The Great Moon Hoax published by The Sun

In August 1835 the New York Sun published the 'Great Moon Hoax,' a series of articles falsely claiming astronomer Sir John Herschel had discovered life and civilization on the Moon. The hoax was printed by the Sun, which later occupied the Sun Building, and it produced a large, short-term increase in the paper's circulation. The episode is widely cited as one of the most famous journalistic hoaxes in U.S. history.