15 Biggest Hoaxes That Fooled The World
6. Life Discovered On the Moon
The Great Moon Hoax was a series of six articles that ran in The Sun newspaper in 1835, supposedly reporting the discovery of life on the moon.
The paper claimed that the discoveries were made by the astronomer Sir John Herschel, using a magnificent new telescope at the Cape of Good Hope. The articles went on to describe a vivid ecosystem of trees, rivers, beaches, bison, goats and unicorns, as well as winged, bat-like humanoids who built temples. The articles were supposedly written by a travelling companion of Herschel's, who turned out to be as fictitious as the moon dwelling bat people.
It is unsure as to the motivations behind the hoax. It is generally considered to have been a scheme to create a sensation and sell more papers - an entirely believable scenario - but there have also been claims that it was an attempt to satirise the multitude of ridiculous scientific news stories that were being printed without due research and skepticism at the time. Either way, the whole world believed it. Some things never change.