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N0KFQ > TODAY 25.08.15 14:58l 59 Lines 2680 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 25
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Sent: 150825/1252Z 64886@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1835
The Great Moon Hoax
On this day in 1835, the first in a series of six articles
announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in
the New York Sun newspaper.
Known collectively as "The Great Moon Hoax," the articles were
supposedly reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The
byline was Dr. Andrew Grant, described as a colleague of Sir John
Herschel, a famous astronomer of the day. Herschel had in fact
traveled to Capetown, South Africa, in January 1834 to set up an
observatory with a powerful new telescope. As Grant described it,
Herschel had found evidence of life forms on the moon, including
such fantastic animals as unicorns, two-legged beavers and furry,
winged humanoids resembling bats. The articles also offered vivid
description of the moon's geography, complete with massive
craters, enormous amethyst crystals, rushing rivers and lush
vegetation.
The New York Sun, founded in 1833, was one of the new "penny
press" papers that appealed to a wider audience with a cheaper
price and a more narrative style of journalism. From the day the
first moon hoax article was released, sales of the paper shot up
considerably. It was exciting stuff, and readers lapped it up.
The only problem was that none of it was true. The Edinburgh
Journal of Science had stopped publication years earlier, and
Grant was a fictional character. The articles were most likely
written by Richard Adams Locke, a Sun reporter educated at
Cambridge University. Intended as satire, they were designed to
poke fun at earlier, serious speculations about extraterrestrial
life, particularly those of Reverend Thomas Dick, a popular
science writer who claimed in his bestselling books that the moon
alone had 4.2 billion inhabitants.
Readers were completely taken in by the story, however, and
failed to recognize it as satire. The craze over Herschel's
supposed discoveries even fooled a committee of Yale University
scientists, who traveled to New York in search of the Edinburgh
Journal articles. After Sun employees sent them back and forth
between the printing and editorial offices, hoping to discourage
them, the scientists returned to New Haven without realizing they
had been tricked.
On September 16, 1835, the Sun admitted the articles had been a
hoax. People were generally amused by the whole thing, and sales
of the paper didn't suffer. The Sun continued operation until
1950, when it merged with the New York World-Telegram. The merger
folded in 1967. A new New York Sun newspaper was founded in 2002,
but it has no relation to the original.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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