...The 70th Anniversary of the Roswell Incident:
On July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that personnel
from the field's 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disc", which had crashed on a ranch near Roswell.
The military decided to conceal the true purpose of the Project Mogul crashed device – a nuclear test monitoring balloon – and
instead inform the public that the crash was of a weather balloon. Later that day, the press reported that Commanding General of the
Eighth Air Force Roger Ramey had stated that a weather balloon was recovered by the RAAF personnel.
A press conference was held, featuring debris (foil, rubber and wood) said to be from the crashed object, which matched the weather
balloon description. Historian Robert Goldberg wrote that the intended effect was achieved: "the story died the next day". Subsequently,
the incident faded from the attention of UFO enthusiasts for more than 30 years... "Happy birthday you little freaking aliens!"