70 Years After Famed Crash at Roswell, the Truth Is Still Out There

The New Mexico city remains ground zero for the UFO phenomenon.

Are we alone in the universe? It's a question human beings have been asking for 70 years since a UFO reportedly crashed in Roswell, N.M.

Read: E.T. Drive Home: Cops Pull Over Man for Speeding, Find Alien Doll Buckled Up in Passenger Seat

The first report of a flying saucer crash landing came in 1947 and was said to have happened near a military base in Roswell. It wasn't long before rumors spread about alien bodies found in the spacecraft.

UFO expert Nick Pope spoke to Inside Edition about the crash in Roswell in the canon of American history and pop culture.

“Roswell is really the ground zero of the UFO phenomenon," he said. "It's the place not just where there was a sighting, here the suggestion was that something crashed, if that's true, the U.S. government has in its hands definitive evidence that we are not alone."

Decades after the unusual sighting, Roswell continues to be invoked in movies like Independence Day, as well as TV shows like The X-Files and the aptly named Roswell.

Many of the sci-fi films and shows feature Area 51, the Nevada Air Force Base rumored to secretly house the evidence of extra-terrestrial life.

Dave Grohl, who formed the Foo Fighters in 1994, named the group after the military's nickname for UFO. He also named his record label Roswell Records, as an homage to the area. 

Read: Foo Fighters Agree to Play Italian Town After Video of 1,000 Rockers Performing 'Learn to Fly' Goes Viral

Through the years there have been all sorts of strange lights in the sky.

Many remain mysterious while others are explained, like a 10-ton meteor that exploded over Russia and caused panic when it hit Earth in 2013.

In 1995, the Roswell incident was back in the headlines when Ailien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction? aired on network television. It showed what was believed to be three military doctors performing an autopsy on an alien corpse recovered from the Roswell crash site in 1947. The footage was later exposed as a hoax.

The fascination with beings from outer space continues with a new series UFOs: Uncovering the Truth, which airs Saturday night on Destination America.

“What's fascinating is it's not just a UFO story, it's now firmly a part of American pop culture,” Pope said.

Watch: The Presidential X-Files: How Jimmy Carter Filed a UFO-Sighting Report in 1973

 

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