On 8 July 1947 the Roswell Daily Record newspaper published a front page article with the headline “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region”, and the legend of America’s most famous brush with aliens was born.
Today, many conspiracy theorists consider the so-called “Roswell incident” to be one of the most conspicuous pieces of evidence that the US government has covered up the existence of extra-terrestrial life on Earth. But the Roswell story’s position in the public imagination was far from immediate.