World UFO Day: What’s the story of the purported alien spacecraft crash incident in Roswell in 1947?

World UFO Day is marked on July 2 across the globe. It is observed to spread awareness about unidentified flying objects and to “acknowledge the presence” of UFOs. This day was first observed by UFO researcher Haktan Akdogan in 2001. On this day, UFO enthusiasts gather and look into the skies to search for extraterrestrial objects.

History of UFOs

The word UFO or an unidentified flying object was first coined by the United States Air Force in 1953. As the name suggests, it was used to describe an unexplained aircraft sighted in different parts of the world during different moments in history. While many might presume that UFO sightings are a recent phenomenon, the opposite is, in reality, true.

One of the earliest accounts reportedly is from ancient Egypt, where UFOs were sighted in 440 BCE. The account is found in the ancient Egyptian Tulli papyrus, which documents the life and works of Pharoah Thutmose III. The Pharoah along with other ancient Egyptians reported seeing flying objects that they described as “fire in the sky.”

In 218 BCE, the Romans living during the Roman Republic allegedly saw UFOs, calling them “phantom ships gleaming in the skies.

In India, 10,000-year-old rock paintings found in Chattisgarh purportedly depict UFOs and aliens. The paintings made in natural color haven’t faded over the years and include ancient images that closely resemble UFOs shown in alien movies.

“The strangely carved figures are seen holding weapon-like objects and do not have clear features. Specially, the nose and mouth are missing. In few pictures, they are even shown wearing space suits. We can’t refute possibility of imagination by prehistoric men but humans usually fancy such things,” JR Bhagat, an archaeologist, told the Times of India.

Since an increased amount of people began reporting UFO sightings, there has been a worldwide interest in understanding the complex universe surrounding the earth. According to a Pew Research Center survey published in 2021, two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe that intelligent life exists on other planets. 51% of people believe that UFOs are likely evidence suggesting the possibility of intelligent life outside of the earth.

Many UFO sightings have been reported throughout the years from different parts of the world, too. For instance, the United Kingdom’s most well-known UFO sighting occurred in late 1980 on a Royal Air Force military base. A number of UFO sightings were reported in Los Angeles between 2001 and 2015. In 1952 in Washington D.C., the air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan National Airport detected certain movements on their radar from aircraft that weren’t scheduled to land in that area, and this incident added to peoples’ anxiety related to increasing UFO sightings.

But one of the most famous events related to UFOs is the “flying saucers” incident in Roswell in 1947.

The truth behind the “flying saucer” incident

Public fascination with UFOs typically dates back to this 1947 incident involving pilot Kenneth Arnold who reported seeing nine saucer-like objects flying at supersonic speed near Mount Rainier in Washington state.

It was in the same year that U.S. officials reportedly found the wreckage near Roswell in New Mexico, which many believed was the remnants of a UFO and other extraterrestrial matter.

According to the Roswell Daily Record, William Brazel made a shocking discovery when he found “a large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks.” But he didn’t know anything about the possibility of UFOs because this was before Arnold’s announcement of reportedly viewing saucer-like objects.

By the time both Arnold’s and Brazel’s statements were revealed that the country was completely hooked on the matter. At that time, there was even talk of a reward being offered to anyone who could recover the debris of the unidentified flying objects. Brazel didn’t take back his statement despite the questions being raised.

“I am sure what I found was not any weather observation balloon,” Brazel told the Roswell Daily Chronicle then.

Post this incident, many books and reports started being released, which increased the public’s speculation on the matter such that Roswell became the center of a conspiracy theory involving UFOs and extraterrestrials. The U.S. military, at first, added to the intrigue by claiming that the debris they had recovered was, in fact, in the form of a “flying disc.” But they soon backed down and claimed that the wreckage belonged to a weather balloon. In 1994, it was revealed that the balloon was a part of the top-secret Project Mogul developed to detect Soviet nuclear bomb tests. Despite this, that revelation did little to stop the arising speculation.

Not only has Roswell long been associated with UFOs and extraterrestrial objects since then, but conspiracy theories continue to emerge regarding the existence of UFOs. Many movies have been made. Many books have been written. Whether these unresolved issues will ever be cleared remains a mystery in itself.