The Great Moon Hoax of 1835

From 25 August 1835, the New York newspaper The Sun ran six articles describing life and civilisation on the Moon, wrongly credited to the astronomer John Herschel.

On 25 August 1835 the New York newspaper The Sun began a series of six articles about the supposed discovery of life and civilisation on the Moon. Wikipedia says the articles wrongly credited the findings to Sir John Herschel and an invented companion, Andrew Grant. The first article carried a long title crediting Herschel's observatory work and citing an Edinburgh science journal.

Untapped New York says the Sun credited the series to that journal's supplement, and that the writer Locke wrote that the journal had its information from Dr. Andrew Grant, who worked as Herschel's assistant. Grant was invented. The Legends of America account says the first article opened with Herschel's supposed finding of planets around other stars and then mentioned life on the Moon almost as an aside.

History.com says readers were taken in. Scientists on a Yale University committee travelled to New York to find the journal's articles. Staff at the paper shuttled them from printing room to editors' desks, hoping to discourage them, and the visitors went home to New Haven unaware of the trick.