Roswell, New Mexico- The most famous place in the world associated with aliens. In 1947, an alien spaceship crashed onto a ranch outside the town, scattering tons of spaceship debris. According to the government, it was a flying balloon... or was it? Did a spaceship really crash in the New Mexico desert in 1947?; the day after the crash, the government issued a press statement confirming recovery of a "flying disk", then hastily retracted it; but why?