Hoaxes

I am reading a book that features the editor James Bennett, the man behind sending Stanley to find Livingstone and other such promotional and sensational ideas. But one of his most brilliant stunts in the Great Zoo Hoax.

 

http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/the_central_park_zoo_escape/

 

http://hoaxes.org/text/display/the_central_park_zoo_escape_text/

 

Well, this made quite an ado and led me to think about other great hoaxes, intended or otherwise.

 

One is certainly Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, although how widespread and believed is subject to debate --

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2013/10/orson_welles_war_of_the_worlds_panic_myth_the_infamous_radio_broadcast_did.html

 

Another is Piltdown Man - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/the-scientific-process/piltdown-man-hoax/

 

And some of us lived through the infamous autobiography of Howard Hughes written, in fact, by Clifford Irving - http://www.cbsnews.com/news/liar-liar/

 

So, do you have a favorite hoax? Or one that you'd like to perpetrate assuming it is done in fun - always in fun - and not maliciously?