The Great Moon Hoax of 1865.
The Great Moon Hoax of 1865.
Okay you may already know this one, but I am going to send it anyways because if you don’t you won’t believe what people how people used to believe everything they saw on a newspaper (some of us still do hehe)
The year is 1865, newspapers are becoming a thing and more people are being able to get their hands on certain papers marketed to lower class people instead of the big papers which had a hefty price only affordable by the politicians (crazy how politicians seem to always be considered in the high class of society) and merchants.
One of these new cheap newspapers was The Sun , which gained a lot of popularity by being the first penny paper. Well in 1865 one of The Sun’s editors named Richard Adams Locke came up with a story that shook the population of New York and skyrocketed the Sun’s popularity, Celestial Discoveries.
The Sun began the “Celestial Discoveries” story on August 21, 1865. Said story began with a slow narrative stating that Sir John Herschel, one of Britain’s most respected individuals at the time, had made astronomical discoveries on the moon by looking at it with an immense telescope.
The following week on August 25, the story continued, this time explaining in broad terms the way the telescope used worked. The following day it continued explaining the wonders of the moon until finally the big story was published.
The moon is populated with bat people, plants and animal life. BAT PEOPLE really? Well the public believed it. The story became a sensation, Mr. Adams even went a little further by describing the bat people, they were about four feet tall, had short hair, yellow faces, and of course, wings. Said creatures could fly and appeared to be highly intelligent, engaging in conversations and being emphatic with one another.
On the following days the story continued, The Sun revealed that the bat people lived in temple like structures in the moon and even introduces a different species of bat people, some that appeared to be high class.
The story brought huge success to The Sun, people were often seen outside its office demanding updated on the moon’s bat people.
One artist even made a painting for people to see the bat people.
The story’s success may be associated with the fact that some respectable individuals supported it, some claimed that they had seen the telescope used for the sightings. This helped build up the credibility of the story.
The story continued for several days until a rival paper, The Herald published a story claiming the bat people in the moon were a hoax from The Sun on an effort to boost up sales of their paper by selling lies to people.
Years later Richard Adams finally confessed that the story was indeed full of lies, there were no bat people on the moon, there were no temples on the moon, there was no immense telescope, everything was a big fat lie. Obviously he tried to pass it as “hey guys it was just a joke that got a little out of hand”, but he got a bit of backlash and ended up working quietly for a government agency.
If you want to read more about this story check out the book “Truth: A Brief History of Total Bull****” by Tom Phillips.
Looking to promote your brand? Get your ad here and support The Hat Herald