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In 1835 a New York paper put bat-men and unicorns on the moon

Ellsworth Toohey
Jun 22, 2026
∙ Paid

Great Moon Hoax — Benjamin Henry Day (1810-1889) / Public domain (via Wikipedia)

The “Great Moon Hoax” began on August 25, 1835, when The Sun, a New York newspaper, ran the first of six articles “about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon,” falsely attributed to the astronomer Sir John Herschel. According to Wikipedia, the articles…

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