To say that we, as a human race, can be a gullible bunch may invite rebuttal. However, given the hoaxes thrown at us and the many people who wholeheartedly believe them without question, the argument stands. No example is finer than the Great Moon Hoax of 1835.

According to the Museum of Hoaxes, it all started in the early summer of 1835 when Benjamin Day, founder of The Sun, a New York newspaper considered a serious source of news much like the New York Times and the Herald Tribune, met Richard Adams Locke, who claimed to be a Cambridge-educated reporter. Locke was working for another penny paper covering a sensational trial when Day approached him to cover it for The Sun. Locke agreed to provide The Sun with articles as long as his name wouldn’t appear as their author since he was employed elsewhere.

Locke’s articles on the trial were so popular with Sun readers that Benjamin Day published them in a pamphlet that sold thousands of copies. Realizing he could make good money from long stories re-published in pamphlets, Day set about getting Locke to write more serial articles and, around the same time, hired Locke as co-editor of The Sun. Locke wasted no time in coming up with the idea of an astronomical satire detailing the discovery of life on the moon.

On August 25, 1835, The Sun published the first of six articles titled “Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made by Sir John Herschel, L.L.D.F.R.S.&c, At the Cape of Good Hope [From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science]“. Herschel was a renowned British astronomer, and the article began with his discovery, through a super telescope, of planets in other solar systems, vast dimensions, and the claim that he had solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy. Then, as if as an aside, the article claimed that Herschel had discovered life on the moon. Herschel wouldn’t know about the article until much later, but the publication caused excitement throughout America and Europe.

Complete with purported excerpts from the Edinburgh Journal of Science, the articles built the story around the scientists’ creation of a new telescope so powerful it could study insects on the moon. Then, the series took readers through many fanciful accounts, including the discovery of trees, oceans, and beaches. And of course, life on the moon, like Bison, goats, and even bat-like winged humanoids who built temples. The author credited for the articles was a fictitious Dr. Andrew Grant, who was reported to be a former student of Sir William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus and John Herschel’s father. It was written that Grant was now John Herschel’s traveling companion and that the series ran alongside a more scientific account Herschel submitted to the Royal Society.

The story spread like wildfire, with other notable newspapers and magazines giving extensive coverage. Meanwhile, The Sun made money by selling the series as a pamphlet, along with lithographic prints of scenes commissioned from Wall Street lithographers Norris & Baker. It has been said that 60,000 of the pamphlets sold, but only 16 exist today as collector’s items.

While plenty of media skeptics questioned it, accounts from people who lived at the time suggest most of the public accepted life on the moon… initially. That quickly changed, however, as more and more credible newspapers took the articles to task. Regardless of being called out as a hoax, The Sun wasn’t fazed, with many praising it as a clever joke. In fact, The Sun continued publishing successfully until 1950.