The invention of the Flying Saucer

Spotlight: The term "flying saucer" was coined on this date in 1947 when an American pilot reported seeing strange objects near Mt. Rainier, WA, describing them as "saucers skipping across the water." In early July of that year, some suspicious items were collected in the vicinity of Roswell, NM. The US military identified it as debris from a weather balloon that had crashed, but some thirty years later, a witness to the event told a ufologist that he believed an alien spacecraft had been found and that the US military had covered the incident up. On this date in 1997, the U.S. Air Force released its report on the Roswell Incident, stating that the UFOs that were reportedly seen in the area were, in fact, the pieces of the damaged weather balloon and the so-called aliens were actually life-sized dummies.

Quote: "After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.'" — William S. Burroughs