When did people first begin reporting alien abductions?

Betty and Barney Hill abduction

This is the first publicized abduction.

I typed Alien abduction/history and searched,this was the first one up.

Depends. Before the 20th century people didn't talk about abduction by space aliens, but there were stories about abductions by fairies, demons, gods, etc. Same thing, different human understanding? Anybody's guess.

It is true what KBC answered the first reported alien abduction was by betty and barney hill back in 1961.
But I also agree with Alder that people didn't (dare to?) talk about alien abduction before the 20 th century, although we have prove that a lot of wellknown artists made paintings with ufo's and aliens.

Maybe you want to check out this link:
UFO's in Earth's History - Crystalinks (http://www.crystalinks.com/ufohistory.html)

Here's what I think- either it's true, or people only said that to gain attention from others

What about Eziekial's descriptions in the Bible? The beings that had four faces, one on each side and moved in each direction apparently without turning. The vehicle that was a wheel within a wheel that he was taken up in so high that the land below looked like porridge?