On November 17, 1896, citizens of Sacramento reported seeing a supposed “airship” fly over the city around 6:00 pm heading southwest towards the direction of San Francisco. The next day, The Evening Bee (now known as The Sacramento Bee), Sacramento Daily Record-Union, and the San Francisco Call published accounts of what appeared to be a “big ball of fire, like an electric light” that flew over the city. Eyewitnesses stated the light moved very slowly and some stated they could hear shouts from the airship commanding to go higher in elevation to avoid hitting a church steeple. The Bee and the Call published accounts on their front page while the Union was a bit more critical of the sighting by claiming it could be a hoax. An eyewitness account described the airship as “oblong and egg-shaped, with fan-like wheels on either side.” No matter the description witnesses gave, the dirigible or early zeppelin created a media frenzy at the time, especially when it reappeared again five days...