April 1897 "airship" reports which mention Cuba, sourced from https://intcat.blogspot.com/
concurrent with the Cuban War of Independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_War_of_Independence
preceded by the inauguration of McKinley https://guides.loc.gov/world-of-1898/cuba-chronology
1897
January 19
Both William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer's New York World, through its sensational reporting on the Cuban Insurrection, helped strengthen anti-Spanish sentiment in the United States. On this date the execution of Cuban rebel Adolfo Rodríguez by a Spanish firing squad, was reported in the article "Death of Rodríguez" in the New York Journal by Richard Harding Davis. On October 8, 1897, Karl Decker of the New York Journal reported on the rescue of Cuban Evangelina Cisneros from a prison on the Isle of Pines.
March 4
Inauguration of U.S. President William McKinley.
followed 1 year later by the sinking of the USS Maine and launch of the Spanish-American war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(1889) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War
anti-gravity ("apergy") was already a sci fi / yellow journalism trope at that time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity#Apergy
here's the text of the January 1897 newspaper article referenced there, source https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1897-01-17/ed-1/seq-20/
spoiler