The Great Moon Hoax of 1835

By Crusader1307

The ''Great Moon Hoax'' was a World renown ''Event'' which cause so much stir in 1835, even when the story was admitted as a Hoax, many still did not believe it. The story was printed in a series of six serialized articles in The New York Sun Newspaper. The ''expert'' quoted was a World respected Scottish Astronomer (Sir John Herschel). According to the ''supported facts'', Herschel and an assistant had constructed an ''immense Telescope'' by which to bring the image of Earth's Moon ''extremely close in view''. So much so, that Herschel ''saw'' ''great Cities, Temples and even great herds of animals similar to some found on Earth''. Herschel ''claimed'' that He even ''saw The Race of Humanoid Beings that lived in great numbers on The Moon''. He called them ''Bat Men'' – due to the fact that they had bat-like wings and could ''fly''. The story took The World by storm. Soon everyone from Common Man to Fellow Scientist to Royalty and Presidents -ALL wanted more proof. However, according to the final Article, Dr Herschel experienced a ''catastrophic failure'' of His Telescope. The massive glass lens, it seems magnified too much of the Sun's direct rays – setting fire to His Laboratory and thus destroying The Telescope (which took many years to built).

Then the ''hammer dropped'' (as it were). The ''real'' Dr. Herschel made it known that He had in fact NOT found any such proof of Life and further contemplated bringing suit against The Sun Newspaper for slander. And while The Sun ''unofficially admitted'' the story was ''conceived by one of it's Reporters as a means to increase circulation sales'' – it NEVER printed an official retraction. Many Readers STILL believed the story, citing that The Governments of The World were keeping the ''truth'' hidden for another reason. Perhaps The ''Great Moon Hoax'' was the earliest example of such actions by a Government. More ''Earthbound'', famed Gothic Poet and Writer Edgar Allen Poe also debated suing The Sun. He claimed that He had in fact published a short story in Baltimore, Maryland. His tale involved a ''Balloon Trip to The Moon'' and finding ''Alien Life''. There were similarities in both, but Poe never raised enough funds to sue. Still later, Jules Verne in 1865 would publish ''From The Earth To The Moon''. Verne readily credited both Poe and The Sun Article as inspiration for His early Sci-Fi work.