Mythogenesis of the Roswell Incident.png

Diagram of Roswell Incident folklore. During the final year of the Second World War (1944-5), Japan released thousands of Fu-go balloons designed to cause damage and spread panic in the United States. In 1947, inspired by the Japanese balloons, the United States's top secret Project Mogul began releasing nuclear-test surveillance balloons inspired by the Japanese balloons. On June 24, 1947, civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's report of 'flying discs' triggered the 1947 Flying Disc Craze. During the craze, on July 8, the US Army reported the recovery of a 'flying disc' new Roswell which, the following day, was identified as a weather balloon. Days later, on July 11, press reported a hoaxed disc that was covered in Twin Falls. The craze ended in August 1947. In 1949, con-artists tricked the magazine Variety into publishing a wild tale of a crashed saucer with dead alien bodies; The Aztec hoax's story of dead alien bodies was later incorporated in Roswell mythology. Decades later