This day in history: Lunar Lunacy

"On August 28, 1835, one of newspaper history's most notorious hoaxes was perpetrated by the New York Sun. An article in a week-long series about the telescopic 'discoveries' of esteemed British astronomer Sir John Herschel -- an alleged reprint from the nonexistent Edinburgh Journal of Science -- described his detection of winged, humanlike beings on the moon. Sir John was quoted as saying, 'We counted three parties of these creatures walking erect in a small wood... They averaged about four feet in height, were covered, except on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin membrane without hair, lying snugly upon their backs, from the top of their shoulders to the calves of the legs. The face, a yellowish flesh color, was a slight improvement upon that of the large orangutan.' The ruse temporarily catapulted the Sun ahead  of its rivals and went on to badly embarrass those who copied the story without authenticating it. The New York Daily Advertiser, for example, wrote that Herschel 'added a stock of knowledge to the present age that will immortalize his name.'" (via my Dictionary of Forgotten English desk calendar)

More on the Sun's moon hoax here.