On June 24, 1997, U.S. Air Force officials released 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 near the Pecos River in southeastern
New Mexico became a magnet for UFO believers due to the
strange events of early July 1947, when ranch foreman W.W.
Brazel found a strange, shiny material scattered over some
of his land. He turned the material over to the sheriff, who
passed it on to authorities at the nearby Air Force base.

On July 8, 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 of the public’s
UFO fascination. 

United Flight 173 was a scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Portland International
Airport in Oregon. The jet ran out of fuel while troubleshooting
a landing gear problem and crashed in a suburban neighborhood
east of the city at 157th and Burnside. Ten passengers were killed
and 175 survived.

The crash site as it looks today.

On this day in 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 ranch foreman W.W. Brazel found a strange, shiny
material scattered over some of his land. He turned the material over to
the sheriff, who passed it on to authorities at the nearby Air Force base.

On July 8, 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 of the public’s UFO fascination. 

CARLATA BRADLEY

On this day in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured U.S.
U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (left) for the Soviet spy Rudolph
Ivanovich Abel (right) being held by the United States.
       

The Glienicke bridge just after the Powers swap.

The 9/11 memorial and ground zero today.