On June 24, 1997, U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in
Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.

Public interest in Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, began to
flourish in the 1940s, when developments in space travel and the
dawn of the atomic age caused many Americans to turn their
attention to the skies. The town of Roswell, located near the Pecos
River in southeastern New Mexico, became a magnet for UFO
believers due to the strange events of early July 1947, when Air 
Force officials announced they had recovered the wreckage of 
a “flying disk.” A local newspaper put the story on its front
page, launching Roswell into the spotlight. 

Major Jesse Marcel from the Roswell Army Air Field with
debris found 75 miles north west of Roswell, NM, in June
1947. The debris has been identified as that of a radar
target.