16th century woodcutting depicts this scene in which dark spheres were witnessed hovering over the town of Basel, Switzerland in 1566. The spheres appeared at sunrise, 'Many became red and fiery, ending by being consumed and vanishing', wrote Samuel Coccius in the local newspaper on this date.
On August 7, 1566, at dawn, many citizens of Basel (Switzerland), frightened, saw during several hours the black spheres involved in a formidable aerial battle, invading the sky of their city: "at the time when the sun rose, one saw many large black balls which moved at high speed in the air towards the sun, then made half-turns, banging one against the others as if they were fighting a battle out a combat, a great number of them became red and igneous, thereafter they were consumed and died out," wrote Samuel Coccius, the student in "crowned writings and liberal arts" who consigned the strange events in the city's gazette.
Notes:
The events portrayed in the woodcut were witnessed in 16th century Swiss, Basel at sunrise. It is at this time of day that the telluric currents are most energized. The event may have been electricity in the air misunderstood by the locals, however the spheres are described as black. It may have been an aerial conflict related to the naturally occurring energies present. The alien theory that has been popular is often argued to be a deception. The occult has been aware of telluric energy and the best time to attempt to access it, for generations. Additionally, this event occurred 30 years after Calvin wrote his Institutes, in Basal. This is likely to have been a war zone between Catholics just to the north and Calvinistic protestants. The historical correlation between UFO sighting and traumatic events in human history is often noted and lends credence to the demonic presence theories.
Wiki info on the area:
Basel became the focal point of western Christendom during the 15th century Council of Basel (1431–49), including the 1439 election of Felix V. In 1459, Pope Pius II endowed the University of Basel where such notables as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Paracelsus and Hans Holbein the Younger taught. At the same time the new craft of printing was introduced to Basel by apprentices of Gutenberg; the Schwabe publishing house was founded 1488 by Johannes Petri and is the oldest publishing house still in business. Johann Froben also operated his printing house in Basel and was notable for publishing works by Erasmus.
In 1495, Basel was incorporated in the Upper Rhenish Imperial Circle, the bishop sitting on the Bench of the Ecclesiastical Princes. As a direct consequence of the Swabian War, resolved by the 1499 Treaty of Basel, Basel and the Imperial City of Schaffhausen de facto separated from the Holy Roman Empire and joined the Swiss Confederation in 1501, as the confederacy's 11th and 12th states, with Appenzell following suit 12 years later to complete the Dreizehn Orte that made up Switzerland until the French Revolutionary Wars. The bishop continued to reside in Basel until the reformation of Oecolampadius in 1527; the bishop's crook was however retained as the city's coat of arms.
Intended as a defence of Huguenots then persecuted in France, Calvin's Institutes, authored in Basel, was a 1536 exposition of Protestant Christian doctrine which later became known as Calvinism.
The 1648 Peace of Westphalia finally brought about Imperial recognition of the independence of the Swiss cantons, removing the de jure (but not de facto) overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire rejected by the then–Prince-Bishopric nearly 150 years earlier.
