On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" convinced millions of Americans that Martians were actually invading Earth. The show was so realistic that people fled their homes, called police stations, and prepared for the end of civilization.
CBS received over 12,000 phone calls during the broadcast, with listeners demanding to know where the Martian ships had landed. Police stations were overwhelmed with calls from people asking how to protect themselves from alien gas attacks. Some families loaded their cars and drove toward what they thought were "safe zones."
The panic was so widespread that newspapers the next day ran headlines like "Radio Fake Scares Nation" and "Terror by Radio." The Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation, and CBS was nearly shut down permanently.
But here's the shocking truth: the "mass panic" was largely exaggerated by newspapers trying to discredit radio as a competitor to print media. Modern research shows that while some people were confused, the nationwide hysteria was mostly manufactured by newspapers wanting to portray radio as dangerous and irresponsible.
The fake panic about the fake war became more famous than the actual broadcast. Today, "War of the Worlds" is remembered not for its artistic merit, but for a mass hysteria that was itself largely fictional.