At dawn of April 4, in the sky of Nuremberg (Germany), a lot of men and women saw a very alarming spectacle where various objects were involved, including balls “approximately 3 in the length, from time to time, four in a square, much remained insulated, and between these balls, one saw a number of crosses with the color of blood. Then one saw two large pipes, in which small and large pipes, were 3 balls, also four or more. All these elements started to fight one against the other.” (Gazette of the town of Nuremberg). – ufology
1540: Vannoccio Biringuccio published “De La Pirotechnia” (On Pyrotechnics) the first book on metallurgy to be published in Europe. It was in Italian and contained several chapters on the preparation and use of rockets in warfare and festivals. – UFO Time Line
This video is recommended for additional details, including an English translation of the event:
https://archive.org/details/nuremberg-ufos
According to the translation, on Friday, April 18th, 1561 between 4 and 5 am in the morning. It was just after sunrise when a number of people in and around the city saw a dreadful apparition in the sky. The sun turned blood red and shone red in all directions. At the same time or later, two semi-circular arcs with their tips pointed down appeared in the middle of the sun. The illustration shows these arcs several times wider than the sun itself. There were a large number of spherical objects scattered over the top of and around the sun. Many were blood red as well, but others were a partly dull, partly ferrous (iron) color, depicted in the image like rusty blackened iron.
The woodcut shows other colors too, yellow, blue, black, and green which are not addressed in the description. Many of the spheres were grouped three in a row or four in a square, though others were on their own. Connecting some of these groups of four were blood red crosses. Intermingled in all of the spheres and crosses were blood red strips, all thinner at one end where they waved in the air like tall stalks of reed grass. In addition to the reeds, crosses and strips, there also tubes of differing sizes, several smaller ones, and one large one on either side of the sun. Within in each of these rods could be seen by people, three or more of the spheres. The word Glaser used to describe the rods were also used to describe canons.
After more than an hour of activity, the objects fell out of the sky as if they all burned. Once they landed in the fields below, they slowly wasted or faded away. The last thing seen was a black massive spear shaped apparition, pointing to the west. Glaser seems to have spoken to people who saw the event, and he does not indicate if he saw it himself. There is no other reference to it in the historical literature.
This is one of the strangest unexplained historical mysteries in the UFO lore, well worth exploring if you have an interest in UFOs.