Far as I know, they have been observed for thousands of years. If I am not mistaken, there are Roman and Greek mentions of such displays, and the ancient chinese also recorded such events. The two oldest, and most famous accounts are:

A Roman garrison was mistakingly ordered to march to the coastal town of Ostia because Tiberius Caesar in 34 AD thought that the red glow seen on the northern horizon at night was Ostia in flames.

In China, the "Yellow Emperor" in 2000 B.C was conceived during an auroral display.

A short chronology is as follows:
20,000 B.C. --Serpertine meanders in cave drawings by Cro-Magnon
1575 --First published scientific illustration by Cornelius Gemma
1885 --Sophus Tromholt attempts photography
1892 --Martin Brendel obtains first useful (B&W) photographs
1910 --Carl Störmer takes thousands of photos
1913 --Störmer records movie (4 seconds per frame)

The photograph at the top of the page is La Pileta Macaronis (pattern of abstract, meandering lines) Cave of La Pileta, Spain Photograph by Jim Hollander For more details, visit Solar Storm Resources at the IMAGE web site.

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