Timeline of Weird Events in the 17th Century
1608.
Blood
Rain in Aix, France. Residents are horrified to find a rain of blood had fallen
on their village and on neighboring villages for several miles around. It was
thought to be the work of sorcerers, or the Devil himself.
1609.
French explorer Pierre de Champlain records seeing a lake monster on Lake
Champlain in the New World.
Samuel de
Champlain (c. 1567-1635)
1611.
Chinese records show, that as late as 1611, the Emperor is still appointing the
post of a "Royal Dragon Feeder."
1613.
In
Southampton, England, in the middle of
the night “lightning” strikes a
house injuring the family within. The wife is burnt on the side of her body and her husband and child, both dead,
are burning slowly with no flame. Despite her wounds the wife drags the husband
out of the bed and into the street. The corpse continues to burn, smoking with
no visible flame, for the space of three days until it is reduced to ash and bone.
1614.
A
pamphlet published in London reports a large serpent or dragon living in St.
Leonard's Forest near Horsham (about
40 miles south of London). The animal is allegedly about nine feet long,
with a long neck and tail; can move as fast as a running man; leaves a slimy
trail that smells powerfully noxious; and can spit its poison up to 60’.
1632.
On a winter night around twelve o'clock, a miller, working near the small town
of Chester-in-the-Street, England is confronted by the apparition of a young
woman with five gruesome wounds on her head.
1639.
Residents
of the Massachusetts colony tell of a sea-serpent or snake, that lay coiled
upon a rock at Cape Ann.
1643.
John Evelyn witnesses a “shining cloud in the air in the shape of a sword, the
point reaching to the north. It was as bright as the moon. It began about 11 at
night and vanished not till about one, being seen by all the south of
England."
John Evelyn (c. 1620-1706)
1644.
Doctors in Lyons, France, while examining a woman's body to determine cause of
death, are startled by a large plume of flame bursting from the dead woman's
stomach.
1645.
Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins hangs 18 witches at Bury St. Edmund in
Suffolk, England.
Matthew Hopkins (c. 1620-1647)
1653.
Two noblemen of Curland drink strong liquors, and die from a flame coming from
their stomachs, scorching and suffocating them!
1660.
Swedish clergyman claims in a sworn statement that a fairy or troll requested
his wife to deliver a fairy baby. Rahm’s claims she did just that and returned
to find a payment of silver strands in their house.
1661.
In May a Rain of Wheat occurs at Tuchbrooke, England.
1663.
The Robozero Marvel of 1663 occurs. A cleric is sent to investigate the
incident, and learned that people heard a rumbling noise at midmorning. In the
clear blue sky, a glowing red spherical object with blue smoke emerging from
its sides and rays of light extending from the front crossed over the lake and
disappeared. Less than an hour later, the people came out of church again to
see the same or a similar object going in another direction. About noon, the
object returned a third time, this time to hover over the lake for 45 minutes.
The diameter of the sphere was enormous, equivalent to the height of a
15-storey building; the light rays illuminated the lake all the way to the
bottom; and men in a boat could not approach near the object because the heat
was so strong. The fish in the lake fled toward the shore and the red light
from the object covered parts of the lake with a rusty color.
1666.
Rain of Fish seen over a pasture at Cranstead England.
1670.
A Dutchman, captured and enslaved by Armenian bandits, met a hermit on Mount Ararat.
The Dutchman was believed by his captors to possess magical healing powers, and
he treated the old man, who in gratitude handed him a piece of hard wood of a dark color and a sparkling stone, both of which the old
man said he had taken from under the Ark.
1676.
A doctor in Bologna, Italy witnesses a giant globe, appearing twice the size of
the moon, pass by overhead.
1678.
The earliest known crop circle, known as the "Mowing Devil," is shown
on a woodcut from Hertfordshire, England. The inscription reads, "Being a
True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a Poor Mower, about the Cutting
down Three Half Acres of Oats: upon the Mower's asking too much, the Farmer
swore That the Devil should Mow it rather than He. And so, that very Night, the
Crop of Oat shew'd as if it had been all of a flame: but next Morning appear'd
so neatly mow'd by the Devil or some Infernal Spirit, that no Mortal Man was
able to do the like. Also, How the said Oats ly now in the Field, and the Owner
has not Power to fetch them away."
1680.
Madame Le Voisin, a French fortune teller, commissioned poisoner, and professional
provider of sorcery, is executed in Paris. Le Voisin was the head of a coven of
fortune tellers providing poison, aphrodisiacs, abortion, magical services and
the arranging of black masses. Their clients were among the aristocracy. Her network
of commissioned black magic and poison murder is suspected to have killed
upwards of 2,500 people.
Madame Le Voisin (c. 1640-1680)
1682.
In Fahrenholz, Germany a number of people are put on trial, accused of lycanthropy.
1683.
In a basement in Strasbourg, France six rats are found with their tails tied
together, dubbed roi des rats, the
Rat King.
The Rat King
1683.
Shower of Toads invades Acle, England a few miles from Norwich.
1688.
Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, Massachusetts 20 people are executed for
witchcraft, nineteen are hanged and one is crushed under heavy stones.
1692.
A giant skeleton, measuring just over seventeen feet, is found in a tomb near
Angers, France.
Robert Kirk, a Presbyterian clergyman
who served in the Scottish Highlands, had a keen interest in the supernatural
lore of the region, and was convinced that fairies existed. He believed his
studies could accurately describe the nature of fairy life down to its smallest
details. According to Kirk, fairies were of a "middle nature between man
and angel" with bodies "somewhat of the nature of a condensed
cloud." They dressed and spoke "like the people and country under
which they live." Sometimes passing fairies could be heard but not seen.
They traveled often, frequently through the air, could steal anything they
liked (from food to human babies), and had no particular religion. Mortals with
"second sight" (clairvoyance) were most likely to see them, since they
were usually invisible to the human eye.
1693.
Spanish sailors capture a 12-foot tall two-headed giant. It kills four of its
captors before having a pike driven through its heart.
Calcutta is plagued by a man-eating
tiger. Edmond Hoyle discovers it is a shapechanger and kills it.
Edmund Hoyle
(1672-1769)
1697.
Two glowing wheels are sighted in the sky over Hamburg, Germany.
For mundane world events see the 17th Century Timeline.
