Alien anniversary: Google Doodle celebrates 66 years since Roswell incident

Google has marked the 66th anniversary of the Roswell incident, the infamous "alien encounter", with an interactive doodle.

The Roswell incident in July 1947 captured the imagination of generations of UFO enthusiasts after an airborne object crashed onto a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico. Suspicion arose after the original report mentioned a "flying disc", prompting speculatation that the craft was from another planet.

Conspiracy theorists believe that the US military seized an alien on board the craft - footage allegedly showing an autopsy on the creature surfaced in 1995.

In 1997, the US Air Force released a document called Case Closed: Final Report on the Roswell Crash, to put an end to the conspiracies, stating that the alien bodies witnessed were actually life-sized anthropomorphic test dummies aboard a top secret surveillance balloon which was part of their Mogul programme.

The humorous doodle allows users to direct an animated alien figure and assist in rebuilding its spaceship after it breaks apart on a Roswell-like landscape.