Look! Up in the sky!

It's a lighted airplane!

Well, at least that's what hundreds of Houstonians thought on March 13, 1918.

The Houston Post reported that someone said "lighted airplanes" were doing stunts over the city at about 11 p.m. that night.

"And as a result, hundreds of persons spent several foolish minutes looking at the stars, under the impression that they were lighted airships from Ellington Field," the paper reported.

(You know, I can't even begin to imagine an era when lighted airplanes gave cause to assemble and look toward the sky.)

Well, one person was certain the planes were doing loops.

"He explained that the sudden disappearance of the light was when the machine turned at the upper turn of the loop," according to the Post.

Most people believed that "until it began to dawn upon the minds of a few that the lights seen were stars and someone discovered that the clouds floating across the sky made these lights disappear and then appear again."

The article ended with a Prohibition reference:

"One disgusted star gazer gave it as his opinion that it was about time that the 10-mile zone law or a bone dry law should be passed right soon."