04-21-1963  

BALL OF FIRE IS SEEN HERE; LIKELY METEOR

       A glowing white ball of flame that seemingly disappeared in Lake Michigan was sighted by many Chicagoans last night. It is believed to have been a large meteor.

       James Erkins, air traffic controller of Meigs Field, saw the object shortly before 8 p.m. He said he believed it was a meteor. Dr. J. L. Hynek, director of Northwestern University’s Dearborn Observatory, did not see it, but said:

       "From the reports, it sounds like a typical bolide meteor. It could be as large as a softball or even a basketball." He said such a meteor would be visible for hundreds of miles and that they are seen sporadically entering the earth's atmosphere.                                                            

This reference: The Chicago Tribune of April 22, 1963. With thanks to Barry Greenwood for supplying the article.  

UFOCAT PRN – 74678 [DOS: 04-21-1963]

UFOCAT URN – 74678 UFO Nachtrichten, December 1964      

UFOCAT PRN – 76786 [DOS: 04-22-1963] Note: Date shown as 04-22-1963 based on the published date of the newspaper, which states the object was seen “last night” which would be 04-21-1963.-CF

UFOCAT URN – 148807 Newspaper: The Chicago Tribune of April 22, 1963

UFOCAT URN – 076786 Invisible Residents by Ivan T. Sanderson, p. 226, © 1970

UFOCAT URN – 148807 A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies by George Eberhart, #0531, © 1980

North America – United States, Illinois, Cook County and Michigan

Chicago, Illinois            Latitude 41-51-00 N, Longitude 87-39-00 W (D-M-S)

Lake Michigan              Latitude 44-00-00 N, Longitude 87-00-00 W

Reference: The National Gazetteer of the United States of America, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Washington, D.C., 1990   

UFO location (UFOCAT) Latitude 41.87 N, Longitude 87.65 W (D.%)